PP110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Simone De Beauvoir, Existence Precedes Essence, Existentialism
Document Summary
Existence or being involves the human individual who exists. This emphasis on human existence is found in existentialism. There is no such thing as essential human nature. Existentialists focus on conscious experience, the importance of personal freedom and responsibility, and the idea that we become who we are through our choices. Many existentialists focus on the human condition as a key to what reality is. Existentialists point out that we endure pain: physical, emotional, psychological. We know what it is to dread, feel despair and suffer. Existentialists claim that we shall never understand reality as long as we attempt to explain life and people objectively (materialism has been guilty of this) Soren"s philosophy is focused on: getting clarity about what to do, understanding reality through subjectivity, overcoming the gap between god and humanity, truth is within, not without. Anxiety: he believed that anxiety is connected with our freedom to choose and the free (cid:498)leap of faith(cid:499) into the unknown nothingness.
