Existentialism

What is EXISTENTIALISM?
 a philosophy based on the notion that man's existence is an internal, subjective experience
 sees humans (with will and consciousness) as being in a world of objects
 teaches that humans are conscious of their mortality, and must make decisions about their
life is what existentialism is all about.
 It was started by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855)
 it developed in the 20th century
 it was an atheistic philosophy, although existentialism's founder, Søren Kierkegaard, was
a deeply religious man
 most of its main thinkers and writers were in Europe
 people who believe in existentialism think that the world and human life have no
meaning unless people give them meaning (Although many religions and philosophies
say that human life has a meaning (or a purpose)
 teaches "existence precedes [is before] essence". This means that we find ourselves
existing in the world, and then we give ourselves meaning, or 'essence'. As Sartre said,
"We are condemned to be free". This means that we have no choice but to choose, and
that we have full responsibility for our choices.
 existentialists believe that our human 'essence' or 'nature' (way of being in the world) is
simply our 'existence' (being in the world)
 the 'essence' of a human, or what makes a human a 'human', is not due to nature or
uncontrollable circumstances; rather, human essence is really just what we choose to
make it
 this means that the only nature we as humans have is the nature we make for ourselves.
 as a result of this, existentialists think that the actions or choices that a person makes are
very important
 hey believe that every person has to decide for themselves what is right and wrong, and
what is good and bad.
 people who believe in existentialism ask questions like:
 "what is it like to be a human (a person) in the world?" and
 "how can we understand human freedom (what it means for a person to be free)?"
 existentialism is often connected with negative emotions, such as anxiety (worrying),
dread (a very strong fear), and mortality (awareness of our own death).
 Existentialism is sometimes confused with nihilism. (Nihilists believe that human life
does not have a meaning (or a purpose) at all; existentialism says that people must choose
their own purpose.)
Søren Kierkegaard’s Philosophy: Key Concepts
Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy revolves around the idea of existentialism or, as others would
say, existential philosophy where individuals find meaning in their life through a leap of faith.
Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy or brand of existentialism is first and foremost a reaction to
Hegel’s speculative philosophy. As is well known, in Hegel’s system, what matters is the
realization of the Absolute (universal) upon which the individual (particular/subject) is merely
subsumed in the entire process of the development of Reason. In other words, as we can see in
Hegel’s seminal work The Phenomenology of Spirit, in the development of Reason (Spirit or
Geist), everything that happens (for example, world wars) is just a necessary part of history and
individuals do not play an active role in it. In Kierkegaard’s interpretation, the individual’s
existence is being left out and reduced to passivity in this process. With this, as Kierkegaard sees
it, the individual is unfree. Her life becomes meaningless.
As opposed to Hegel, what matters to Kierkegaard is concrete existence. It is important to note
that the term existence for Kierkegaard is proper only to human beings. In fact, in existentialism,
other entities, such as plants and animals, do not exist; they only “live”. This explains why for
Kierkegaard, to exist means to strive, to consider alternatives, to choose, to decide, and most
of all, to commit. As we can see, virtually all of this, as Kierkegaard may have argued, is not
captured in Hegel’s system. This is precisely the reason why Kierkegaard rejected the system-
building approach of Hegel and argued instead that the quest for truth involves personal choice,
grounded in religious faith.
Kierkegaard also shared the conviction of the major philosophers reacting against Kant, Hegel,
and the rest of the German Idealist (so famous during this time) that the 19th century European
culture was terribly dysfunctional.
Furthermore, Kierkegaard also shared the argument that the individual will come to a proper
understanding of human existence and society only when she radically breaks from the
prevailing cultural attitudes.
But how can the individual truly exist? Or in what way can she attain authentic or meaningful
existence?
According to Kierkegaard, authentic existence is attained when the individual realizes herself
through the choice between alternatives and the subsequent self-commitment.
But how is self-realization possible?
According to Kierkegaard, self-realization can be attained through the three stages of life,
namely, aesthetic stage, ethical stage, and religious stage. These three stages of life, which
Kierkegaard calls “stages on life’s way”, involve a process whereby the true self or authentic
existence is actualized in the form of individuality.
The three Stages of Life according to Kierkegaard

Aesthetic Stage
According to Kierkegaard, the aesthetic stage is ruled by passion; it is indeed the realm of
sensory experience and pleasure. As we can see, the aesthetic life for Kierkegaard is
characterized by pleasure, and if one wants to live the aesthetic life to the fullest, she must
maximize this pleasure.

The main goal of the aesthetic stage, therefore, is to satisfy one’s desires. Hedonism is a
perfect example of this stage. And because the person in this stage is driven by desires only,
according to Kierkegaard’s philosophy, she is not truly free. Even if she gets what she wants,
such as food, drink, sex, and the like, still her life remains empty as her desires can never be fully
satisfied. She needs more: more food, more drinks, more sex.
Kierkegaard acknowledges the importance of the aesthetic life. As a human flesh, we need to
satisfy our physiological needs. However, because this stage lacks commitment to ideals, the
aesthetic life will necessarily result in boredom, boredom not only with the activity but with
self.
Boredom, according to Kierkegaard, is like a poison that flows through the veins of each
individual, whether poor or rich no one escapes this “psychic-emotional state”. Boredom,
therefore, plays an important role in Kierkegaard’s philosophy. This is because through
boredom,the individual realizes that her desires can never be fully satisfied and, thus, she must
change.

Now, according to Kierkegaard, when the individual experiences this situation, she is faced with
a choice, that is, either she remains in the pursuit of sensual pleasures or to seek higher forms of
pleasuresꟷ thus Kierkegaard’s work famous work Either/Or.

Ethical Stage
The ethical stage is the result of the individual’s decision to commit herself to the moral ideals of
the society. Here, unlike the aesthetic stage, the individual considers the effects her actions will
have on others and gives more emphasis on promoting social justice and equality.
For Kierkegaard, the primary goal of this stage is to live according to ethical standards, that is,
to become an ethical person. Thus, the individual who lives in this stage takes responsibility for
herself (including her choices and actions) and seeks to become what she ought to be. For this
reason, the individual seeks to fulfill her duties and responsibilities related to her work, to her
fellowmen, and the society as a whole. Thus, in the ethical stage, the self is no longer the center
of everything as it was in the aesthetic stage. It is also in the ethical stage that the idea of
“sacrifice” is introduced.

But there is a problem here.

Kierkegaard thought that the ethical individual will eventually reflect and realize that she does
not always do what she ought to do―in fact, no one does. According to Kierkegaard, this
eventually leads to the experience of guilt and despair.
In Kierkegaard’s philosophy, the experience of guilt and despair shows that the individual needs
further change, and this is necessary if one wants to attain true fulfillment or a meaningful
existence. As we can see, the individual cannot find real satisfaction in the ethics stage. In other
words, one cannot find a meaningful existence in the ethical stage.
In response to this, according to Kierkegaard, the individual can either 1) simply try harder to do
the right thing, that is, to be an ethical person, or 2) move to the third and final stage, through a
leap of faith.

Religious Stage
According to Kierkegaard, as already mentioned above, we cannot find true fulfillment in the
ethical stage. No matter how hard we try to be righteous, we always end up doing the wrong
thing. Thus, again, we inevitably experience guilt and despair.
We know that the individual eventually becomes aware that she indeed cannot always do the
right thing, but what is important in the ethical stage is that she accepts the fact that not doing the
right thing is part of the nature of man―that we always commit mistakes, that we always
commit sin.
Now, for Kierkegaard, it is only religion that can offer the possibility of a true fulfillment, of a
meaningful or authentic existence. This is because, for Kierkegaard, it is only God’s forgiveness
that can eradicate guilt and despair.
It must be noted, however, that the religious stage is not simply an alternative of the ethical. In
fact, the ethical and religious stages may even be incompatible, for example, as to the demands
of morality. The famous God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac is a typical
example.

Issued without apparent justification or reason, this command goes against both the natural
emotional ties of parental love and the basic moral principle of any conceivable human society.
In its absoluteness and unconditionality, God’s commands mark the strict separation of the
religious and the ethical spheres. As we can see, Abraham has faith and acts to obey God’s will,
but in the end he is not required to sacrifice his son. For Kierkegaard then, we must believe even
though faith violates human rationality, nature, and morality. This is because for Kierkegaard, a
faith which conforms to moral intuition does not have any significance. Thus, it is the absurdity
of religion that proves its unique value.
But why should humans believe in what they must find as irrational, unnatural and immoral?
This is exactly what Kierkegaard calls a “leap of faith”, which happens only when a choice in
favor of faith has been made. Kierkegaard, however, emphasized that this choice or act of
choosing must be based on SELF-CONSCIOUS and AUTHENTIC DECISION, rather than
the effect of conformism.
This is what Kierkegaard calls inwardness or truth as subjectivity: when one becomes more of
an individual through conscious choices and a full self-awareness before God.
Finally, the religious stage is where the individual finds true fulfillment and attains an authentic
or meaningful existence, and, Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy, this is made possible through a
leap of faith.