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Existentialists


crusader1234

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crusader1234

Anybody know what they are? I have a friend who is one and all I know it has something to do with living day to day.

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ilovechrist

i have NO idea..
but decided to post anyway.. just for the count sake :D

i have heard of it before though... i think there are some here in the Asheville area... whatever they are!

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Thy Geekdom Come

From www.dictionary.com

[quote]ex·is·ten·tial·ism  n.

    A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.[/quote]

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Existentialism is a philosophy which doesn't believe in the existance of God. The focus is on the individual and the universe has no meaning - things only exist if you think they exist, they don't exist in reality.

It was a very popular philosophy with the writers, artists and intellectuals living in Europe just after the second world war. Jean Paul Sartre and Simeon de Beauvoir both subscribed to the philosophy.

Personally, I think it's a very bleak philosophy, though it is possible that the experience of the war influenced that.....and of course I am bias given my conviction of the existance of God!

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crusader1234

yeahhh although ive heard sartre was overly nieztchiesque in his philosophy... i dont know what that means but my friend said it. nietzche wrote some good books.

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CreepyCrawler

hey in france we were studying some camus and he's an existentialist. his books make me depressed and i'm scared to read the paperbacks that i bought by him. existentialism gives me angst. is that where the term 'existential angst' comes from?

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Theoketos

[quote name='crusader1234' date='May 2 2004, 08:32 PM']yeahhh although ive heard sartre was overly nieztchiesque in his philosophy... i dont know what that means but my friend said it.  nietzche wrote some good books.[/quote]
With charity I must tell you Nietzche wrote evil books, which are filled with hate and lies.

Basically Nietzche said that God is dead and we should act like He is Dead.

Nietzche was Hitler's favorite Phiosopher.

Sarte said that human beings long for God, but he does not exist, thus life is Nausiating.

Extentiallism states that there are no univeral principles of right or wrong, but in chossing some thing as good they make it good.

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crusader1234

crazy. im not a huge nietzche fan so its not any big deal for me to think hes nuts. haha, also, my friend is into camus. shes a cradle catholic who got so confused and frustrated she went existentialist. shes a very good person however, so i think theres more to existentialists then you are giving them credit for. im not existentialist by any means, although i do agree with my friends philosophy that we should live our lives trying to better the world day to day. i think that part of it can fit nicely alongside catholocism... in fact i think making the world a betterplace is a big part of catholocism so i dont know why i botherd getting into this.

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I took a philosophy elective on Sarte's [i]Existentialism and Human Emotions[/i]. It's everything Ellenita said plus I think it's an excuse to be totally free of all responsibility. It's a gloomy outlook that defines all human existence of each individual as merely "smudge" in eternity, and it basically doesn't matter because you'll be dead and forgotten in due time anyway, so basically why do anything but just exist to "exist" and do what ever comes natural inbetween life and death? To me it seemed to go further than Neitzche's belief that God doesn't exist. Sarte's existentialism goes further to say that even if there is a minute chance that God does exist, why should we care? - seeing he rejects all notions of organized religion and man's accusation to have identified God. I'm happy to be enlightned so i can conversate on the topic, but as a Christian of course I believe it is totally one of the paramount philosophies of secular humanism and can potentially be a spiritually dangerous read!

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If my description differs slightly with anyone else's it might be because my teacher was self-described as a Recovering-Christian Existentialist so he could have had a biased twist added to it, but I don't think it is in anyway compatable with true Christianity, specifically Catholicism. The Catholic Faith is well-rounded enough with the Scriptures, the Catechism, the Suma, etc... to answer those sorts of theological philosophical-existence questions without the need to site secular humanist atheistic sources. For the safety of my soul and salvation I would stick to the God-inspired stuff because that along with prayer is all we really need. Peace.

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BeenaBobba

[quote name='Theoketos' date='May 3 2004, 12:26 AM'] Basically Nietzche said that God is dead and we should act like He is Dead.

Nietzche was Hitler's favorite Phiosopher.

[/quote]
Nietzsche also claimed he was the anti-Christ. :blink:

You can read more about him and his twisted philosophy in an article written by Peter Kreeft, which you can read [url="http://catholiceducation.org/articles/civilization/cc0009.html"]here[/url].

God bless,

Jennifer

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Lounge Daddy

[font="Courier"]Check out some books by Thomas Merton - the most popular book of his is Seven Storey Mountain.
He was a great Catholic philosopher, and I recall reading that he called himself a “Catholic Existentialist.” He had some great views, great ideas on true freedom, and an interesting life.

I have not read Seven Storey Mountain in several years, now that I think about it… maybe it’s time I pick it up again for myself. I have another of his books sitting on my shelf right now, “The Ascent To Truth,” waiting to be read.
Hmmmm… I need to make more time for reading.[/font]

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jessinoelw

[quote name='CreepyCrawler' date='May 2 2004, 08:08 PM'] hey in france we were studying some camus and he's an existentialist. [/quote]
Albert Camus started out very existentialistic but eventually separated himself from the idea and the term.

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jessinoelw

[quote name='BeenaBobba' date='May 3 2004, 05:44 AM'] Hi Lounge,

Didn't Thomas Merton later go heterodox?

God bless,

Jennifer [/quote]
Some folks don't care as much for his later books because he had such a great respect for Buddhism, but I've never heard him officially declared to be heterodox.

Some folks just have a very deep respect for other faiths.

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