Existentialism

[The Grand Nudger]

Clearly, and that weakness for eccentric thinkers leads you to believe that there's more there...there, in their eccentric thoughts, than there is. Our new friend, for example, has been reduced to yelling:


-"but penis!"

[Belacqua]

Existentialism is basically the concept that our actions and encounters throughout life are what define us.

In my Aristotle reading group this morning I came across a nice bit of proto-Existentialism. I was surprised how close this was to a more modern philosophy, since naturally we think that for Aristotle, essence is very much defined and unchangeable. Nonetheless he argues that our moral character, what we might call our mature form, is very much self-determined, and something for which we have to take full personal responsibility. 

The subheading to Book II, Moral Virtue, reads: "Moral virtue, like the arts, is acquired by the repetition of the corresponding acts." 

In other words, we become good people in the way that we might become good musicians: practice practice practice. At birth there is something of the luck of the draw, since it's usually our parents who give us our start in moral education, by telling us to behave as if we were moral, even though we don't know yet what we're doing. Eventually, though, we make our own choices and behave morally or we don't. At first we will make lots of mistakes, and we will learn from these or not. 

It's entirely through the habits we develop through practice that our moral character is determined. The habits come from an accumulation of choices. So by the time we're all grown up, our choices have formed us into good or bad people. When we choose various aims in our lives, the quality of our character will determine whether we see accurately whether the aims are good ones or not. Everyone aims at what he thinks is good, but the character we have built for ourselves determines whether we are correct in that assessment.

Now someone may say that all men aim at the apparent good, but have no control over the appearance, but the end appears to each man in a form answering to his character. We reply that if each man is somehow responsible for his state of character, he will also be himself somehow responsible for the appearance...

In other words, whether we choose good moral aims or not depends on whether we have trained ourselves properly. If we haven't, then we have to own it: we're just bad people. We have determined what we are through our own choices. 

So even though Aristotle would quibble with "existence precedes essence" (due to his definition of what "essence" is) he would agree that we make ourselves into what we become, through our own actions, for which we have full moral responsibility. 

I shouldn't be surprised to find, by this time, that absolutely everything in philosophy exists as a seed in Plato or Aristotle.

[Mister Agenda]

I've never met anyone whose views could be fairly described this way. Sounds pretty foolish.

Come now. You've never met anyone in the digital sandbox who thought that eradicating religion will pave the way for scientific progress unrestricted by superstition and lead to a utopia of peace, prosperity, health, freethinking and rationality? It sounds like the norm among village atheists rather than the exception.

Come now. You think I'd bother to lie to you about something like that?

---

Come now. You've never met anyone in the digital sandbox who thought that eradicating religion will pave the way for scientific progress unrestricted by superstition and lead to a utopia of peace, prosperity, health, freethinking and rationality? It sounds like the norm among village atheists rather than the exception.

Recently someone averred that if there were no religion, the Ukraine would be at peace.

Yikes, I don't see how that would be the case. Putin isn't motivated by religious extremism, though he has the backing of the church, I don't think they've been inciting him.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Existentialism is basically the concept that our actions and encounters throughout life are what define us.

In my Aristotle reading group this morning I came across a nice bit of proto-Existentialism. I was surprised how close this was to a more modern philosophy, since naturally we think that for Aristotle, essence is very much defined and unchangeable. Nonetheless he argues that our moral character, what we might call our mature form, is very much self-determined, and something for which we have to take full personal responsibility. 

The subheading to Book II, Moral Virtue, reads: "Moral virtue, like the arts, is acquired by the repetition of the corresponding acts." 

In other words, we become good people in the way that we might become good musicians: practice practice practice. At birth there is something of the luck of the draw, since it's usually our parents who give us our start in moral education, by telling us to behave as if we were moral, even though we don't know yet what we're doing. Eventually, though, we make our own choices and behave morally or we don't. At first we will make lots of mistakes, and we will learn from these or not. 

It's entirely through the habits we develop through practice that our moral character is determined. The habits come from an accumulation of choices. So by the time we're all grown up, our choices have formed us into good or bad people. When we choose various aims in our lives, the quality of our character will determine whether we see accurately whether the aims are good ones or not. Everyone aims at what he thinks is good, but the character we have built for ourselves determines whether we are correct in that assessment.

Now someone may say that all men aim at the apparent good, but have no control over the appearance, but the end appears to each man in a form answering to his character. We reply that if each man is somehow responsible for his state of character, he will also be himself somehow responsible for the appearance...

In other words, whether we choose good moral aims or not depends on whether we have trained ourselves properly. If we haven't, then we have to own it: we're just bad people. We have determined what we are through our own choices. 

So even though Aristotle would quibble with "existence precedes essence" (due to his definition of what "essence" is) he would agree that we make ourselves into what we become, through our own actions, for which we have full moral responsibility. 

I shouldn't be surprised to find, by this time, that absolutely everything in philosophy exists as a seed in Plato or Aristotle.

For examples of proto-existentialism, I would suggest Macus Aurelius and the Book of Ecclesiasties.

[Belacqua]

Wonderful novelist and underrated philosopher Iris Murdoch is having something of a comeback these days, thanks to two new books about her circle.

She was not quite an existentialist, I guess, but was very much influenced by Simone Weil.

Here's a good article:

https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/03/3...-the-gods/

[Angrboda]

Wonderful novelist and underrated philosopher Iris Murdoch is having something of a comeback these days, thanks to two new books about her circle.

She was not quite an existentialist, I guess, but was very much influenced by Simone Weil.

Here's a good article:

https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/03/3...-the-gods/

I was a big Iris Murdoch fan in college. I wouldn't mind reading Nuns And Soldiers another time.

[Macoleco]

For some reason I have always felt identified with this philosophy, even though I have never read any of its main works 😅

But once I read the definition, I want to learn more about it.

[Belacqua]

For some reason I have always felt identified with this philosophy, even though I have never read any of its main works 😅

But once I read the definition, I want to learn more about it.

I understand the feeling! It has an appeal up front that a lot of other schools of thought don't have. 

Maybe something to do with the cool French girls? 

Even if you end up growing past it, it's always worth learning about. 

Being and Nothingness is hard. Not for the faint of heart, and you're expected to know a lot of the prerequisites. Like a working knowledge of Heidegger is helpful. Fortunately there are less daunting ways in. The OP mentioned Existentialism is a Humanism a while back -- that's a good one.