Existentialism

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Existentialism

• Slideshow 5 Brentano, Husserl, Sartre, and Camus

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• Franz Brentano (1838-1917)
• Intentionality
• 1. No mental act is about itself.
• 2. Intentional objects are transcendent. (They
  exist outside our thoughts)
• 3. Intentional objects include nonexistent
  objects. (Sherlock Holmes is an example)

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• Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)
• Phenomenology
• 1. The Question How is knowledge possible?
• A rule for thinking Stick with what is
  immediately given
• Natural Attitude
• My attitude when I am understanding and
  interacting with the world.
• I assume that my thoughts about the world
  correspond to an objective reality.
• Philosophical Attitude
• In a philosophical attitude, I question the
  assumptions of the natural attitude.

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• The phenomena df. that which is immediately
  given in experience.
• Phenomena
• Particular mental contents (immanent)
• Universals (transcendent)
• Eidetic Reduction The process by which we see
  universals in our experience.
• By restricting our investigations to the
  phenomena, we avoid the mistakes that occur in
  empirical research and deductive reasoning.

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• Cartesian worry
• We know something only if we can be sure that we
  are not deceived.
• What knowledge is foolproof from deception?
• Husserls answer
• Universals are immediately given
• Philosophy is concerned with the knowledge of
  universals
• Hence, philosophical knowledge is possible
• Phenomenology replaces the object/form,
  appearance/essence, exterior/interior dualisms
  with a single dualism finite/infinite.
• The phenomena we perceive are finite the
  phenomena that are promised to perception are
  infinite.

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• Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
• Matter (being-in-itself)
• Matter is uncaused in the sense that it does not
  depend on anything else for its existence.
• Matter just is there is no reason for its
  existence.
• Matter is positive through and through. There is
  absolutely no non-being in being.
• Consciousness (being-for-itself)
• 1. Consciousness depends on matter for its
  existence.
• 2. Consciousness just is there is no reason for
  its existence.
• 3. Consciousness has negation all through it. It
  is incoherent and self-contradictory.

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• Human Action
• x is a human action df. x is an act performed by
  a person and x is intentional.
• P1. Necessarily, if something causes a human act,
  it motivates the agent to perform the act.
• P2. Motivations are perceived lacks.
• What is lacking?
• Not just any old state of affairs. Thats not
  enough. It must be a state of affairs that I
  value.
• The motivation to act comes from me and not from
  the world.
• There are no objective values (values that exist
  independently of consciousness).

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• Freedom
• I act freely only if there are no objective
  values.
• I act freely.
• Therefore, there are no objective values.
• Rational action
• An act is rational if it helps me accomplish by
  goals.
• Q. What about the act of choosing a goal?
• A. The act is rational if it helps me accomplish
  a more general goal.
• Q. What about choosing the most general goal?
• A. This act is irrational without justification
  arbitrary.

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• Anguish
• Awareness of the arbitrariness of our choices is
  the occasion of anguish.
• The man on the precipice the gambler
• Q. What reason is there that prevents us from
  reassigning values changing our minds switching
  from one project to another?
• A. Nothing
• Bad faith
• Anguish is discomfiting.
• We try to disguise our freedom.
• We misconceive the motives of our actions as
  things that have those values in virtue of
  their nature.

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• Albert Camus (1913-1960)
• The only truly serious philosophical question is
  suicide.
• Life is meaningless.
• If (1), then life is not worth living.
• If life is not worth living, then suicide is
  logical.
• Therefore, suicide is logical.
• An argument for (1)
• P. Life is meaningless if it is filled with
  purposeless suffering.
• Suffering has a purpose for you if
• It is just punishment for something you did
• It teaches you a valuable lesson improves your
  character