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Single Idea 6867

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

Full Idea

I take existentialism to be the focus on the freedom and self-making of the human being, and his or her insertion into the world.

Gist of Idea

Existentialism focuses on freedom and self-making, and insertion into the world

Source

Robin Le Poidevin (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.222)

Book Ref

Baggini,J/Stangroom,J: 'New British Philosophy' [Routledge 2002], p.222

A Reaction

I take 'self-making' to be the key here. If neuroscientists somehow 'proved' that there was no free will, I don't see that making any difference to existentialism. 'Insertion' seems odd, unless it refers to growing up.

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]