On Aug 15, 7:44Â pm, "tooly"
bellsouth.net> wrote:>> Have you ever heard the phrase "Life is an existential Hell." I
>> believe I read in Newsweek that upwards of 70%% of college students
>> hold that as their philosophical outlook on life. Â What does that
>> phrase mean?
>
>> I've always held existentialism to mean that you doubt the existence
>> of other people, kind of like the movie the Matrix where others don't
>> exist and they're just hallucinogenic images delivered to brains in
>> vats. Â For example, do you think I exist, as a fellow human with a
>> body and a soul? Â I do, however, existentialism can extend to one's
>> ownself also wherein we doubt our own existence and not only others'.
>> I personally believe this is more likely to happen to Christians,
>> particularly Catholiics, because one of the tenets of Christianity can
>> be the denial of self. Â Comments like "There's no one in the room" (as
>> opposed to there's no one else in the room) suggest or imply
>> existentialist philosophy directed toward oneself. Â Descartes trudged
>> through existentialism and came to the conclusion "I think, therefore
>> I am." Â Because he thinks, he concludes he exists. Â From this came
>> other fundamental truths such as there is a God and God is not a
>> deceiver, etc. Â Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am) is a very
>> famous philosophical quote. Descartes is a preeminent Christian
>> philsopher because of it.
>
>> Back to existentialism, is my definition of it accurate? I looked at a
>> book on existentialism and it seemed to be all about Albert Camus.
>> Maybe my theory, which is more something to provoke thoughts than to
>> uphold, would be better called "nonexistence theory," Â whose
>> definition would be something like "The doubt that other thoughts,
>> objects, or ultimately even persons exist in addition to our own
>> existence." Prochoicers seem indeed to practice a vicious strain of
>> existentialism in which they deny the very existence and souls of
>> certain members of our world (the unborn).
>
>> So back to the widely held college belief that "Life is an existential
>> Hell." It's like saying "Life is basically just one big movie or video
>> game like the movie "The Matrix", I am the only one who exists, there
>> is no proof of Christ, et cetera.
>
>> Final thought, does the future exist?
>
>> C3
>
> Even quicker responses than turtoni's...
I'm glad you're keeping up.
> Isn't existentialism the tenet that truth is a function of existing [short
> and sweet].
Existentialism is the theory of subjectivity.
> There is a solopsist content to modern existentialism IMHO, where it is
> argued that we should question everything we 'think' we are as being suspect
> of someone elses existence, not our own. Â Thusly, uniqueness and originality
> come to question...what exactly is 'SELF" that we really are? Â Absolute
> existentialism seems  to me to be a bleak, lonely, isolation where nothing
> it taken for granted and everything is questioned, even one's own validity
When you're climbing a mountain you'd better be objective, heh?
Lotta love those armchairs.
> [perhaps useful in some critique]. Â Expressionism might be a close cousin in
> philosophical argument (in the modern framework anyway)?
"Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an
emotional effect; it is a subjective art form."
> But I have wondered if there isn't a more positive lean to existentialism if
> we perhaps entertain the idea of a connectivity of BEing between individuals
> through 'internal' means. Â The best example I can come up with is coral
> reefs where thousands of single polyps make up a single organism [largest
> single organism on the planet if I remember correctly].
>
> We obviously are not connected via our bodies, therefore, I have entertained
> the idea of a 'mass mind' that we have been in the process of creating since
> our beginnings. Â Perhaps we carry a certain 'hardwired' model of what has
> come before us, where our very nervous system has encorporated a fair degree
> of the thought processes of time memorial as instinct to build upon. Â In
> this way, we are not so isolated but carry the remnants of all humanity from
> origins of what we are.
>
> Get's sort of wild from there, hehe.
>
> Beware solopsist thought however...for there is no solution to that question
> IMHO...or at least I have found none. Â For all I know, I am the only thing
> truly alive...and I cannot prove elsewise [though of course, I allow my
> common sense to override]. Â Â Think too hard on this and have a propensity
> for schizophrenia and solopsist thinking can be dangerous, again IMHO.
> Perhaps the BORG could have a word on this?
