DE Weekly: Heidegger, Dostoevsky, & Authentic Being-for-Others
Over the past two weeks, I’ve written about the various writings and opinions of Existentialist authors who gave us a foundation for what could be called “existential ethics.”
Two weeks ago, I wrote about Emmanuel Levinas, who opined that we should treat ethics as “first philosophy,” meaning fundamentally underpinning our philosophy should be the obligation of ethical responsibility.
DE Weekly: Time, Eternalism, & Illusion
Over two millennia ago, the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle concocted a paradox called the “Paradox of Time,” found today in his Physics. In this paradox, we are asked to consider how time can really and truly exist.
Aristotle’s time paradox says that time is composed of non-existent states, the past and the future. These non-existent states are separated by a vanishing present; as soon as each moment of the present passes, it is gone to the past.
DE Weekly: Heidegger, Temporality, & Retracing the Past
Martin Heidegger, the German phenomenologist who had a huge influence on existentialism, wrote about time and temporality, what he saw as the structure of his Dasein––human existence.
Heidegger lifted the term Dasein from the German word for “existence” and molded it into a concept explaining the human condition; namely, our “Being-in-the-world.”
DE Weekly: Finitude, Nothingness, & Meaning
In existentialism, there are some concepts with relative consensus, and others with lots of varying theories. Life itself (specifically the meaning of life) is one of those major questions with many answers. Another is Death itself. We’ve all heard the question “What is the meaning of life?”, but here’s another question: what is the meaning of death?
The existentialists had widely differing views on the importance of death and on the meaning of death, each with their own unique input. The two authors I’ll discuss today are Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger.
DE Weekly: Life, Death, & Certainty
“Life and death are two sides of a coin. But which of the two is more certain?” The answer to that question, as we know, is death.
That question came from Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. I included some quotes of his from his appearance on an episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast in my newsletter a few weeks ago, and there’s some more insight from Modi I’d like to include this week, too.
DE Weekly: Heidegger, Dasein, & Temporality
“Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing? That is the question,” wrote Martin Heidegger in his Introduction to Metaphysics. “. . . this is obviously the first of all questions,” he continued.
Heidegger was right; questioning our being certainly is the “first” of all questions, for every other question about the nature of being arises from it.
DE Weekly: Sartre, Facticity, & Transcendence
Throughout their rigorous study of the human condition, the existentialists introduced and coined key words to represent the important concepts of their philosophies. Two of these key concepts are facticity and transcendence.
Facticity refers to the concrete facts of an individual’s existence––birthdate, birthplace, physical appearance, the social class one is born into––which are inescapable and cannot be changed.
DE Weekly: Phenomenology, Experience, & Seinfeld
Each week over the past few months, I’ve written about the “big questions” posed by the existentialists. These questions concern our existence, the essence of what makes us human, why our lives have meaning, and why these questions cause us a great deal of anxiety.
But, downstream of all these questions is what I consider “the big one”: How do we live each and every day in accordance with living a life of meaning?
DE Weekly: Hancock, Mortality, & Mystery
The old adage goes, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” That phrase was written by American founding father Benjamin Franklin.
I view only half of these certainties as truly legitimate, and that is death.
DE Weekly: Choices, Freedom, & Authenticity
“You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself.”
This is a quote from Albert Camus. Like much of what Camus writes, I like it because of its simplicity. Its meaning is also twofold.