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What is Existentialism?

From the existentialist concepts that Robert Solomon presents in the introduction to his book, the philosophy of existentialism seems to be a much more bleak and pessimistic ideology than what I had thought prior to joining this class. Although I still do not know very much about it, my current understanding is that existentialism is a philosophy that revolves around an individuals existence and their chosen actions. They believe that every act and every attitude must be considered a choice. (xiv). Existentialism is a heightened sense of self-consciousness that requires individuals to take responsibility for all they do because what they did was a choice. There is no God, no good or evil, there just is. This is why I think that this philosophy seems bleak. Existentialists believe that things are the way they are, just because that is the way they are. There is an absence of curiosity, and curiosity is what makes life interesting. Describing the progression of existentialism in ones life, Solomon says: as one becomes more self-conscious, the world becomes increasingly hers. Then one begins to feel impotent in the responsibility for her world One feels isolated from others, and in desperate loneliness one seeks camaraderie, through rebellion, through art, through writing existential philosophy (xiii). Living a life like this seems miserable. Constantly feeling small and insignificant in the overall scheme of things. I strongly believe that a single individual can change the world, but a person who believes that they are impotent will be. As I was reading this article, I was wondering what existentialists could do in life other than become a hermit, artist, or writer, and when I got to the quote above, I found it humorous that I wasnt too far off of what Solomon listed. Solomon quotes Dostoevsky calling this self-consciousness [i.e. the existential attitude] a disease (xiv). I agree with this statement because the existential attitude seems more like depression than a philosophic ideology. The existential attitude requires individuals take responsibility for all their actions. This acceptance of personal responsibility is something that should be empowering the individual: the world becomes increasingly hers; however, the actual result seems to be that it makes one feel impotent and isolated(xiii). Instead of empowering, it is demoralizing. One is not accepting responsibility for everything, but blaming herself for it. Although the two words, blame and responsibility, have similar definitions, the connotation associated with blame seems to be better fitting with the resultant feelings of impotence and isolation. Solomon says (stating ideas of Kierkegaard and Heidegger): once one becomes selfconscious, he cannot go back, no matter how he denies himself, drugs himself, leaps or falls away from himself (xiv). This statement confuses me because they do not explicitly give a time frame. I would agree, in the moment, as soon as you take the leap and become selfconscious of yourself, there is no coming back. But if the statement is meaning selfconsciousness as a lifestyle, I would disagree. Maybe it is that I do not understand the existential attitude, for as Solomon says, once expressed, the existential attitude appears

as a universal condition, but only to those who can understand it (xiv). I do not see this attitude as a universal condition (not sure what that means) or as a lifelong disease. I see the existential attitude like Nietzsche does; as a diseasebut as pregnancy is a disease (xiv). I do not know the true context of this quote, however I doubt Nietzsche uses pregnancy because it is something that eventually goes away, more likely he is referring to the fact that it is an enjoyable disease, but I like the pregnancy analogy for both reasons. With my current understanding, I do not believe the existentialist attitude is an inescapable fate, but this class is only just beginning so who knows what I will learn.

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