Thursday, April 2, 2009
From 4/1: The Existentialists
Though Kierkegaard and Nietzsche certainly differ when it comes to questions about God and Christianity, they both fight against what we might generally call inauthenticity. Both call for us to choose our own lives, to embrace our existence, and to take reponsibility for our own individual choices. We can do no worse than to fall in line with the herd or the mob, the source of untruth for Kierkegaard and nihilism for Nietzsche. So what do we make of this turn towards the individual in Western philosophy? Is existentialism something we are willing to embrace or are there certain aspects of it that we might find troubling?
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2 comments:
Embracing the individual instead of the group can sometimes be dangerous. You are not longer thinking what is good for everyone but what is good for yourself. This can be problematic and unproductive. It depends who is focused on the individual. In the right hands it can be very beneficial to the person to be individualistic. I like the idea of being authentic. Be who you are and do not half butt it. This is hard to do in today’s world though. There are many things holding us back from being who we are, like work, other responsibilities, and personal property. Also in today’s society it is hard to tell who you are. There are so many forces trying to tell you who you are. The media is one of these forces they to imposes a way of life that everyone should embrace, and puts distinction between different types of lifestyles. There is no reason why someone can’t be a hippie and still have an executive job.
I thought that the presentations we had last class were very interesting. I believe that Nietzsche and Kierkegaard are both fun philosophers to study and learn about. My favorite part of class was when the presenters were going over Nietzsche’s “The Gay Science” and his ideas on the death of God. I can appreciate the idea of man being free from the thought processes imparted by religion and history. I do not want to do away with religion in general; I just think that it should be thought about differently. I do believe that if religion and a fear of God were to be taken out of society then chaos will be inevitable. This brings me to the comments I made last class that seemed to scare everyone. “I would be a completely different person doing completely different things if I have not been corrupted by society.” If we can avoid chaos, I feel that this can be an actual chance at happiness. Or is there a real chance at happiness?
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