Introduction
Why am I writing this blog? Is there any purpose behind it? What are we all doing in this world? Is there any meaning behind it?
There are a lot of questions which can only be asked but we can not find the answers. As Derrida remarks that we can not find answers but whatever answers we get we have to satisfy with it. We all try to give meaning to our life.
( મારા મમ્મી દરરોજ સવારે ઉઠે છે અને રોજ એક જ સરખું કામ કરે, ત્યારે એમ થાય કે આમ રોજ રોજ એક સરખું કામ સાવ અર્થ વિહોણું છે, પપ્પા પણ રોજ સરખું જ કામ કરે. I'm also doing same work daily, attending lecture and completing task)
Why are we all doing such a kind of work ? Everything seems meaningless. But we have to unlearn and relearn the things. Whatever we have learned from childhood, we should erase it. And then it is time to relearn things.
Existentialism is a philosophical study to find a meaning of our life. It gives importance to individual freedom and choice. It questions the existence of God. Teach us to behave rationally.
We have got a task to learn in flipped learning by our professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir. The task was about Existentialism. Here is my response to the video resources and reading materials. Click here to know more about this task.
Video 1
In the first video we find the meaning of Existentialism. There are many philosophers, we can call it Existentialists who have given their philosophies on the idea of Existentialism. But everyone's ideas are somehow differ from each other. But all are given the same idea and it is about Individual, passion and choice. Existentialism is not the conflict and struggle with other people. But it is an individual struggle with the universal ideas.
I'm impressed by the idea of individual freedom and choice. There is a lot of research about human existence, from where we came, but now everything seems meaningless to me. There is no meaning of our existence. But in this purposeless life, we have to find a meaning to live.
Video 2
This video is about the philosophical suicide and the myth of Sisyphus. The cause of the death is absurdity. When we start thinking we find there is no logic behind our life. But it doesn't mean we should die. Because there is also no logic behind death.
Do we know what happens after our death? If we commit suicide just because we are not finding any meaning in life, we end our meaningless life, but we are also unaware about what happens after death. Are we going to find any peace or meaning after death? We don't know anything, so there is also no logic behind suicide.
Video 3
In this video we find The myth of Sisyphus and the Notion of Philosophical Suicide. Existentialism is the philosophy which emphasizes Individual freedom and choice, now we are so constructed in the culture and society that we can not escape from this. We can not make our choice Generally when people commit suicide the ultimate reason is they hurt by other people or to show other people. It is like we are living for others. Existentialism teaches us to think about our self and the question of our existence. Not the outer conflict but the inner conflict which we tend to ignore.
There is no absurdity outside the human mind, and that absurdity ends with death(It can be only our assumption perhaps). In this video we can find the philosophical suicide. Albert Camus remarks that..
"I'm taking the liberty at this point of calling the existential attitude philosophical suicide"
We feel nothingness when we start thinking and questioning. Without thinking we live our life as our ancestors set the rules to live life. We can not find the meaning of life, so the better thing is stop thinking and live as others are living. This is not physical suicide but it is a philosophical suicide.
Sisyphus is punished by God, and the work he is doing as punishment is meaningless and there is no outcome from that work. The better thing is to suicide, but he is doing and pretends to be happy. He is not thinking about the meaning behind all this. This is a philosophical suicide. In our life we are also doing meaningless things. And we feel that after this work we find happiness, we do for ultimate happiness, and for this we have to kill our thinking.
Video 4
Dadaism, Nihilism and Existentialism
Dadaism, Nihilism and Existentialism are philosophical moments. Dadaism started after World War 1st, people declared it against the war. It is a quest for change. It is against existential values and rules. It is associated with Nihilism. Nihilism is also about the absurdity of life. But it is pessimism, while Existentialism is quite an optimistic idea. Nihilism ask such questions like
Life is meaningless, human life is full of absurdity, and we can not find meaning in life.
While Existentialism is raised same questions but not in negative way
Though there is no meaning in life, we have to find meaning in our life to live our life.
Thus, Dadaism, Nihilism and Existentialism are not the same, there is difference.
Video 5
Existentialism - a gloomy philosophy
Existentialism philosophy came after world war 2nd. When people felt fear, anxiety and nothingness in their life and tried to find meaning in this gloominess. Why people consider Existentialism as a gloomy philistine because it discusses anxiety, absurdity and despair.
Life + anxiety = ?
Is there any answer to this? According to many philosophers one can find meaning of this by believing in God and find any other truth. Being an exentiasist doesn't mean you are a narcissistic. As Nietzsche says
Become
Who
You
Are
Existentialism does not lead us to nihilism.
Video 6
Existentialism and Nihilism : Is it one and the same ?
In this video we find the difference between Existentialism and Nihilism. Normally people consider Existentialism as a gloomy philosophy as well as negative and pessimistic philosophy which leads us towards suicide and death. But Existentialism is not a pessimistic idea as Nihilism is. It is a way to find a meaning in our meaningless life.
Video 7
Let us Introduce Existentialism again!
For better understanding of Existentialism this video is worth watching. It is not easy to prove what Existentialism is exactly. But many philosophers tried to define it in their own way. Here I'm putting one definition of Existentialism by Robert Solomon.
"(Existentialism) is an attitude that recognizes the unresolvable confusion of the human world, yet resists the all too human temptation to resolve the confusion by grasping toward whatever appears or can be made to appear firm or familiar… The existential attitude begins with a disoriented individual facing a confused world that he cannot accept."
Existentialism is a tendency to recognize the unbelievable confusion of the human world. it raises such a questions like
Why am I here?
What does it mean to be human?
How should I live my life?
That is why it is tough to define Existentialism.
Video 8
Explain like I'm five : Existentialism and Nietzsche
It is not easy to explain to an elder what Existentialism is, then how can we explain to kids the philosophy of Existentialism. This video is quite interesting. Nietzsche's idea about Ubermensch is very popular among children, so it is easy to explain to them.
Video 9
Why I like Existentialism? Eric Dodson
In this video we can find an Eric Dodson review and why he likes Existentialism. Which also helps us to know the idea of Existentialism more deeply. He connects Existentialism with everyday life. And how we can apply Existentialism in our life. Existentialism teaches us that..
Suffering is not our enemy
Wisdom lies in our suffering.
Video 10
Let us some up : From Essentialism to Existentialism
Pluto and Aristotle say everything has its Essence. Our essence exists before us and our essence gives us purpose, because we are born to be a certain thing. This is believed to be Essentialism. It is an old idea. We have no pre defined purpose. In these videos we also find theories of Bad faith, as we do as our parents and religion say.
Which Video I liked the most
I liked the last video. We all have our individual liking and disliking and our personal choice and desire. We give an essence to our life, and think God has given a purpose to our life. We think our life is meaningful with the help of religion and other philosophical ideas. As hindu says about 'Bhagavad Gita' ( it is not a religious book, we can consider it as a philosophical book)..
જીવનનો સંપૂર્ણ સાર ગીતામાં છે
We try to find meaning by educating people, social moments and from artistic beauty and also from nature. And the group of Existentialists says that..
Any or all of these things can give your life meaning and the same time they say 'none them can'
Through Spirituality people also try to find meaning in life, and according to me it is quite a fine way to find meaning in our lives. There is no meaning behind our birth. We humans create meaning. But there is no reason. Reason behind any rules, order, values. Sartre remarks that..
We are condemned to be free
But we are forced to design our moral values. Are we really free? Existentialism talks about individual freedom and choice, but we can not escape from the society and human world. All authorities are fake as they all are also human as we are. We should do as we like. Albert Camus stated..
"The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself"
So, whatever we are doing is also meaningful as it helps us to kill our own self. There is no such meaning behind anything, but we assume that we all are doing things for happiness. According to Bhagavad Gita we all have one purpose and that is
Happiness
Thus, we can assume that we are Happy to do things as Sisyphus pretended to be happy.
My Questions
1)Many believe that the Bhagavad Gita is still relevant to our daily lives. People also believe that every question is answered by Krishna in the Gita. According to Gita we have one purpose of life and that is ('सत चित आनंदम') peace and happiness, we all are here for a purpose. In 'Gita' there are principles of Karma(the idea of good deeds and bad deeds), theory of death, soul and rebirth.
Existentialist defines existentialism as an idea of individual freedom and absurdity of life and there is no purpose behind our birth.
How do we see 'Bhagavad Gita' and Existentialism?
2)Is there any connection between Existentialism and spirituality. Does spirituality help us to find the meaning of our life? Or is spirituality just an idea or our assumption to live our life peacefully ?
3) Albert Camus argued with the help of the myth of Sisyphus and the rebel that why rebellion is the only proper response to the absurdity of life. How can we connect the idea of rebellion and democracy in current time? (Video 6)
Thank You
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