Thursday, September 3, 2009

existentialism, my new interest!!

Ive recently started reading about existensial philosophies and have decided its about time I straightened out my ideas on it...so be prepared for some ramblings, hopefully with some sort of conclusion!
I like their ideas about the absurdity of life...life IS totally unpredictable, and I do like the idea of embracing that and taking life as it comes, not setting plans icn concrete but being adaptable and open!
I agree with their ideas of the death of god, as far as i understanf it. I have an idea that from whenever til the industrial revolution ish, god was almighty. Then 'god' (in all the broadest terms) began to take a back seat to technology. In effect im inclined to think that technology became our new god, a new way to understand the world. But i also think that we are beginning to move into a new era where even science cant provide all the answers, as it seems to create so many monsters (thinking specifically of the environmantal and health problems we seem to have produced-ozone problems and superbugs).
Anyway there are lots of things i like about existentialism, the only thing that I still question is way that it seems to push me towards the idea that nothing really matters. Existentialism incorporates ideas of meaninglessness, and although all existenialists have different ideas I have yet to hear a good way to help us understand death, and therefore the meaning of life! I have a lot more reading to do before i can begin to understand existentialism properly(its a bit like trying to understand postmodernism!) so maybe ill come back and finish this comment later!!!

3 comments:

  1. I've been reading alot of stuff from the philosopher John Gray, people call him the philosopher of pessimism and I wouldn't reccomend him to people too much because his books can be misinterpreted as soley pessimistic- like he's a bit of a gowl, but he make some amazing observations.He argues that the human concept of progress doesn't exist; the illusion of progress. For every so called leap forth man makes we screw ourselves over much worse. Where have we gotten to after everything? Yadda yadda, for every disease we cure we pollute the atmosphere and so on and so forth... So we never really progress he says. He is attack huminism; this idea that the human is superior amongst all else in the known world. He goes on to say we've replaced humanism with what we used to worship; god. He implies that aethism only exist as a result of christianity and now everyone is reaching for this utopian society, but what will pollitics, work or science ever do to create that. It's a circle jerk. He then talks about how we as a species put so much importants in the destiny of the human... but what about the destiny of a dog, a dog drinks when its hungry, sleeps when tired. Who's to say the fullfilment of the dogs life is lesser than ours. The dog is so zen, asking nothing and just doing. We think we are amazing but we are killing the planet, in those terms animals are much more intelligent, they can live in harmony with the world.
    So bassicaly its an enlightening read if you take in the sense that; hey we should chillax alot more and take others into consideration.

    And so finnaly back to you talking about 'meaninglessness' and 'nothingness' in the above. When I first started reading in to existentialism those two words really bugged me. I later realised they dont have to be bad terms and alot of the time the writers who write about them don't mean it in such a desperate and litteral sense (especially in eastern phillosophy). I first consoled myself by thinking, ok nothing exists, its all arbitrary and then I went, shur fuck it if nothing exist then the possibilities of life are endless, I can do anything, weh hey. Then that notion settled for a while, and I read alot more and I stopped taking every hypothesis or theory at face value (dont ever subscribe whole heartedly to anything in my opinion). It could be all mystical or all painfully real, but the truth is the worlds greatest physicists, phylosophers, priests and scientist know absoloutely nothing about death. So I think the best thing is to chill, and as you said 'take life as it comes' because we can name and define all these things that were here before us but we will never know what happens in the big sleep until we take it. Life is good...
    Jesus christ, apoligies for that long rant but it is three o clock in the morning and I tend to do that around this time. Im not even sure if my point really came through there. I know I'll wake up in the mornin thinkin there was only one good sentence in the whole feckin yoke... Anyway some food for thought... Philosopfising is fun...
    ...almost as fun as insomnia

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  2. Thats brilliant! ya i totally think you got your point across anyway...and I couldnt agree more! opportunities are one of my favourites ideas right now and not taking them just seems silly...you NEVER know what could happen, no matter how you try to predict things! the best way I can think to live my life is to accept possible opportunities, enjoy the good ones and learn from the bad! and just relax so i can enjoy them as much as possible!

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