Atheistic Existentialism

Atheistic Existential

ism

EXISTENTIALISM Existentialism is a philosophical

approach based on the assumption that individuals are free and responsible for their own choices and actions.

Hence, we are not victims of circumstance because we are what we have chosen to be.

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/18173/The-History-of-Existentialism

EXISTENTIALISM The roots of existentialism started with the

so called "Father of Existentialism", Søren Kierkegaard, who lived in the 19th Century.

Existentialism's peak came in the 1940's with great thinkers such as Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus and Merleau-Ponty all coming out with not only traditional philosophical essays, but also plays, novels, and short stories that all reflected the existential school of thought.

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/18173/The-History-of-Existentialism

• A philosophy that exalts individualism• Emanated during the 20th century in both Germany and France

• Human beings began to turn to themselves as the sole authority for their standards and valuations.

• The existence of the individual should be the focus of philosophical inquiries.

“EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE.”

- Jean Paul Sartre

• Humans are thrown in the world without meaning and subsequently fashion their essences accordingly through their volitions.

PRECURSORS OF ATHEISTIC EXISTENTIALISM

MAX STIRNER (1806-1856)

JOHANN KASPAR SCHMIDT better known as Max Stirner, was a German

philosopher His main work is The Ego and Its Own,

also known as The Ego and His Own (Der Einzige und sein Eigentum)

He attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philology, philosophy, and theology.

He attended the lectures of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who was to become a source of inspiration for his thinking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner

Stirner participated in discussions with a group of young philosophers called "Die Freien" ("The Free"), and whom historians have subsequently categorized as the Young Hegelians.

Some of the best known names in 19th century literature and philosophy were involved with this discussion group, including Bruno Bauer, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner

JOHANN KASPAR SCHMIDT

• Stirner’s philosophy is affiliated with EGOISM, a belief that the gratification of selfish concerns is the ultimate aim of human life.

•Egoist – “A man who instead of living to an idea – i.e., a spiritual thing – and sacrificing to it his personal advantages serves the latter.”

• An egoist is an individual who aspires for the glorification of personal concerns.

• “The spirit, which alone the Christian loves, is nothing; in other words, that the spirit is – a lie.”

•“Enjoyment of life is using life up.”

• Making the most out of life. Attaining self-actualization.

Self-actualized man

• “Nothing is more to me than myself.”

• “I am my species, am without norm, am without law, without model, and the like.”

• Attacks the belief in predestination which is revered by organized religion.

PREDESTINATION

Whichever way you go, you will still end up according to God’s plan.

“Ownness” or “Self Ownership”

- through this, the ego sustains and empowers personal liberty and subjective powers

Man has his free will.

THEORY IN SOCIAL RELATIONS

Altruism is a guised form of egoism.

Actions done for the benefit of others is in truth, actions for self gratification.

THEORY IN SOCIAL RELATIONS

All forms of social interactions operate under the function of “utility”.

“We only have one relation to each other, that of useableness,

of utility, of use.”

Both the saleslady and the customer use each one for their own benefit.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844-1900)

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Influential German philosopher

Often referred to as one of the first existentialist philosophers along with Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), Nietzsche's revitalizing philosophy has inspired leading figures in all walks of life.

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/18173/The-History-of-Existentialism#vars!panel=134168!

In his brilliant but relatively brief career, he published numerous major works of philosophy, including Twilight of the Idols and Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

In these works of the 1880s, Nietzsche developed the central points of his philosophy. One of these was his famous statement that "God is dead," a rejection of Christianity as a meaningful force in contemporary life.

http://www.biography.com/people/friedrich-nietzsche-9423452#literary-and-philosophical-work-of-the-1880s

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

The last decade of his life was spent in a state of mental incapacitation.

He died on August 25, 1900.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

God is dead and we are his murderers.We are the ones creating the notion of

God.

NIETZSCHE… Affirms a complete rejection of metaphysical

and religious truths as grounds for reality Contends that the spiritual dimension is

illusory. The existence of God, afterlife and

immortality are nothing but imaginary causes.

How can the individual achieve its highest level of

affirmation in a world void of a Divine providence?

WILL TO POWER

“The drive to dominate the environment…This Will to Power is more than simply the will to survive. It is, rather, an inner drive to express a vigorous affirmation of all a person’s power.”

It allows individuals to reach their highest potentials through the overcoming of barriers and constraints.

“What is happiness?- The feeling that power increases – that a resistance is overcome.”

TWO TYPES OF MORALITIES

MASTER MORALITY / ARISTOCRATIC MORALITY

Holds that good is identified as that which is powerful and noble

Practitioners of this are the noblemen – those who determine their morals according to their own personal standards.

Practiced by the lowest class in the society, the slaves.

“essentially the morality of utility” reveres weakness as a virtue while nobility

and strength as vices

SLAVE MORALITY

Slave morality gradually became the basis of Christianity.

Christianity advocates virtues that promote forms of powerlessness and self sacrifice.

SLAVE MORALITY

CRITICISM ON THE TEACHINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

1. “Pity is hazardous to human existence.”

Pity has a depressive effect which makes one powerless.


1. Condemns the maxim, “Love thy enemies.”

Loving one’s enemy is not the natural instinct of human beings.


The natural instinct of man is to hate his enemy.

To hate and fight his enemy.

The virtues of Christianity as guides to survival will only result in martyrdom and stagnation of one’s potentials for self actualization.

“Where the will to power is lacking there is decline.”

Encourages the complete liberation from the dogmas of Christian religion.



Revaluation of all morals- a shift from the slave morality of the Christian religion to the morality of the noble aristocrats, master morality

ÜBERMENSCH translates to the “Overman” or the

“Superman”

Nietzsche is Superman!

The higher type of human self reached through freeing one’s self from slave morality and having the values of master morality.

Enables individuals to revitalize faith in their creative powers and this earthly existence.

ÜBERMENSCH

An individual who acts accordingly to the dictates of the will to power.

ÜBERMENSCH

He lives a dangerous life!

ÜBERMENSCH

This should not be viewed as one who is ruthless or unguided, but an individual who lives life according to an aesthetic phenomenon – fusion between “Dionysian” and “Apollonian” elements.

ÜBERMENSCH

Dionysus Apollo

DIONYSIAN ELEMENT

Derived from the Greek god Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine*

Represents the unruly passion or ‘the instinct’

*http://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Dionysus/dionysus.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian_and_Dionysian

The Dionysian is based on chaos and appeals to the emotions and instincts.

APOLLONIAN ELEMENT Derived from Apollo, the Greek god of of

music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry, and more.*

Symbolizes the ability for order and restraint, or intelligence and rationality

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo

The idea of the Übermensch is one who acts according to passionate

drives but at the same time, establishes self regulation over the

instincts.

ÜBERMENSCH

Most vital element in the Superman “love of one’s fate” – acceptance of this

worldly life as it is

THE MAIN ATHEISTIC EXISTENTIALISTS

MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1976)

Martin Heidegger was born September 26th, 1889 in Messkirch, Schwarzwald, Germany.

Heidegger’s study of classical Protestant texts by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others led to a spiritual crisis, the result of which was his rejection of the religion of his youth, Roman Catholicism.

As a lecturer at the University of Freiburg starting in 1919, Heidegger became heir apparent to leadership of the movement that Edmund Husserl had founded, phenomenology.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/259513/Martin-Heidegger

MARTIN HEIDEGGER

In 1933, he became a member of the Nazi Party, and helped to institute Nazi educational and cultural programs at Freiburg and vigorously promoted the domestic and foreign policies of the Nazi regime.

MARTIN HEIDEGGER

http://www.egs.edu/library/martin-heidegger/biography/

Heidegger's original treatment of such themes as human finitude, death, nothingness, and authenticity led many to associate him with existentialism.

His work had a crucial influence on the French existentialist Jean Paul Sartre.

Heidegger died in Freiburg on May 26th, 1976.

http://www.egs.edu/library/martin-heidegger/biography/

MARTIN HEIDEGGER

BEING AND TIME

Preoccupied with the metaphysical question “What is Being?”

WHAT IS BEING?

I order to respond to the metaphysical question of Being, one must inquire through a particular aspect of Being, the existing individual self or Dasein (There being).

DASEIN Portrayed as one who adopts an authentic

mode of being. Entails the procurement of self realization. Parallel to the Stirnerian Egoist and the

Nietzschean Superman

A “being in the world”

Self realization can only be obtained through communion with other selves.

When Dasein loses authenticity through an adherence to the conditions of the human sphere it becomes an inauthentic form of existence, the das Man.

DASEIN

Referred to as ‘the project towards the future’; ‘Dasein is a Being towards death.’

Upon the awareness of death, Dasein experiences anxiety (Angst), thus, adopts the das Man mode of existence

In order to reclaim the authenticity of Dasein, one must accept that death is an inescapable fact of human living.

DASEIN

ALBERT CAMUS (1913-1960)

ALBERT CAMUS Albert Camus was born in Mondovi,

Algeria on 7th November 1913.

In 1923, Camus was accepted into the lycée and eventually was admitted to the University of Algiers.

To earn money, he took odd jobs: as a private tutor, car parts clerk, and assistant at the Meteorological Institute.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus

His views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism.

Camus did not consider himself to be an existentialist despite usually being classified as one, even during his own lifetime.


ALBERT CAMUS

Camus died on January 4, 1960 at the age of 46, in a car accident.

ALBERT CAMUS


ABSURDITY Camus’ philosophy centers on the belief

that life in general is fundamentally meaningless.

There’s nothing special in life.

ABSURDITY Founded on his denial of God as the

basic foundation of human existence

The individual self as the sole legitimate authority of standards and valuations.

Human condition/life as a “mechanical routine”

ABSURDITY

Life is meaningless because we just keep on doing things on a daily

routine on the dictates of others.

SUICIDE

The realization of the meaninglessness of life may lead one to commit suicide.

“IS LIFE WORTH LIVING AT ALL?”

“LIFE IS MEANINGLESS, BUT IT’S NOT POINTLESS.”

Individual authenticity can be sustained by embracing the futility of human existence and to acquire self progress by attaching value in one’s struggle with the absurd.

JEAN PAUL SARTRE (1905-1980)

JEAN PAUL SARTRE Sartre was born on June 21, 1905 in Paris

In 1920s, Sartre developed interest in philosophy while reading essay of Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will

He earned a doctorate in philosophy in Paris at the École Normale Supérieure, absorbing ideas from Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Husserl and Heidegger, among others.

http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/jean-paul-sartre-234.phphttp://www.biography.com/people/jean-paul-sartre-9472219#early-life

After World War II, he emerged as a politically engaged activist.

He published Being and Nothingness, The Flies and No Exit, the existentialist works that would make him a household name.

He was an outspoken opponent of French rule in Algeria.

He embraced Marxism and visited Cuba, meeting with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

He opposed the Vietnam War and participated in a tribunal intended to expose U.S. war crimes in 1967.

http://www.biography.com/people/jean-paul-sartre-9472219#world-war-ii-and-politics

JEAN PAUL SARTRE


JEAN PAUL SARTRE

Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre and Fidel Castro


JEAN PAUL SARTRE

Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre and Che Guevara

In October 1964, Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He declined the prize, becoming the first Nobel Laureate to do so.

Sartre's physical condition deteriorated in the 1970s, and he became almost completely blind in 1973. He died in Paris on April 15, 1980

http://www.biography.com/people/jean-paul-sartre-9472219#later-life-and-death

JEAN PAUL SARTRE

SARTRE

His major work is…

Here, he mentions that there are two regions of being: being in itself (en soi) and being for itself (pour soi)

Being in itself (en soi)- an un-free entity- devoid of consciousness and is subject to the causal laws of nature- determinate objects of the universe

Being for itself (pour soi)- possesses consciousness and freedom- existence of human being

“EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE”

Human beings are free and self-determining.

“Man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself.”

Human beings are defined through their own choices.

FACTICITY Facticity

- “facts of our existence” – birth, education, culture, social status, etc.

These facticities are inescapable.

FACTICITY

Facticity

- But individuals can conquer their facticity by choosing the meaning they have for them.

“MAN IS CONDEMNED TO BE FREE.”

We are not just responsible for ourselves but we can also be accountable for the welfare of others.

BAD FAITH an individual’s state of inauthenticity

Bad Faith results from the escape of an individual from the consequences of his decisions through excuses.

“HELL IS THE OTHER” Other is anyone who undermines both

one’s freedom and individuality.

The existence of the individual is reduced from a conscious free subject to an object for another self.

“HELL IS THE OTHER”

When a man is caught peeping by another person, he fells shame and thereby reduced to an

object fro another self.

“HELL IS THE OTHER”

SUMMARY

CONCLUSION Atheistic existentialists, despite their

criticisms on the dogmas of organized religions and human traditions, are not in favor of advocating forms of extreme acts of lawlessness and behaviors that are against the mode of human conduct.

They stress self regulation and ownership over one’s life.

They also claim that an authentic lifestyle entails individual responsibility, that humans must become highly reflective of the possible outcomes of their desired course of action.

They show us the value of being unique individualized persons with creativity and diverse modes of self actualization.

Finally, they argue that we can achieve the highest form of self affirmation by overcoming the social tensions in our society. Through this, we may gradually secure self empowerment.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Books:

Websites: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/18173/The-History-of-Existentialism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/18173/The-History-of-Existentialism#vars!panel=134168! http://www.biography.com/people/friedrich-nietzsche-9423452#literary-and-philosophical-work-of-the-1880s http://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Dionysus/dionysus.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/259513/Martin-Heidegger http://www.egs.edu/library/martin-heidegger/biography/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus

http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/jean-paul-sartre-234.php

http://www.biography.com/people/jean-paul-sartre-9472219#early- life http://www.biography.com/people/jean-paul-sartre-9472219#world-war-ii-and-politics http://www.biography.com/people/jean-paul-sartre-9472219#later-life-and-death http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian_and_Dionysian http://www.picgifs.com/reaction-gifs/

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thank you!Presented by:

Arvin M. MontiverosMAT – Social Sciences

Atheistic Existentialism

Education