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Existentialism movement
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Notes on the movement of existentialism as apart of the modernist movement specifically relating to theatre such as ‘Waiting For Godot’ by Samual Beckett and others.
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Existentialism
THE HISTORY OF EXISTENTIALISM PHILOSOPHY
Existentialist thought can be traced back as far as King Solomon who wrote in the Old Testament:
“Vapour of vapour and futility of futilities! All is vanity, empty and false.
What pro t does man have left from all his labour? Is life worth living?
One generation goes and another generation comes, but the earth
remains forever...”
• Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) viewed human beings as subjects in a
heartless, cruel, often confusing, and "absurd" universe in which
meaning is not provided by the natural order, but rather can be created,
however provisionally and unstable, through God and in God. Kierkegaard became the pioneer
of modern Christian existentialism.
• Nietzsche (1844-1900) was the pioneer of modern Atheist existentialism and was the rst to
claim that “God is dead”. He believed that God and morality are the chains that cause most of
the su ering in our existence. By throwing of these “chains” people can see the beauty in
existence and this will make living more bearable. People fashion their own existence (because
God is dead) and only exists by so doing, and in that process gives meaning/hope to that
existence.
• World War II gave rise to widespread feelings of despair and of separation from the established
order. These feelings led to the idea that people have to create their own values in a
world in which traditional values no longer govern.
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and Albert Camus (1913-1960) developed from these
thoughts about the meaning of existence the philosophy of Existentialism – although
Camus denied belonging to any particular philosophical school. Sartre was a
con rmed atheist and was the principal exponent of existentialism. Camus was the rst
theorist to use the term “absurd” with reference to our existence.
There is no inherent point of living
THE EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY
The main concern of the existentialist philosophy is the meaning of existence –
“What does it mean to exist?”
1. We are condemned to be free...
- Our freedom is a curse
- We have not created ourselves
- We did not ask to be born
- We are responsible for everything we do
- We have to make choices of action throughout our lives.
- We are like actors dragged onto the stage without having learned our lines, with no script and
no prompt to whisper stage directions to us – To exist is to create your own life.
2. We are adrift in a world devoid of purpose...
- In a present age (post-World War II, poverty and atomic bomb) we have lost the comfort of
being able to explain the world through reason and logic. o We live a life of anguish because a
nothingness slips in between ourselves our past and our future, which nulli es existence and
purpose.
- We keep ourselves busy to deny and to avoid facing the meaninglessness of life, and we use
diversions to escape boredom.
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