Questions on Existentialist Authors Essay

Thoreau argues that many are incapable of achieving that goal because they live in a world full of details that takes focus away from living life. Moreover, we have so much on our plates, that it takes time away from reflecting on the personal self. Throughout the excerpt, Thoreau uses metaphors to approach the obstacles faced when living life in a world where everything must be done. Thoreau states that the competition for resources create a world where we are often cruel and compete with one another. In order to achieve the goal of living life fully, Thoreau proposes solutions that allow us to find our true purpose, take inconsideration nature and

The existentialism of Albert Camus is based on his view of life as the Absurd. This sense of the Absurd derives from the realization that man is destined to die, as if being punished for a crime he never committed. There is no reprieve, and this makes life absurd (Peyre). There is no God in Camus’s conception, and those who hope for an afterlife are thus to be disappointed. Camus understood that the fact that there is no God also means that there is no meaning or purpose to life outside of living life to the fullest, and that there is a destined end. The one saving grace in the world seems to be the fact that while there is no God on which man can depend, man can live as if he can depend on his fellow man, even though he and they will all die (Sprintzen). This is another absurdity, but it is based on the fact that the

Camus argues that even the healthy person will consider their own suicide because of the absurdity a person confronts in existence.

People can “talk” to their friends or playing games even though they all friend may be right next to each other. Titus recently arrives on the moon with his friends, Link, Marty, Quendy, Calista, and Loga, and are now in their hotel room. The girls are messaging each other while sitting next to each other while the boys are watching football on their feeds and messaging each other. “... we watched the football game while the girls, they did something else on the feed. “(9). The girls were chatting each other and the boys could not hear them, but the girls kept laughing at each other’s faces. Everyone is completely consumed by the feed that they do not talk to each other verbally while sitting together. While messaging anyone it makes a conversation dry and leaving out emotion. Plus, while communicating through the feed it makes it more difficult to talk to new people because a person living in that dystopian society would have to go up and speak to them verbally. A situation like this occurs again in the novel when Titus and his friend all get sent to the hospital because a hacker hacked their feed at a club on the moon. Once they get to the hospital the doctors turned off the feednet so they are incapable of using the feed whatsoever. They just all sit in the room looking at each other not knowing what to say. “ There is nothing there but the wall. We looked at them, and at each other. We looked really squelch. Our hair and stuff” Titus thought. “The room was irregular. One of them had a picture of a boat on it,” (45). Titus could not find anything interesting about it. This proves that people become so dependent on the feed that they need it to communicate with friends that are all in the same room. They also do not know what to think because the character are used to the feed giving them something to think about.People need to learn

Thoreau conducted his experiment to understand what it meant to lead a simple life. He wanted to grasp and live a life free of all unnecessary comforts and material attachments. He sought to understand what it meant to take hold of life on a daily basis and experience what it means to be truly alive without any of the conveniences that we take for granted. The “it” that Thoreau refers to is life. He comes to the conclusion that men in reality have no understanding of what “life” is really about or what it is to really live. In stating that men are “in a strange uncertainty about it…”, Thoreau reiterates his conviction that men lead lives on a day-to-day basis and accept good fortune and misfortune without any comprehension of how to truly experience life. Life is rarely uniform, but has ups and downs and is interspersed with evil and good. This uncertainty about our daily lives can lead men to question their circumstances. Depending on their state of mind and their convictions, men attempt to rationalize these uncertainties. Thoreau states that although men

Jean Paul Sartre's Existential philosophy posits that is in man, and in man alone, that existence precedes essence. Simply put, Sartre means that man is first, and only subsequently to his “isness” does he become this or that. The implication in Sartre's philosophy is that man must create his own essence: it is in being thrown into the world through consciounsess intent, loving, struggling, experiencing and being in the world that man is alllowed to define itself. Yet, the definition always remains open ended: we cannot say that a human is definitively this or that before its death and indeed, it is the ultimate nothingness of death that being is defined. The concepts that Sartre examines in Being and Nothingness

Therefore, the Myth of Sisyphus of Camus states that the only serious problem of philosophy is suicide, meaning that, he believed that suicide admits the fact that life is not worth living, in other words meaningless. And so, he posed a question by asking, why, do people not commit suicide? Thereby, making his, description of absurdity to come into play or existence. Camus posed that people are not logical in the act of killing themselves, instead, they do believe in the absurdity of their own lives as an individual.

Albert Camus is considered one of the greatest existentialist writers of all time. However, although he was considered an existentialist writer, Camus never labeled himself as an existentialist. “No, I am not an existentialist”  (Albert Camus: Lyrical and Critical Essays, Vintage (1970)) Camus rejected in an 1945 interview, however in some of his literary works, some find that his writings are one of a true existentialistic thinker. Although many contrast these thoughts and believe that Camus was anything but a thinker of this philosophy, Camus is one of the main authors that people turn to research and read to understand the thinking of existentialism. One of his most famous books, The Plague, illustrates the need for a human to become an

There are many important and significant factors in a human being’s life. Without those elements, life stays incomplete. For instance, food, recreation, hobby, fun, and emotions are fundamentals of a normal life. One of those elements is every day talk. Everyday talk is the process in which people interact with each other and communicate their points of views (Tedpower, n.d.). This is a way for them to stay in contact with each other. This is important because human beings cannot live alone. They are social animals by the nature, which means at every point of their lives they need someone to talk to or communicate. If a person stays alone for a long time, he starts being depressed and frustrated which can lead to many odd behavioral traits. People who talk to each other or have a decent conversation with each other can be friends, family, colleagues, siblings, sub-ordinates, employers, or strangers.

The existentialist is one who is concerned only with that intense moment of awareness with only his senses at his disposal, never looking to the future – the most living awareness. McCandles, the protagonist, in Into the Wild has come to the realization that existence is already being dead and accepting the fact that life is absurd and marvelous. He embraced the sublime absurdity of existence by renouncing the language games society plays. What is so enticing about the existentialist is that he is not concerned with the pressure of appearances and small talk which society employs to lie about what they think and feel. Existentialism is accepting the inevitability of death and living life for the moment without entertaining hope or falsities that distract one from living and accepting truth. The existentialist sees the simplicity in life and the absurdity of complicating it with pretences and lies, the existentialist is a naked man, he is one who becomes one with the rest of creation in accepting his fate on this earth and not hoping for anything more – he simply exists.

“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything—anger, guilt, or possessions—we cannot be free” by Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh. As humans, we do not always find the will to let go of the things that doesn’t serves us. Finding the will to trust and let go of what no longer serves a purpose in life such as anxieties, fears, old emotion, and baggage can drag one down thus preventing happiness to occur. When you let go, you make room for better things – things that are more suited for your life now. When you learn to let go, you live with greater ease. Freewill is important to human existence and thought. Laws and guidelines are set out as a suggestion on how to lead life.

The Merriam – Webster Dictionary defines existentialism as a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad (Merriam, 2011). In other words, an existentialist believes that our natures are the natures we make for ourselves, the meaning of our existence is that we just exist and there may or may not be a meaning for the existence, and we have to individually decide what is right or wrong and good or bad for ourselves. No one can answer any of those things for us. A good

Albert Camus is a famous writer who discusses a wide variety of topics in his works. His account of the myth of Sisyphus touches on a topic that most writers are either afraid of or unwilling to talk about. This is the issue of suicide and how to deal with it as an individual and as a community. The principal point in the story by Camus is the presence of absurdity in our very existence. The presence of life and all living things that we are aware of is an absurdity according to Camus, who questions the plausibility of some people considering suicide to be the best solution to this absurdity. Having an understanding of the elements of nature that make up our world does not mean that it will ever be possible to understand—and fully appreciate—the reasons why our world is as it is. Whether one believes in God and the creation account, in the evolution process or in the Big Bang Theory among others is irrelevant because of the underlying absurdity to all of these scenarios (Camus 3). He writes that it was his intention to find the relationship between suicide and the absurd. This essay by Camus leads the reader to make an assessment of life and arrive at a suitable decision. This paper will provide a further understanding of these thoughts. This paper will show that life is simply meaningless but must be appreciated nonetheless.

Camus emphasizes absurdity and happiness to the readers. For example, in the “The Myth of Sisyphus”, he illustrates his thought on the plight of all human beings. Camus states that Sisyphus is happy. He says that Sisyphus is happy because he accepted his tragedy. Even though in the miserable situation, Sisyphus embraced the absurdity. He tells the reader to create their own meaning of life and accept the absurdity. In addition, Camus stood upon the justice. Especially, he rejected the concept of the death penalty.

For this paper, both movies used to explain Existentialism are adapted from real stories. The first film is Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed and the second is Into the Wild, starring Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless. In Sartre’s definition of existentialism, human existence precedes essence, therefore leading to meaning, purpose and identity. When Chris and Cheryl leave their family, friends and everything else they know from the society, they are attempting to find a meaning and purpose to their lives.