The Major Differences between Theorists of Existentialism Philosophy - Essay Example

Existentialism philosophy Student’s name: University affiliation: Philosophy background Existentialism is a philosophy that explains the way human live in the world. Human beings are free to determine what they want to accomplish in their lives (Bolea, 2014). They cannot and will never be driven by any other force. The philosophy came up due to human beings having a free will to choose and also their personal responsibility when handling issues. This philosophy was formulated in late 19th century and beginning of 20th century by philosophers who were studying human behavior when making decisions. The philosophers include: Sartre, Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche(Richard, 2007). Existentialism was first thought by Kierkegaard but he did not give his idea a name.He just explained that human beings are self-guided in giving meanings in their lives but they do not follow the society they live on or the type of religion. Sartre is the one who came to give this a name. The philosophy came to practice during the Second World War and it is still applicable to date to explain human behavior. There are concepts that have been adopted from the philosophy and are used currently in man’s day to day activities. They include: Free will- man is always free to decide what they want and when they want. They are never forced by anyone nor circumstances. Decisions cannot be made without struggle and there are consequences after that- whenever there is a situation that needs to be solved. There has to be stress when making such a decision; decisions made are painful. In addition to that, there are effects that follow such a decision. In many times that results are negative and end up haunting that decision maker. There lacks rationality in some decisions- humans are known for not being reasonable in the decisions people make according to facts available. Man’s character is made through choices- human being chose what path to follow and what not to follow. One is ever the driver of his/her destiny. The choices made are never influenced by the environment they live Decision making must be accompanied by individual responsibility and discipline- when the two are incorporated in when decisions made, there is little probability that the decision made will be wrong. People are at their best when they are fighting their personal characters- if people were to follow their characters, they would be so immoral. When they are resisting this, they end up becoming better persons due to the challenges they face in their lives. They ,make them better. Since the theory was formulated in the early 20th century then the world was faced by the great depression then came Second World War two, it was helpful in restoring human faith in what they believe. People had despaired with life and hence they needed something that would restore their faith in what they had believed before the war. Europe was developing and the occurrence of war at that time destroyed people and property they owned Philosophy exposition There several ideas that the philosophy tries to explain, they are: Essentiality comes before existence. Individuals put a deep consideration knowing that they are responsible and also act independently as they are, rather than the roles, marks, labels, explanations and other believed sectors the individuals fit. The real life of each personality constitutes to a fact known as their true essence, instead of an anonymous characterized essence used to define them by others in the existence. Human beings thus are capable to come up with their own values and also establish a meaning to their life, through their own consciousness. Sartre explicitly changed the phrase as it used to be originally but similar ideas exist in the minds of existentialist philosophers such as Heidegger and Kierkegaard. According to (Murillo, 2014) then above philosophers through their article, ‘the subjective thinker’s form’, argue that people tend to define and explain themselves, which is always believed as indicating that they can wish to become anything like a bird for example, and in turn be it. As explained by many philosophers in extentialism, this would create an existence that would be inauthentic. The name should be taken to explain that people are defined only by the actions they partake in their own lives and that due to this, they are quite responsible for all they do. People who act all cruelly to other people are by the act seemed as a cruel person. Through this action, people like these are by themselves responsible for their new picture and identity to the public. This is opposed to their human nature, with the blame on it. Freedom This is the next major theme in existentialism. This can be usefully connected to the idea of anguish. According to (Richard, 2007), freedom is explained partly by the isolation of choices from any determination either by deity or by values and knowledge that existed previously. Most of existentialists in the 19th and 20th centuries identified the period to be experiencing value crisis. This concept can be outlined and be traced back to reasons that are familiar like the increase in scientific and philosophical movement which questioned the accounts of value in the traditional setting. The above conditions however, do not enhance the anguish problem in the existence of freedom but cast it into a bigger relief. Freedom is composed of responsibility for one’s self and their actions. This is due to the situation being of one of its own anxiety in recognition thus both the freedom and responsibility are definite. Situatedness. Despite of an individual’s freedom being absolute, situatedness always occur in a specific context. The body and its equivalent features, the circumstances in world of history and an individual’s past all depend on freedom (Murillo, 2014). This is the idea that makes freedom a meaningful context. Supposing one decides to live as free, pretending to have an abstraction from the situation. In that case the individual will have no idea on what possibilities are available and the types of choices that need to be undertaken. Situatedness is closely related to philosophy as a way of living. The importance of seeing and understanding life and existence from deep within. Intellectuals for example in the 19th century had an interest in older Greece, Rome, the medieval period and the orient, as being a less spoiled and more integrated lifestyle Irrationality This can be seen as the most famous and often used idea associated with existentialism. The existence of human beings might be described as irrational. According to (Richard, 2007) many existentialists, a persons nature has no design and hence no reason for its existing. The natural world can apparently be understood by metaphysics and science in its physical status, but this might be a better idea of explanation than any description. The accomplishments of the natural sciences can empty nature of meaning and also the meaning. An individual’s freedom will not only be hard to establish by a reason or with a piece of knowledge but the point of view of the latter because the freedom will even appear awkward. Crowd Existentialism also carries in general, a dimension of either social or political. Either way if he or she is authentic, human beings having the freedom will indicate a specific indulgence and this will also involve the existence and in exact form (McBride, 2012), the being of other individuals. Instead of values being created in freedom and anxiety, they are however just being accepted by others, reason being, that is the exact thing every other being does. Existence Existentialism despite taking its identity from the theme of philosophical existence, it does not necessarily mean that there exists a homogeneity in the way being is to be understood. According to (Robert, 2011), there is an agreement that the existence in which we are supposed to be concerned is not just any thing in existent but strictly human existence. An important difference thus exists between a distinction of human beings and just anything else. Human existence is also not to be understood on the way things appear, that is being as tools of knowledge.These distinctions occur to be only differences between a couple of two things though one might tend to think that it is an aged concept, from Plato’s differentiation between issue and soul, or rather Descartes between broad and creative objects. Factisity It is an idea brought about bySartre in being and nothingness as the in-itself, whereby individuals are in the form of not existing (Murillo, 2014). It can be understood further in consideration to the relation to the past temporal dimension: an individual’s past is the exact description of what they exactly are, in the actual sense that it involves oneself. The idea that one’s past is indeed what one is would be letting out an important part of a fact, while indicating that one’s past is only what the individual was, would at a great extend detach the idea from oneself now. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be drawn from the above explanation of the existentialism theories that one of the major differences between theorists is the view they possess, on whether the main queries of our being can be answered. In a general argument, theorists agree that there is a possibility of incapability not to answer these questions completely being still in our finite form. \ References Bolea, S. (2014). What is Existentialism? A revision of contemporary definitions. 63-72. McBride, W. L. (2012). The challenge of Existentialism, then and now. Journal of Speculative philosophy, 255-260. Murillo, E. (2014). Towards an inclusive history of Existentialism. 201-214. Richard, G. (2007). Existentialism. Penrith: Humanities-Ebooks. Robert, A. (2011). Existentialism. London: Hodder Education. Read More