Existentialism

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Existentialism
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Defined

• is a philosophical movement which claims that
  individual human beings have FULL RESPONSIBILITY
  for creating the MEANINGS of their own lives. It
  is a reaction against more traditional
  philosophies, such as rationalism and empiricism,
  which sought to discover an ultimate order in
  metaphysical principles or in the structure of
  the observed world.

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Existence Precedes Essence

• That is, a human being's existence precedes and
  is more fundamental than any meaning which may be
  given to human life
• You define your reality or purpose you are
  free in the existentialist sense
• Thus, only thing that is real to
  existentialists is their existence itself (thus
  the name)

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Bad Faith

• To most, this freedom is terrifying, because it
  means there is no purpose to life.
• Thus, most make decisions based on various
  rationales- what most refer to as reality
• Sartre saw rationality as a form of "bad faith,"
  an attempt by the self to impose structure on a
  world of phenomena "the other" that is
  fundamentally irrational and random

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Sing Along with Cat Stevens!
I wish I knew the mystery of That thing called
hate and that thing called love. What makes the
in between so rough? Ah.. Why is it always push
and shove? Ah.. I guess I just don't know
enough. Yes..

• I wish I knew, I wish I knew
• What makes me me, what makes you you.
• It's just another point of view. Ooh..
• A state of mind I'm going through. Yes..
• So what I see is never true. Ah..
• I wish I could tell, I wish I could tell
• What makes a Heaven, what makes a Hell
• And do I get to ring my bell? Ooh..
• Or land up in some dusty cell? No..
• While others reach the big hotel? Yeah..
• I wish I had, I wish I had
• The secret of good and the secret of bad.
• Why does this question drive me mad? Ah..
• 'Cause I was taught when but a lad. Yes..
• That bad was good and good was bad. Ah..

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The Absurd

• many artists and writers use the absurd to
  demontstrate the utter meaningless of everything.
  Absurdism is a simultaneous attempt to show how
  meaningless the universe is objectively AND
  satirize those who claim to know what
  everythings all about.
• Bokonons doghouse parable.
• Fish slapping dance

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The Gaze

• All people possess a consciousness, or what
  Sartre calls a subjectivity
• Everything/ one that you person look at is an
  object- and has no meaning or value outside of
  what you give to it.
• This act of looking, and objectifying (The
  Gaze) is powerful, because it destroys the
  subjectivity of the Other.

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Existential Crisis or Angst

• All of this is well and good until the Other
  turns his or her Gaze on YOU!!!
• You realize in this moment that your subjectivity
  (in the mind of the Other) is being destroyed and
  you are just an object to them
• By realizing this, you now think of yourself in 2
  ways, yours, and that of the Other, of whom you
  have no control.

Dubois notion of the double consciousness is
an example of this- he claimed that blacks view
themselves through the lens of racist white
society.
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Being for Others

• According to Sartre, to many people this actually
  is not a crisis, but something to be desired.
• Viewing ones self through the lens of the Other,
  after all, removes the frightening freedom of
  Existence.

Lohan on Paparazzi I obviously like it. I
wouldnt ever want them to not take my picture.
Id be worried Do people not care for me?
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Existentialism in The Matrix

• How does Morpheus description of the Matrix
  display the concept of existence precedes
  essence?
• Discuss Morpheus sunglasses and the
  existentialist gaze.
• How would taking the blue pill display bad
  faith?
• How is Neos trip down the wormhole an
  existential crisis?
• How does his awakening in a puddle of goo
  demonstrate the absurd?
• How has Neo been living for others in his
  pre-Matrix life?