Notes on Existentialism

jackrernest

Hi Folks

Here is a link to my notes on existentialism that i have written (hope i am not breaking any rules by doing this). The notes discuss existential theory in remarks. Just copy and paste the link into your address bar to see/download. The notes were particularly influence by the work of RD Laing and Rollo May.

drive.google.com/file/d/0B4UiIfX3PnPXM3lVSGl6YlV1TU0/view?usp=sharing

Black Swan

MOD: Would you please consider presenting one or more points here on existentialism and discuss them, rather than simply referring us to a link?

Joe1919

I had a quick read so accept this as a quick reply.

Boredom.....I would make a stronger direct link between "boredom' and 'meaning' i.e. We become bored when we have nothing meaningful to do.

Entertainment.....OK, the hedonistic life of pleasure is insufficient.....but can we not go beyond this e.g. commitment.....some type of leap.....our creative ability to construct/live a life etc.

Conformity......there is a third choice beside conformity and rebellion and that is withdrawal from life (e.g .into themselves). Especially discussed by Kierkegaard as dangerous despair (Sickness unto Death) and Karen Horney.

Segregation (alienation?) An important theme in existentialism is self alienation. e.g Self hate, self harm, trying to escape from self etc.

Final Word.....You mention Viktor Frankl but an important part of his philosophy is how man must search for some type of meaning.


Best of Luck

jackrernest

Joe1919 wrote: »

I had a quick read so accept this as a quick reply.

Boredom.....I would make a stronger direct link between "boredom' and 'meaning' i.e. We become bored when we have nothing meaningful to do.

Entertainment.....OK, the hedonistic life of pleasure is insufficient.....but can we not go beyond this e.g. commitment.....some type of leap.....our creative ability to construct/live a life etc.

Conformity......there is a third choice beside conformity and rebellion and that is withdrawal from life (e.g .into themselves). Especially discussed by Kierkegaard as dangerous despair (Sickness unto Death) and Karen Horney.

Segregation (alienation?) An important theme in existentialism is self alienation. e.g Self hate, self harm, trying to escape from self etc.

Final Word.....You mention Viktor Frankl but an important part of his philosophy is how man must search for some type of meaning.


Best of Luck

cheers, thanks for reading them.

jackrernest

Black Swan wrote: »

MOD: Would you please consider presenting one or more points here on existentialism and discuss them, rather than simply referring us to a link?

its kind of hard to compress them. basically it makes reference to conformity which Rollo May discussed. that would be the main gist of it. Also the power of labels which Soren Kierkegaard discussed. And i wrote a bit on the existential component of schizophrenia based on RD Laings The Divided Self.

MOD: PM'd.