Why are we here? What is our purpose? Do our lives have meaning?

1. Why are we here? • What is our purpose? • Do our lives have meaning? • How has humankind attempted to answer these questions? (Willem de Kooning, Black Untitled, 1948)

2. Do you believe in fate or destiny? • How do your beliefs affect your thoughts and actions? (Jackson Pollack, Ocean Greyness, 1953)

3. What if life had no meaning? • What if religion or science could not provide meaning for why we are here? • What if we just happen to be here because the that’s what happened? • How would this idea affect you? (Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893)

4. EXISTENTIALISM Jackson Pollack, Untitled (Green-Silver), 1949

5. Existentialism: • Not a specific school of philosophy; title given to set of ideas shared by intellectuals in academia, journalism, arts; most popular in post-WWII Europe. • Major figures in 19th century (precursors): Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche. • Major figures in 20th century: Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus.

6. Existentialism: • Concerned with the individual(personal):Who am I? and the existential (living, concrete):What does my life mean? How should I live my life? • Inevitable in Modern Age? Post-Industrial, specialized, technical society: pressure to conform, threat to individuality; Questioning of traditional values: increasingly secular society, post-world wars, ideas of Marxism and Darwinism.

7. Major Ideas • The individual: defined by choices and acts; solely responsible for those choices and acts. • The absurd: there is no meaning in life besides what we give it. • Freedom: aware of the nothingness of our identity (we exist but have no essence); choices we make create our identity; these decisions not determined by God, or pre-existing values or knowledge but by individual. • Anxiety (angst): complete freedom of choice is overwhelming responsibility. • Despair: loss of hope when we realize life has no given meaning or our identity breaks down.

8. Soren Kierkegaard(1813-1855; Denmark) • Founder of existentialism? • Most important human activity is decision-making: through our choices, we create meaning in our lives and become ourselves. • Authenticity: individual makes choices without relying on groups or institutions for meaning or purpose. • In-authenticity: nature and needs of the individual are ignored, denied or made less important than norms of institutions, abstractions, or groups.

9. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900; Germany) • “God is dead.” • Morals and values we attribute to God are human creations; free to choose what we value. • Life is meaningless: full of suffering and striving; Life is all there is; live it to the fullest. • How do we live a full life in a godless, meaningless world? • “Will to power”: the drive to reach our full potential (“Superman”); leads to great human achievement. • Conflicts and destruction of the weak should be welcomed.

10. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980; France): • “Existence precedes essence.” • We have no “given nature;” we become who we are through choices we make. • “Bad faith”: when people are afraid to face the freedom and responsibility of choice and revert to old existing norms and rules (religion, science, nature). • “Commitment”: Choosing and living in accord with the choice.

11. Albert Camus (1913-1960) • Author of “existential” novels: The Stranger (1942), The Plague (1947), The Fall (1956). • Coined term “Absurd”: human beings want their lives to have significance in an indifferent universe which is without meaning or purpose. • Believed we must refuse to give into the despair caused by the realization of life’s meaningless; instead, we must rebel against our cosmic circumstances by choosing to live life to the fullest.

12. Camus (cont.): • Born in Algeria to working-class parents. Father was killed in WWI. • Studied at the University of Algeria until diagnosed with tuberculosis. Later completed studies. • Joined French Communist Party in 1935 to fight inequities in treatment of native Algerians by French colonists. Later criticized communism, which led to break with Sartre. • In Paris during WWII, joined French Resistance cell called Combat; wrote for underground publication. • Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. • Died in car accident in 1960.

13. The Myth of Sisyphus • Camus’ 1942 essay; introduces the idea of the absurd. • The myth. • The punishment is both frustrating and pointless; to Camus, life is similarly absurd in that it, too, is pointless. • In the essay, he offers his solution to this situation.

14. The Plague (1947) • Novel set in North African city of Oran. • A plague hits the city; the city is eventually quarantined. • Thought to be based on cholera epidemic that hit Oran in 1849. • Existential themes presented in novel. Represents humanity’s response to the “absurd.” • Also read as metaphorical treatment of French Resistance to Nazi Occupation in WWII.

15. The Plague • Impersonal; represents death, the absurd. • Poses question: How does one live in the face of the plague? • Examines how society reacts to existential crisis.

16. Responses to The Plague • Fight it, but how?; futile. • Escape it, but what exactly is one escaping from? Where to? • Take advantage of it; Consequences: “Each of us gets the war we deserve.” • Novel examines how different characters cope with absurdity of plague; how characters conceive of themselves and their lives in the face of it.

17. Characters & Responses to the Plague • Dr. Rieux: committed to fighting plague (human suffering) even though unlikely he will find cure; existential hero. • Grand: Rieux calls hero; ordinary and simple (unlike name); committed to novel even though is going nowhere; Sisyphus of novel. • Rambert: “caught;” tries to escape and get away; chooses to live for love rather than “a cause.” • Tarrou: saintly and cynical; one must fight it, but with complete awareness of absurdity. • Cottard: through criminal activity benefits during plague; true cynic. • Paneloux: plague is God’s vengeance for our guilt.

18. Conclusions • We must face the absurd together; theme: solidarity. • “I rebel; therefore, we exist.” (The Rebel, 1957). • Attempts to deny absurd are philosophical suicide: • Appeal to afterlife: not taking responsibility for this life; not living life to the fullest.