Essay on Existentialism
According to existentialism, man – this is a temporary, finite being, intended to die. The idea of death as self-evident, absolute boundary of any human endeavors in existentialism is the same place, as in religion, although the majority of this philosophy does not offer any person other-worldly perspective. Existentialists believe that people should not get away from the consciousness of his mortality, and so appreciate all that reminds the individual of the futility of his practical endeavors. This motif is clearly expressed in the existentialism doctrine of “borderline cases” – the limiting circumstances of life, which always gets the human person. And the main “border situation” – is the situation in the face of death, “nothing”, “to be or not to be” in a variety of secular existentialism and transcendence to the world – God – in a variety of religious existentialism.
Transcendence – is the most important definition of existence. Depending on the understanding of the transcendent and the act of transcending are different form of philosophizing with representatives of existentialism. If Jaspers, Marcel, Heidegger’s later, recognizing the reality of the transcendent, currently dominated by the symbolic and even mytho-poetic (Heidegger), because it is impossible to know the transcendent, and can be only a “hint” at it, the teachings of Sartre, set as their task to reveal illusion of transcendence, is critical. The border situation to have to put the human selection. Man must constantly choose one or another form of behavior, guided by certain values and ideals. For the main religious of existentialism moment of choice is “for” or “against” God. “For” – means the path of faith, love and humility. As a result, the person is waiting for an infinite bliss. Cons – means the renunciation of God, is fraught with divine punishment.
In the secular variations of existentialism principal moment of choice is associated with a form of self-identity. This self-realization is determined by the fact that randomness of human existence, its abandonment to the world. Abandonment means that the person is not created by anyone, not created. He appears in the world by chance, and he is not to rely on. There is no God, God is dead – say representatives of the secular existentialism. No Christian morality, or of any other secular morality does not indicate a person how to operate in the world do not have signs.
A person’s ability to do yourself and the world of other people, to choose an image of the future of the world is, in terms of existentialism, a consequence of the fundamental characteristics of human existence – his freedom. Man – this is freedom. Existentialists emphasize that man is free altogether, regardless of the real possibilities of the existence of its goals. Human freedom is preserved in any environment and is expressed in the possibility to choose, to make choices. This is not about choice options for action, and expression of its attitude to this situation. Thus, freedom in existentialism – is, above all, freedom of conscience, freedom to choose the spiritual and moral position of the individual.
It should recognize the strong side in the formulation of the problem of freedom of the existentialists. It is the desire to emphasize that human activity is directed, mainly, not by external circumstances and internal motives that each person in different circumstances, mind does not react the same way. From each person depends very much, and do not, in the case of negative developments, refer to the “circumstances”. People have considerable freedom in defining the objectives of its activities. At any particular moment in history, of which there is not one, but several possibilities. If there are real possibilities of development of events is equally important that people are free to choose the means to achieve their goals. And the goals and means, embodied in the actions already created a situation that she begins to have an impact. Existentialism rejects both the rationalist tradition of education, reducing the need to know freedom, and humanistic-naturalistic, for which freedom consists in discovering the natural inclinations of man, the emancipation of his “essential” forces. Freedom, according to existentialism – is the very existence, existence and there is freedom. Since the structure of existence is expressed in the transcendence, the understanding of freedom of various representatives of existentialism is determined by their interpretation of transcendence. For Marcel, and Jaspers, this means that freedom can be attained only in God. Since, according to Sartre, to be free means to be oneself, to the extent of “man is condemned to be free.” Freedom appears in existentialism as a heavy burden to bear a man, because he is a person. He can abandon his freedom, cease to be himself, to become “all”, but only at the cost of failure on themselves as individuals. A world in which man is immersed in this, Heidegger is the name of “man”: it is an impersonal world in which all anonymous, which is not the subjects of action, but only of the objects in which all the “other” people and even to itself is the “other”, is a world in which nothing has been decided, and therefore can not be held responsible for anything.
Existentialism is indeed repelled from the most common forms of radical disillusionment in the history that lead to the interpretation of modern society as a period of crisis of civilization, a crisis of mind and the crisis of humanity. But existentialism does not act as counsel this crisis. On the contrary, he protested against the surrender of a person before the crisis. Existentialists believe that the catastrophic events of recent history of instability are found, the fragility of not only individual, but every human being. Individual to survive in this world, it is necessary first of all, deal with their own inner world, to assess their capabilities and abilities. In the foreground, they put forward the problem of man. Existentialism focuses on the spiritual human endurance in the face of a hostile world to him. Its members refuse to turn a person into a tool that mono manipulated: an instrument of knowledge and production. The man, in their opinion is not an object but a subject, a free, amateur, responsible being. The first appeal of this philosophy: “Man, wake up!” That is, borrowing an active life stance, act in this world, and opposing it with all his strength. However, if the various schools of philosophical rationalism man comprehend himself primarily as an authorized representative of the human race, sovereign individual, the emphasis on existentialism brings in knowledge of the qualitative specificity, individuality of the individual. Life-world, in terms of existential – is not appreciable fragment of the pre-material world and the world of spirituality, subjective efficiency. One of the dominant plants of existentialism is opposed to the social and life is individual, the approval of the radical dissociation of these two spheres of human existence. It matters only, to its existence (existential).The main established existentialism-ka, according to JP Sartre, the existence precedes essence. This means that there is a person first appears in the world, acts in it, and then defined as a person.
However, this prevents an objective process dehumanized, depersonalization of society, calling each of us, resistance, strength and quality of which is expressed in different ways depending on the ideology, social conditions, etc. Human existence is associated with two types of being: being untrue and true being. Being untrue (being in respect to other things) is characterized by homogeneity, the lack of creative sources of any changes by stagnation. This being absurd, meaningless, it exists as a man thing and not a “master” himself; he is a prisoner of things and concepts that he created. True existence (being in respect to itself) is a real existence, which is characterized by the activity, motion, finding freedom.
