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Single Idea 20325

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 1. Existentialism ]

Full Idea

Once the question of 'freedom from what?' has been answered by shattering all objectivities, the question of 'freedom for what?' becomes all the more urgent.

Gist of Idea

Once we grasp freedom 'from' things, then freedom 'for' things becomes urgent

Source

Karl Jaspers (Philosophy [1932], vol.2)

Book Ref

'Existentialism', ed/tr. Solomon,Robert C. [Modern Library 1974], p.158

A Reaction

A quintessential existentialist idea, and its most appealing aspect. Message to all teenagers: don't get bogged down in what you are prevented from doing, but focus on what you can do. The first problem will melt away. (Unless you are in handcuffs....).

The 25 ideas with the same theme [key to life is freedom and self-creation]:

7585 Socrates emphasises that the knower is an existing individual, with existence his main task [Socrates, by Kierkegaard]
22779 The good is realised freedom [Hegel]
21758 Humans have no fixed identity, but produce and reveal their shifting identity in history [Hegel, by Houlgate]
7579 While big metaphysics is complete without ethics, personal philosophy emphasises ethics [Kierkegaard]
7581 Speculative philosophy loses the individual in a vast vision of humanity [Kierkegaard]
2880 The greatest possibilities in man are still unexhausted [Nietzsche]
24086 The goal is to settle human beings, like other animals, but humans are still changeable [Nietzsche]
24080 We should give style to our character - by applying an artistic plan to its strengths and weaknesses [Nietzsche]
23718 If we say birds of prey could become lambs, that makes them responsible for being birds of prey [Nietzsche]
20111 We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special [Nietzsche]
7164 Not feeling harnessed to a system of 'ends' is a wonderful feeling of freedom [Nietzsche]
4489 If faith is lost, people seek other authorities, in order to avoid the risk of willing personal goals [Nietzsche]
20104 Nietzsche tried to lead a thought-provoking life [Safranski on Nietzsche]
20318 My helplessness in philosophising reveals my being, and begins its upsurge [Jaspers]
20321 The struggle for Existenz is between people who are equals, and are utterly honest [Jaspers]
20325 Once we grasp freedom 'from' things, then freedom 'for' things becomes urgent [Jaspers]
22166 Dasein has the potential to be itself, but must be shown this in the midst of ordinariness [Heidegger]
22229 Existentialists says that cowards and heroes make themselves [Sartre]
19619 To live authentically, we must see that philosophy is totally useless [Cioran]
19634 Man is never himself; he always aims at less than life, or more than life [Cioran]
20765 Man is a brave naked will, separate from a background of values and realities [Murdoch]
7677 Central to existentialism is the romantic idea that there is nothing to lean on [Berlin]
6691 It is more plausible to say people can choose between values, than that they can create them [Graham]
6867 Existentialism focuses on freedom and self-making, and insertion into the world [Le Poidevin]
21898 For existentialists the present is empty without the pull of the future and weight of the past [May]