INTRODUCTION:
Why am I here? Where do I come from? These are the common questions raised by those people who were curious of the conception and beginning of their life. Of how he was created, on how the cosmos was formed, and all the things around him. The clash between rationalist and empiricists. The battle between creation and evolution. The battle between Plato and Aristotle. The questions of what is outside them, or what is in the outer part of them. But this paper is not about the outside beings and things or about where we came from; it is about being of an individual, it is about the word “I”, “ME”, and “You”. It is about the question of what am I? (G. Marcel; Socrates to Sartre, p 467) what is my role in this world? Am I Free? Am I the master of myself? Or Am I being manipulated by my Fate and my Destiny, Or Am I here because of the will of God. These are our usual questions about human existence and the truth about our being. It all falls and revolves around the word “Existentialism”.
In this paper, at first, I will present the ideologies or philosophies of the experts regarding the topic. I will present also their examples and later, on my conclusion, I will present also my own reflection or idea about Existentialism based on my experiences.
What is Existentialism? (According to the Existentialists)
What is Existentialism? According to the dictionary definition, it is a mode of Philosophy which focuses on the existing individual person; instead of truth in distant universal concepts. Existentialism is concerned with the authentic concerns of concrete existing individuals as they face choices and decisions in daily life (Glossary, Socrates to Sartre; p.493). Existentialism can be seen as a meticulous attempt to work out the allegation of human individuality. Existentialism is often associated with such themes as the absurdity of human existence and the worthlessness of our lives given our inevitable death. According to Edmund Husserl, Existentialism focuses upon the immediate human concerns of daily existence; it concerned such practical issues like making choices, decisions and personal commitments and urges a life of thoroughgoing engagement and involvement as the surest way of creating meaning for human existence. Existentialism is also the study of human existence. And since we’re talking here of Human existence, let’s begin of defining what is “existence” according to some various Philosophers.
=What is Human Existence?
According to Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), the term “existence” was reserved for the individual who strives, who considers alternatives, who chooses, who decides and above all who make a commitment. Existence must refer to a quality in the individual namely his conscious participation in an act. His example for this is the Spectator and the actor. Arguing that only the actor is involved in existence; though the spectator can be said to exist, but the term existence does not properly belong to inert or inactive things. Another example is the two kinds of men in the wagon, one who holds the reins but is asleep and the other who is fully awake. Surely, in one sense it can be said that both exist, but Kierkegaard insists that only a person who engaged in conscious activity of will and choice can be truly said to exist. Thus, while both the spectator and the actor exist in a sense, only the actor is involved.
Kierkegaard thought that existentialism is a movement from essence to existence (S. Kierkegaard; Socrates to Sartre, p. 453). My personal example for this explanation is the making of a chair. At first, the carpenter thought or conceptualize a chair, what would the chair look like, What type of a chair he will make, what raw materials will he use? Then after that, he will make one, according to what he thought before. Therefore, let us say that, for the chair, essence precedes existence.
Contrary to what Kierkegaard said, Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) believed that existence precedes essence. What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means that first of all, man exists, and after ward, defines himself. Not only is man what he conceives himself to be but he also only what he wills himself to be after this thrust towards existence. In short, man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
Sartre also adds: if existence really does precede essence, there are no explaining things away by reference to a permanent and given human beings nature. In other words, there is no determinism, man is free.
EXISTENTIALISM: HUMAN FREEDOM
It seems to me that existentialism doesn’t have an exact universal definition. Like Philosophy, it is broad and is divided into different categories and kinds. But my true understanding about existentialism is that, it is a study of human freedom and how man makes use of his/her freedom.
But first we must understand what human freedom is? It may appear apparent that if we are islands of subjectivity, secluded from the forces of the external world, we not only are capable of acting liberally and freely of outside determination, but we cannot help doing so since the only possible foundations of action are internal. The situation, however, is somewhat more complex than this. To know what freedom is we must first see how, even though our inevitable nature is to be free, we all inescapably tend to try to get away or escape our freedom. We try to mislead ourselves and act as if we weren’t free, as if we were really determined by nature, our body, or the expectations of others.
Base on my experience, in order to please somebody like for example, my dad, I pretend or be the daughter he wants me to be, a strong, serious, determined and unmoved daughter. He always wants me to do what he wants me to, like on choosing or picking my vocation; he wants me to take up the course that I hate the most. Even though it is not what I want and I am free to contradict, I let my father manipulate or influence my being and decisions as a person never knowing that it will bring me no happiness through out my life. Another is my personality outside my home, I tend to be quiet and just sit back and listen, that is the personality I portrayed inside a classroom, the “I-don’t-care-what-or-who-you are” student and classmate. Well in fact at home, I was the most jolly and joker sister of all (when my dad is not around). In different environments or nature, I am projecting different personalities; because I let the world and people around me affect and influence my behavior. In this case, I am not using my freedom to express the real me.
In spite of the power given to us by the constant progress, we are tempted to see ourselves as an insignificant unit in the vast universe. Instead of ruling and directing the world we allow ourselves to be directed by it. Although today, we may not submit ourselves to God we ourselves were dominated by the material world, even if we childishly deceive ourselves and claim to be its ruler.
But we might as well ask, what consist of the freedom. Am I free to do anything? That when I close my eyes and think of coming back to Catanduanes, when I reopened it, I’ll already be home? Like when I what my grades to be all flat 1, it will be that way?
We must also bear in mind that freedom has its own limitations and boundaries. For example, we cannot just go to one place if we like in just one snap of our fingers. We cannot change what we are or what we want to be in physical means. The only thing we are free to control is our mind and our soul and because we are inscribe or in our body, and in the world, we cannot do all and exactly what we want. The outside world is not in our control.
Our freedom is a freedom of synthesis. It is the freedom to pull ourselves together into the type of coherent whole that we will ourselves to be. Even if the things from which we construct or mold ourselves are determined, what we make of ourselves out of this stuff is up to us alone. For instance, if someone gave you a white short bond paper. It’s up to you to decide on whether what you will do to it. Its either you will throw it unto the trash, draw something on it, make it a paper boat or a paper plane; you can just keep it or return it. The decision is always in our hand. We are free to do whatever it is that we wanted to do.
We cannot make the external world determine this even if we try. The sentence of freedom is the need of drawing ourselves together at each moment out of the innumerable unlike influences and pressures striking themselves upon us from the environment, our community, and our own bodies. We are required to make ourselves, to pull ourselves together, and make of ourselves what we will.
Why am I here? Where do I come from? These are the common questions raised by those people who were curious of the conception and beginning of their life. Of how he was created, on how the cosmos was formed, and all the things around him. The clash between rationalist and empiricists. The battle between creation and evolution. The battle between Plato and Aristotle. The questions of what is outside them, or what is in the outer part of them. But this paper is not about the outside beings and things or about where we came from; it is about being of an individual, it is about the word “I”, “ME”, and “You”. It is about the question of what am I? (G. Marcel; Socrates to Sartre, p 467) what is my role in this world? Am I Free? Am I the master of myself? Or Am I being manipulated by my Fate and my Destiny, Or Am I here because of the will of God. These are our usual questions about human existence and the truth about our being. It all falls and revolves around the word “Existentialism”.
In this paper, at first, I will present the ideologies or philosophies of the experts regarding the topic. I will present also their examples and later, on my conclusion, I will present also my own reflection or idea about Existentialism based on my experiences.
What is Existentialism? (According to the Existentialists)
What is Existentialism? According to the dictionary definition, it is a mode of Philosophy which focuses on the existing individual person; instead of truth in distant universal concepts. Existentialism is concerned with the authentic concerns of concrete existing individuals as they face choices and decisions in daily life (Glossary, Socrates to Sartre; p.493). Existentialism can be seen as a meticulous attempt to work out the allegation of human individuality. Existentialism is often associated with such themes as the absurdity of human existence and the worthlessness of our lives given our inevitable death. According to Edmund Husserl, Existentialism focuses upon the immediate human concerns of daily existence; it concerned such practical issues like making choices, decisions and personal commitments and urges a life of thoroughgoing engagement and involvement as the surest way of creating meaning for human existence. Existentialism is also the study of human existence. And since we’re talking here of Human existence, let’s begin of defining what is “existence” according to some various Philosophers.
=What is Human Existence?
According to Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), the term “existence” was reserved for the individual who strives, who considers alternatives, who chooses, who decides and above all who make a commitment. Existence must refer to a quality in the individual namely his conscious participation in an act. His example for this is the Spectator and the actor. Arguing that only the actor is involved in existence; though the spectator can be said to exist, but the term existence does not properly belong to inert or inactive things. Another example is the two kinds of men in the wagon, one who holds the reins but is asleep and the other who is fully awake. Surely, in one sense it can be said that both exist, but Kierkegaard insists that only a person who engaged in conscious activity of will and choice can be truly said to exist. Thus, while both the spectator and the actor exist in a sense, only the actor is involved.
Kierkegaard thought that existentialism is a movement from essence to existence (S. Kierkegaard; Socrates to Sartre, p. 453). My personal example for this explanation is the making of a chair. At first, the carpenter thought or conceptualize a chair, what would the chair look like, What type of a chair he will make, what raw materials will he use? Then after that, he will make one, according to what he thought before. Therefore, let us say that, for the chair, essence precedes existence.
Contrary to what Kierkegaard said, Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) believed that existence precedes essence. What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means that first of all, man exists, and after ward, defines himself. Not only is man what he conceives himself to be but he also only what he wills himself to be after this thrust towards existence. In short, man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
Sartre also adds: if existence really does precede essence, there are no explaining things away by reference to a permanent and given human beings nature. In other words, there is no determinism, man is free.
EXISTENTIALISM: HUMAN FREEDOM
It seems to me that existentialism doesn’t have an exact universal definition. Like Philosophy, it is broad and is divided into different categories and kinds. But my true understanding about existentialism is that, it is a study of human freedom and how man makes use of his/her freedom.
But first we must understand what human freedom is? It may appear apparent that if we are islands of subjectivity, secluded from the forces of the external world, we not only are capable of acting liberally and freely of outside determination, but we cannot help doing so since the only possible foundations of action are internal. The situation, however, is somewhat more complex than this. To know what freedom is we must first see how, even though our inevitable nature is to be free, we all inescapably tend to try to get away or escape our freedom. We try to mislead ourselves and act as if we weren’t free, as if we were really determined by nature, our body, or the expectations of others.
Base on my experience, in order to please somebody like for example, my dad, I pretend or be the daughter he wants me to be, a strong, serious, determined and unmoved daughter. He always wants me to do what he wants me to, like on choosing or picking my vocation; he wants me to take up the course that I hate the most. Even though it is not what I want and I am free to contradict, I let my father manipulate or influence my being and decisions as a person never knowing that it will bring me no happiness through out my life. Another is my personality outside my home, I tend to be quiet and just sit back and listen, that is the personality I portrayed inside a classroom, the “I-don’t-care-what-or-who-you are” student and classmate. Well in fact at home, I was the most jolly and joker sister of all (when my dad is not around). In different environments or nature, I am projecting different personalities; because I let the world and people around me affect and influence my behavior. In this case, I am not using my freedom to express the real me.
In spite of the power given to us by the constant progress, we are tempted to see ourselves as an insignificant unit in the vast universe. Instead of ruling and directing the world we allow ourselves to be directed by it. Although today, we may not submit ourselves to God we ourselves were dominated by the material world, even if we childishly deceive ourselves and claim to be its ruler.
But we might as well ask, what consist of the freedom. Am I free to do anything? That when I close my eyes and think of coming back to Catanduanes, when I reopened it, I’ll already be home? Like when I what my grades to be all flat 1, it will be that way?
We must also bear in mind that freedom has its own limitations and boundaries. For example, we cannot just go to one place if we like in just one snap of our fingers. We cannot change what we are or what we want to be in physical means. The only thing we are free to control is our mind and our soul and because we are inscribe or in our body, and in the world, we cannot do all and exactly what we want. The outside world is not in our control.
Our freedom is a freedom of synthesis. It is the freedom to pull ourselves together into the type of coherent whole that we will ourselves to be. Even if the things from which we construct or mold ourselves are determined, what we make of ourselves out of this stuff is up to us alone. For instance, if someone gave you a white short bond paper. It’s up to you to decide on whether what you will do to it. Its either you will throw it unto the trash, draw something on it, make it a paper boat or a paper plane; you can just keep it or return it. The decision is always in our hand. We are free to do whatever it is that we wanted to do.
We cannot make the external world determine this even if we try. The sentence of freedom is the need of drawing ourselves together at each moment out of the innumerable unlike influences and pressures striking themselves upon us from the environment, our community, and our own bodies. We are required to make ourselves, to pull ourselves together, and make of ourselves what we will.
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