Nicole Koehler
NAME_____________________________ 1
THE EXISTENTIALISTS: PART TWO
Write down a handful of distinguishing characteristics, ideas, biographical details, and key quotes, for each
philosopher listed. Then, respond to the question(s) below.
Sartre
• radical freedom — we are condemned to
freedom and choice
• bad faith is giving into delusion and
denying freedom
• LIFE HAS NO MEANING, we give it
meaning, and value is just the meaning we
choose
• being in itself = not living, contained to
the self
• being for itself -= beyond yourself, past or
future
• was low key “le bitch de Beauvoir” lol
• as female — OTHERING
Response: What’s an example of living
in Bad Faith? Do you agree that
existence precede essence?
pretending to not have a choice —
following the path laid out for you,
completely accepting what others want for
you rather than what you want for
yourself. I agree that who we are is much
bigger than what we are, but all the things
we could be, mostly because, at any
moment, you aren’t everything that is
within your being, you’re not expressing
everything of yourself.
de Beauvoir
• existentialism + feminism = :))
• wrote The Second Sex
• born bourgeois, raised catholic, lived
rebelliously, died a queen (metaphorically
speaking lol) ;)
• in contrast to nihilism, the lack of a god
means that we should me MORE moral as
we are completely responsible for ourselves
• women are DIFFERENT from men, NOT
inferior
• gender and socialization impact our
identities
• man is defined as human, woman is defined
• women are INDEPENDENT BEINGS and
should be TREATED AS SUCH
• applies the ideas of living authentically to
“being/becoming a woman”
• “a freedom which is interested only in
denying freedom must be denied”
• wanting to pursue her own freedom meant
that she was constrained by her womanhood
• in the pursuit of equality, there is no
difference between philosophy and life
Response: How does gender affect
one’s existence? How else do we “other”
people?
we are raised and socialized with gender in
mind, thus if affects how we see ourselves
and our identities. men and women are
treated differently, even/especially in
childhood, and, like in science, different
treatments produce different results. we
other people, not just with sex and gender,
but race, economic status, age, ability, etc.
B_____
Camus
• “life will be lived all the better if it has no
meaning”— being conscious, we assume
life has meaning, but the universe has no
meaning, it just is, so to overcome this
contradiction, we need to embrace
meaninglessness
• absurdity is the feeling we have when we
recognize that the meaning we give life
only exists within our consciousness
• if we embrace absurdity, we can live truly
freely as each action is a rebellion against
meaninglessness
• humanist/worked for human rights
• but somehow was a pacifist in the nazi
invasion?
• opposed the nuking of japan
• Myth of Sisyphus — constantly pushing a
boulder up a hill just for it to roll back
down — demonstrates life’s
meaninglessness — “we must imagine
sisyphus happy”
Response: How do we rebel against the
absurd?
by accepting the meaninglessness of
life we can live truly freely, thus ones
entire existence is defying and
rebelling against that lack of meaning
by NOT ALLOWING
MEANINGLESSNESS TO HAVE
MEANING.