Existentialism: Crash Course Philosophy #16
Summary
TLDR本视频探讨了存在主义哲学,它挑战了传统关于人生意义的观点。传统上,人们认为人生有既定的目的或本质,但存在主义者如萨特认为,人首先存在,然后通过自己的选择来定义自己的本质。存在主义的核心是“存在先于本质”,意味着人生没有预设的目的,而是需要个体去创造和赋予意义。视频中通过萨特的例子,解释了如何在一个看似无意义的世界中寻找个人意义,并强调了个体自由的重要性。存在主义认为,尽管世界可能没有固有的意义,但人们可以通过自己的选择来赋予它意义。
Takeaways
- 🤔 存在主义认为,生活的意义来自于个人的选择和生活方式,而非先天赋予。
- 📚 古希腊哲学家如柏拉图和亚里士多德认为万物都有本质,人的本质在出生前就已存在。
- 🛠️ 存在主义的口号是“存在先于本质”,意味着人首先存在,然后自己决定成为什么样的人。
- 🚫 尼采拥抱虚无主义,认为生活本质上是无意义的。
- 🙏 有神论存在主义者如克尔凯郭尔否认有任何目的论,即上帝创造世界或我们时没有特定目的。
- 🌍 存在主义认为,我们、我们的世界和我们的行动缺乏任何真正的、固有的重要性,这是“荒诞”的概念。
- 🆓 萨特认为,我们拥有令人震惊的自由,因为没有行动的指导方针,我们必须自己设计道德准则。
- 💡 萨特提出“真实生活”的概念,即接受自由的全部重量,并认识到生活的意义是由自己赋予的。
- 👦 萨特通过一个学生面临艰难选择的故事来阐释他的观点,强调没有人能为个人的选择提供真正的答案。
- 🌐 存在主义认为,如果世界本质上没有目的,个人可以选择赋予它任何想要的目的。
- 🌟 尽管存在主义被一些人视为悲观,但其他人可能认为它提供了一种令人振奋的世界观。
Q & A
什么是存在主义?
-存在主义是一种哲学思想,它认为人的存在先于本质,即人出生时没有预设的目的或本质,而是需要通过自己的选择和生活方式来确定自己是谁。存在主义者认为世界和生活本身没有固有的意义,需要个体去赋予。
什么是本质主义?
-本质主义是古希腊哲学家柏拉图和亚里士多德提出的观点,认为一切事物都有其本质属性,这些属性是事物成为其自身的基础。对于人来说,本质主义认为人的本质在我们出生前就存在,我们生来就带有某种目的或本质。
尼采的虚无主义与存在主义有何关联?
-尼采的虚无主义认为生活本质上是没有意义的。这为后来的存在主义思想提供了基础,存在主义者认为由于生活没有预设的意义,个体必须自己创造生活的意义。
萨特是如何定义“存在先于本质”的?
-萨特认为“存在先于本质”意味着我们的出生和存在首先发生,然后每个人需要决定自己是谁。我们通过自己的选择和生活方式来创造自己的本质,而不是遵循任何预设的路径或目的。
什么是“荒诞”?存在主义者如何理解它?
-在存在主义中,“荒诞”是一个技术术语,用来描述在一个没有答案的世界中寻找答案的过程。存在主义者认为,我们是寻求意义的生物,但却被遗弃在一个充满无意义的宇宙中。尽管如此,我们仍然继续寻求意义,这就是荒诞的定义。
萨特所说的“自由的重负”是什么意思?
-萨特认为我们拥有令人震惊的自由度。如果没有行动的指导原则,我们每个人都必须为自己设计道德准则,发明一种生活方式。他认为我们是“被判定为自由的”,这是一种他发现相当可怕的命运。
什么是“真实性”?萨特如何解释它?
-萨特所说的“真实性”是指一个人必须接受自由的全部重量,并在荒诞的光照下生活。一个人必须认识到,他的生活中有任何意义,都是由他自己赋予的。如果一个人只是随波逐流,遵循别人设定的路径,那么他就处于萨特所说的“坏信念”状态。
萨特是如何通过一个学生的故事来解释存在主义的?
-萨特通过一个面临艰难选择的学生的故事来解释存在主义。这位年轻人在战争期间可以选择参军,为他认为正确的事业而战,但他也有一个年迈的母亲需要照顾。这个故事展示了没有人能够为这个年轻人提供答案,他必须自己做出选择,这个选择必须是真实的,由他自己选择接受的价值观决定。
存在主义是否等同于无神论?
-不是的。虽然许多存在主义者是无神论者,但也有些是信仰神的存在主义者,比如克尔凯郭尔。存在主义者否认的是任何形式的目的论,即他们拒绝接受上帝创造宇宙、世界或我们时有任何特定目的的观点。
存在主义如何解释个体在世界中的角色和目的?
-存在主义认为,个体在世界中的角色和目的是由自己创造的。由于世界本质上没有目的,个体可以选择赋予它任何自己想要的目的。这意味着没有人可以告诉你,如果你没有孩子、没有追求有利可图的职业道路或达到父母的期望,你的生活就没有价值。
存在主义如何看待世界中的正义和秩序?
-存在主义认为,如果世界要有我们大多数人所珍视的东西,比如正义和秩序,我们必须自己去创造它们。因为否则,这些东西就不会存在。
Outlines
🤔 存在主义与生命意义的探索
本段介绍了存在主义哲学的基本概念,探讨了人们如何为生活寻找意义。从宗教、社会正义、教育到艺术表达,人们通过不同的方式寻求生活的意义。存在主义者认为,生活的意义可以由个体自己创造,但同时也可以是毫无意义的。文中提到了古希腊哲学家柏拉图和亚里士多德的本质论,即一切事物都有其本质属性,这些属性定义了事物本身。然而,19世纪末的哲学家如尼采开始质疑人类是否拥有任何固有的本质或目的。20世纪中叶,萨特提出了存在先于本质的观点,强调个体必须通过自己的选择来定义自己的本质。存在主义认为,由于没有预设的目的,人类生活在一个缺乏固有重要性的宇宙中,这就是所谓的'荒诞'。存在主义者认为,在一个没有答案的世界中寻找答案,这就是荒诞的实质。萨特直面了无意义,并探讨了存在主义中最痛苦的方面之一:我们拥有的惊人自由。如果没有行为准则,我们就必须为自己设计道德准则。萨特认为,我们是“被判自由”的,这是一种他发现相当可怕的命运。
🛠 面对荒诞,选择与自由的重量
这段内容深入讨论了萨特的存在主义哲学,特别是关于自由和选择的观点。萨特认为,所有的权威都是虚假的,包括父母、教会或政府,因为他们和你一样,没有答案,必须自己找出如何生活。因此,最好的生活方式是活得真实,即接受荒诞的全重,认识到你生命中的任何意义都是由你自己赋予的。如果你选择只是随波逐流,跟随别人设定的道路,那么你就在拒绝荒诞,这就是萨特所说的“坏信念”。通过一个学生面临困难选择的故事,萨特说明了没有人能为这个年轻人提供答案,实际上在他自己选择之前没有答案。没有道德理论能帮助他决定,因为没有别人的建议能引导他做出真正真实的决定。因此,他的选择——无论它是什么——是唯一真正的选择,只要他真实地做出选择,因为它是由他选择接受的价值观决定的。尽管有些人认为存在主义描绘了一个相当凄凉的世界画面,但大多数存在主义者会提醒你,世界和你的生活可以有含义,但只有当你选择赋予它时。如果世界本质上没有目的,你可以选择赋予它任何你想要的目的。这不仅适用于个人层面,也适用于全球层面。如果世界要有我们大多数人所珍视的东西——比如正义和秩序——我们将不得不自己去创造。因为否则,这些东西就不会存在。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡存在主义
💡本质主义
💡尼采
💡萨特
💡荒诞
💡自由
💡真实性
💡坏信念
💡个体主义
💡意义
Highlights
哲学课程探讨了生活的意义,包括宗教、社会正义、教育、艺术表达等。
存在主义哲学家认为,任何事物都可以赋予生活意义,同时也可能不赋予任何意义。
柏拉图和亚里士多德认为万物都有本质属性,这些属性定义了事物。
本质主义认为人的本质在出生前就存在,并且人应该遵循自己的本质。
19世纪末,哲学家开始质疑人类是否具有任何固有的本质或目的。
尼采接受了虚无主义,认为生活本质上是无意义的。
萨特提出“存在先于本质”的观点,认为人出生时没有预设的目的,需要自己找到本质。
存在主义认为,我们没有预定的目的,必须自己选择生活方式来定义自己。
存在主义不是无神论的同义词,有神论者如克尔凯郭尔也是存在主义者。
存在主义者认为世界和我们的行为缺乏真正的、固有的重要性,这被称为“荒谬”。
萨特探讨了存在主义中最痛苦的方面之一:我们拥有的自由是可怕和震惊的。
萨特认为我们“被判定为自由”,必须自己设计道德准则,这是相当可怕的命运。
存在主义认为,没有绝对的规则,没有宇宙正义、公平或秩序。
萨特通过一个关于学生面临艰难选择的故事来解释这些观点。
萨特认为,没有人能为这个年轻人的选择提供答案,他必须自己做出真正的选择。
存在主义认为,世界和生活可以有你选择赋予的意义。
如果世界本质上没有目的,你可以选择赋予它任何你想要的目的。
存在主义认为,如果世界要有我们所珍视的东西,如正义和秩序,我们必须自己去创造。
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Transcripts
Crash Course Philosophy is brought to you by Squarespace.
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What gives your life meaning? God? Love? Money? Work?
Fanfiction? Football? Shopping? Sherlock?
You might have your own personal sense of purpose in your life,
or maybe you’re hoping this course will help you find one.
Or you might believe that you were created with a certain essence as a human being, with a purpose given to you by God.
Whatever the case is, no one would fault you for wanting your life to have meaning.
A sense of meaning is something that we all crave – maybe even need.
And as we move out of our unit on the philosophy of religion,
we should spend some time talking about how we understand our lives as being meaningful.
Because when you think about it, a lot of us devote a ton of energy to the task of finding meaning in our lives.
Maybe you find it through religion, or by fighting for social justice, or educating
others, or seeking beauty in artistic expression.
No matter how you do it, there’s a group of philosophers, the existentialists,
who say that any, or all, of these things can give your life meaning.
But at the same time, they say: None of them can.
[Theme Music]
As you know by now, philosophy is about the dialectic:
Someone puts forth an idea, and then someone else responds to it.
Sometimes, the response comes right away. In other cases, it takes thousands of years.
Way back in ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle took it as given that everything has an essence
– a certain set of core properties that are necessary, or essential – for a thing to be what it is.
If those properties were missing, then that thing would be a different thing.
For instance, a knife could have a wooden handle or a metal handle – it really doesn’t matter.
But if it didn’t have a blade, it wouldn’t really be a knife anymore.
The blade is the essential property of the knife, because it gives the knife its defining function.
Now, Plato and Aristotle thought that everything has an essence – including us.
And they believed that our essences exist in us before we’re even born.
So by this thinking, part of what it means to be a good human is to adhere to your essence.
Now, you may or may not know what your essence is,
and you might be great at living up to your essence, or you may be awful at it.
But the important thing is that your essence gives you a purpose.
Because you were born to be a certain thing.
This belief, known as essentialism, was the standard view of the universe all the way up until the late 19th century,
and it’s still accepted by many people today.
But in the late 1800s, some thinkers started to challenge the idea that we are imbued with any essence or purpose.
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, for example,
embraced nihilism, the belief in the ultimate meaningless of life.
But by the mid-20th century, the path had been paved for
French thinker Jean-Paul Sartre to return to the question of essence and ask:
What if we exist first?
What if we’re born without any hard-wired purpose? And then it’s up to us to find our own essences?
Well this became the framework for what we now know as existentialism.
And its mantra is the claim that “existence precedes essence.”
In other words, our existence – our birth – happens first.
Then, it’s up to each of us to determine who we are.
We have to write our own essence, through the way we choose to live.
But we have no actual, predetermined purpose – there’s no set path that we’re supposed to follow.
It’s hard to express how radical this idea was at the time.
Because, for thousands of years, you didn’t have to choose a path, or find your purpose.
God did it for you.
But it’s important to note that existentialism is not synonymous with atheism.
Plenty of existentialists are atheists, but some are theists, like Kierkegaard.
What theistic existentialists deny is any sort of teleology –
that is, they refute the notion that God made the universe, or our world, or us, with any particular purpose in mind.
So, God may exist – but instilling you, or your life, or the cosmos, with meaning
– that’s just not in his job description.
As a result, we are each born into a universe in which we,
and our world, and our actions, lack any real, inherent importance.
This is a fundamental component of existentialism.
And its adherents refer to it as “the absurd.”
You and I think of absurdity as something that’s just silly, or preposterous.
But for existentialists, absurdity is a technical term.
It’s how they describe the search for answers in an answerless world.
We are creatures who need meaning, but we’re abandoned in a universe full of meaninglessness.
So we cry into the wilderness, and get no response.
But we keep crying anyway.
That, for an existentialist, is the definition of absurd.
Since there’s no teleology, the world wasn’t created for a reason, and it doesn’t exist for a reason.
And if there’s no reason for any of this, then there’s also no absolutes to abide by:
There’s no cosmic justice, no fairness, no order, no rules.
Now, existentialism has its roots in late-19th-century thinkers like Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.
But it really came into its own during and after World War II,
as the horrors of the Holocaust led many people to abandon any belief in an ordered world.
And who could blame them?
When Nazis became possible, meaning became much harder to find.
But Sartre faced meaninglessness head-on, and explored one of the most agonizing aspects of existentialism.
Not the world’s lack of meaning. But its terrifying abundance of freedom.
To most of us, freedom sounds pretty great. But Sartre thought that we are painfully, shockingly free.
After all, if there are no guidelines for our actions,
then each of us is forced to design our own moral code, to invent a morality to live by.
Sartre took this to mean that we are “condemned to be free,” a fate that he found to be quite awful.
You might think that there’s some authority you could look to for answers, Sartre said,
but all of the authorities you can think of are fake.
You can do what your parents say, or your church, or your government,
but Sartre said those authorities are really just people like you,
people who don’t have any answers, people who had to figure out for themselves how to live.
So the best thing you can really do, he determined, is to live authentically.
Sartre used this to mean that you have to accept the full weight of your freedom in light of the absurd.
You have to recognize that any meaning your life has, is given to it by you.
And if you decide to just phone it in, and follow a path that someone else has set
– whether it’s your teachers, your government, or your religion –
then you have what he called bad faith, a refusal to accept the absurd.
If you live by bad faith, you’re burying your head in the sand
and pretending that something out there has meaning – meaning that you didn’t give it.
Which brings us to this week’s Flash Philosophy. Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
Sartre explained these ideas through an anecdote about one of his students, who faced a difficult decision.
This young man was at a crossroads in his life.
He could join the military during wartime, and go off to fight for a cause that he believed in.
And he wanted to do this. He thought it was right.
But he also had an elderly mother who was all alone, except for him.
If he went to war, he’d leave her behind. And that seemed wrong.
So he could stay with her, and let others fight for justice. Or he could go off to war,
and leave his mother to herself, and likely never see her again.
The young man felt a sense of duty to both his cause and to his mother, but he could only serve one.
Moreover, if he went to war, he’d be just a very small part of a really big cause.
His contribution probably wouldn’t be great,
but he would be contributing to something that would affect millions of people.
But if he stayed behind, he’d make an enormous difference in just one person’s life.
Thanks Thought Bubble. So, what’s the answer?
Sartre said that the whole point of this young man’s decision was that no one could give him an answer.
In fact, there was no answer, until the man chose one for himself.
No moral theory could help him decide,
because no one else’s advice could lead him to a decision that was truly authentic.
So his choice – no matter what it was – was the only true choice, provided that he made it authentically,
because it was determined by the values he chose to accept.
A lot of people think existentialism paints a pretty bleak picture of the world.
In fact, the French philosopher and novelist Albert Camus went so far as to say that
the literal meaning of life is whatever you’re doing that prevents you from killing yourself.
But most existentialists would remind you that the world, and your life, can have meaning,
but only if you choose to assign it.
If the world is inherently devoid of purpose, you can choose to imbue it with whatever purpose you want.
So, no one can tell you if your life isn’t worth anything if you, say, don’t have children,
or don’t follow a lucrative career path, or achieve whatever standards your parents hold you to.
And this works not just on an individual scale, but on a global one too.
If the world is going to have any of the things most of us value
– like justice and order – we’re going to have to put it there ourselves.
Because, otherwise, those things wouldn’t exist.
So, a worldview that looks bleak to some, may to others seem almost exhilarating.
Today I hope you enjoyed as much as I did learning about essentialism and its response: existentialism.
We talked about Jean-Paul Sartre and his ideas about how to find meaning in a meaningless world.
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