DE Weekly: Freedom, Responsibility, & Political Existentialism
Much like other philosophies, Existentialism carries with it a political dimension, insofar as it can be applied to the larger realm of groups of people and societies in general. For example, in the same ways that the arguments laid out in Plato’s The Republic have provided discourse for human politics, so have the writings of Existentialism been applied.
One does not need to look too far in the literature to see this: Albert Camus’s The Rebel and many of Jean-Paul Sartre’s short stories (“The Wall,” “The Childhood of a Leader,” and “Dirty Hands,” to name just a few) all have something to do with our political nature.
DE Weekly: Situatedness, the Crowd, & the Limits of Freedom
Last week, I wrote about radical freedom in Existentialism: a facet of our human condition that gives us the ability to choose which actions we take in our lives, and which contributes, ultimately, to the outcomes of our lives. I wrote also about the anxiety of choice we all encounter as a result of this, and the despair that might follow.
Further, I described what “genuine” free will might mean for us as humans, and how to exercise it appropriately.
DE Weekly: The Anxiety of Choice, Despair, & Genuine Free Will
In Existentialism, freedom is one of the basest conditions of human existence that contributes to our human nature. Our freedom is as radical as it is inescapable; as humans, the existentialists would say, we have no predetermined purpose or meaning, meaning it up to us to define our essence through our own choices.
In writing that we are “condemned to be free,” Jean-Paul Sartre was emphasizing the true inescapability of the level of our radical freedom. That we are unable to shirk this level of sheer responsibility for our own lives might lead to despair.
DE Weekly: Bad Faith, Sartre’s Waiter, & Who Are We?
I have mentioned Jean-Paul Sartre's idea of mauvaise foi––“bad faith”––in countless newsletters over the years, as it is a crucial concept to understand when discussing such Existentialist ideas as the burden of choice, authenticity, and radical freedom. But, what does bad faith actually look like in action? And, what are its consequences?
Sartre defines bad faith as a self-deception whereby we either convince ourselves or allow ourselves to be convinced that we lack the freedom necessary to escape the anxiety of being through exercising our personal responsibility to do so.
DE Weekly: Regret, Sunk Cost, & The Wrong Train Theory
There is a metaphor for life often attributed to a Japanese proverb which is called the “Wrong Train Theory.” The proverb goes something like this: “If you get on the wrong train, get off at the nearest station. The longer it takes you to get off, the more expensive the return trip will be.”
The Wrong Train Theory suggests that if you are on a train that you thought was taking you where you needed to go or wanted to be, but you realize after a time that you’ve boarded the wrong one, you should get out at the very next stop.