Existentialism and the existential approach in the philosophy of life

Updated July 21, 2021 679 Author: Dmitry Petrov
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. Existentialism is usually associated with a gloomy worldview: life is decay, there is no meaning in it, a person is tragically alone.

Existential philosophy reflected and determined the mood of the 20th century in the West, when humanistic ideas about the greatness of man were greatly shaken.

Two world wars, the invention of weapons of mass destruction, scientific and technological progress that turns daring fantastic ideas into reality - all this became a trigger for the existential perception of life.

Pronunciation and meaning of the word "existential"

For the Russian language, the word existentialism is an unpronounceable tongue twister. Many people pronounce it incorrectly, adding an extra syllable - “existentialism”. To correctly use all forms of this word, you need to understand its origin.

Existentialism is derived from the Latin word existence (existentia) - existence.

The difficulty is that there is no synonym for it in the Russian language, so in the simplest words, existentialism is a philosophy of existence, and existential is related to existence.

General properties and connections

The category in Greek means “accusation”, “trial”, “denunciation”, revealing the essence in its true form. Categories are “naming words” that denote the essence of a thing. The category is understood by M. Heidegger as a defining name in which the essence is revealed in its true being. This explanatory definition of being appears as a defining “silent name.” This conceptual nature, in turn, is unexplored and is present in all the sayings with which we are familiar. If the categories are not expressed in sayings, then they carry with them every saying, therefore, there is a basis for every judgment.

M. Heidegger is a representative of existentialist philosophy of the mid-20th century. He was one of the "spiritual gurus" of National Socialist ideology in Germany. It was he who introduced the concept of “existential”.

The existential and categorical are recognized by the philosopher as two fundamental units of ontology, on the basis of which the ability to form two possible types is realized: on the basis of existential-phenomenological analysis and categorical analysis.

The existential is a specific alternative to the category, just as the category is an alternative to the existential. However, they are comparable in the basic outline of their being.

Existentialism is...

Existentialism is a direction in which the subject of study is the existence of a person with his ordinary problems, tragedies, and emotions.

The bias towards the tragedy of human existence makes existentialism a “ philosophy of despair .” This is one of the most popular movements in Western philosophy of the 20th century.

The polyphony of existentialists is extremely heterogeneous and diverse, but all are united by an interest in the main themes - human existence, freedom, choice, death, the meaning of life.

“A man died, in front of the gates of heaven he sees the Apostle Peter and said to him: “Excuse me, Apostle, I have one question for you.” I lived for a long time, but I still didn’t understand what was the meaning of my life? - Do you really want to know this? - Very! — Do you remember in 1975 you were traveling on the Vorkuta-Moscow train? - Well... I think I remember. — You and your fellow traveler were still talking. - There was something like that... - And then you and he went to celebrate your acquaintance in the dining car. “Perhaps...” There was a red-haired woman sitting at the next table. - Yes, yes, there was something like that... - She asked you to pass her the salt. - Exactly! I remembered, I asked him to pass the salt shaker! “And you gave her the salt.” - Yes, yes, I did. - Well, here it is...

*Bearded existential Soviet joke

Existentialism formed as a separate philosophical movement before the First World War and existed until the mid-1960s, going through all the disasters of the 20th century.

But the origins of this philosophy must be sought in the 19th century - in the works of F. M. Dostoevsky, the ideas of F. Nietzsche, the teachings of the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard, who is called the founder of existentialism.

*Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855)

It was Kierkegaard who derived the concept of existence, which became the central category of existential philosophy.

For the first time in the history of philosophy, the Dane poses the question bluntly - why, in fact, philosophers are concerned with anything - the essence of being, the primacy of matter, God, the knowability of the world, universals, will and other vague concepts - but turn their nose up at the pressing problems of the common man with his experiences, problems, fears?

Kierkegaard turned philosophy towards ordinary people. From now on, it should help a person make an internal choice, feel for his Self, and find an idea worth living for.

It is not surprising that existential questions are often heard in works of fiction. Perhaps this philosophical direction is reflected in literary creativity .

F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Rainer Maria Rilke, Alberto Moravia - this is not a complete list of writers who raise existential themes in their works.

*Albert Camus about life

Most people live in conditions of inauthentic existence; they go with the flow, without thinking why and where. “Be like everyone else” is the motto of such a life.

In contrast, Kierkegaard puts true existence - existence , life, where a person makes a conscious choice, controls his destiny, finds himself and his calling.

Thus, the goal of human life is existence, finding oneself. Existential truth is not something that is known, but something that is experienced by each person individually.

Why are we experiencing an existential crisis?

Most often this happens when we begin to reflect on our purpose in life. Due to regular routines and monotonous work environment, we become dissatisfied with our lives and start wondering why we keep working so much? Where is all this going? What do I get out of life after all this work?

This raises many significant and profound questions, such as:

- What is life? – What is my goal? – Why do I exist?

Existential thoughts begin to arise and the person ponders all sorts of personal questions.

What is a sense of life? Why live on? These thoughts can be explained by Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy explains that people are driven by five basic needs. These are psychology, safety, love, respect and self-realization. In the last part, self-actualization is the existential crisis part of discovering your purpose.

Signs You're Currently Experiencing an Existential Crisis

Unfortunately, experiencing an existential crisis can bring up unpleasant feelings. This can make you feel lost and depressed. Your general mood becomes melancholic.

People experiencing an existential crisis feel like they no longer know who they are. They feel powerless and struggle to find motivation. It became a global phenomenon involving record numbers of people.

You feel empty

This can often come from feeling unimportant. The universe is so big that it's easy to feel small.

This creates insecurity within us. When we are born and experience the world at a young age, we enjoy the pleasures and adventures that the universe has to offer.

We just love to climb trees and run through fields.

It's only when we get older and take on responsibility that we begin to question everything.

Learning to cope with the experience of an existential crisis will ultimately help us grow, but for now it is very difficult.

We stop having fun and become more objective about how we spend our time and how we fit into the world.

You feel powerless

When we are young, there is a feeling that the Universe is always working for us, and not against us. The Universe is our friend and mentor.

As we get older, we face new challenges and financial responsibilities, and life becomes more complex. There is more pressure from society and from people to do something with our lives.

The playful relationship with the universe has ended and it begins to seem like it is working against us. We begin to feel that something is being imposed on us. Other people now control our time and our lives.

This makes us feel a strong sense of powerlessness. It's no longer about the entertainment, but how we fit into the experience.

Is all this really worth it? Many people going through an existential crisis don’t feel like this is the case.

You feel completely different from others

Some people do not suffer from existential thinking and can easily live their lives. No matter what they are going through, they can easily focus on their tasks.

However, when you are in the midst of an existential crisis, it takes over your entire life. You constantly feel different. You constantly ponder the existence and immensity of everything.

Because it is such a difficult experience, you are left with a constant feeling of emptiness and powerlessness. It becomes part of your daily emotional makeup. You always feel completely different from others.

4. Your past achievements seem meaningless.

Experiencing a real threat tends to put your life in quite a harsh perspective.

In the grand scheme of the Universe, any big things we achieve in our lives tend to become insignificant and small.

We think, “What did I really do that made a difference in the world?” Many people think so. However, those experiencing an existential crisis feel even worse because they see less meaning in everything.

The problem is that we compare our achievements to the greatness of the Universe. How can you compete with something incomprehensible?

Atheistic and religious existentialism

There are two currents within the philosophy of existentialism , although this division is very conditional:

1. Atheistic movement, whose main ideologists were Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus.
   “When I choose myself, I choose humanity.” *AND. -P. Sartre

   This direction is characterized by the idea of ​​“forsakenness” of a person who follows a freely chosen path of development, regardless of external circumstances.

   But by choosing the path of responsibility for oneself, a person takes responsibility for all of humanity onto his shoulders, like God. Hence the feeling of an unbearable burden, the awareness of freedom as a nightmare.

   “God is dead,” Nietzsche declared, but now his role is filled by man. The starting point of existential philosophy is Dostoevsky’s phrase: “If there is no God, then everything is permitted.”

   Faith for atheistic existentialists is just a way to hide from the terrifying reality in which each of us is sentenced to death from birth. The end of existence is death.

2. Religious movement presented by Nikolai Berdyaev, Karl Jaspers, Martin Buber, Gabriel Marcel.
   Religious existentialists do not see faith as a way to escape reality.

   Faith for them is a test, an attempt to understand the essence of man, to discover a personal God with whom they can have an endless internal conversation.

   Man is a co-creator with God. He himself creates his life and the world around him.

   
   Faith is not blindly following rituals and studying scriptures. Faith is a truth that cannot be known, but can be lived, proving its validity with your life.

How to Overcome an Existential Crisis?

If you understand that you are overtaken by an existential crisis, how to overcome it is the second thought that visits an intelligent person. There are four ways to get out of an existential crisis:

1. You can close this topic for yourself, ban the thought of the futility of existence, and isolate yourself from disturbing thoughts.

2. Turn off critical thinking by fixing yourself on rules and beliefs (moral, religious, social). You can choose those that suit you.

3. Sometimes distraction works. In this case, people immerse themselves in entertainment, travel, and focus their attention on different tasks. This could be a hobby, gambling, extreme sports.

4. Creative people channel their despair and fear into something constructive.

Overcoming an existential crisis is possible when a person realizes that he can control his life. He no longer wants to do what is prescribed and decided in advance. He gains the freedom he sought and is ready to accept responsibility for it. Setting tasks for himself, relying on intuition, evaluates the results. Such a crisis means growing up and maturing of the individual.

Control your thoughts

Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Do everything to put meaning into your life: do what you love, become a volunteer, or simply show compassion for your neighbor.

Gratitude journal

To overcome negative feelings, a person can write down in a diary all the things for which he is grateful (his talents, achievements, family, etc.)

Know yourself

Self-knowledge can also help a person. If it is difficult for him, he can ask those close to him to identify his positive qualities, what positive impact he has had on their lives, what his strongest, most wonderful qualities are.

Don't try to find all the answers at once

This doesn't mean you shouldn't look for them, but some questions won't have answers. A person can try to break global questions into smaller answers. Then work towards being satisfied with learning the answers to smaller questions. They also make up the picture as a whole.

Practices for getting rid of feelings of meaninglessness

What could be worse than an internal emptiness growing every day? A person has nothing to cling to in order to somehow justify his still ongoing life.

1. Allow yourself to completely immerse yourself in a state of helplessness , awareness of the meaninglessness of existence. You are the most unfortunate person. There will be no sympathy.
2. Concentrate on the last phrase, let it be the background of all thoughts. Tested: when you realize this 100%, you will want to do something. And some meaning will appear.
3. Try to find inspiration in some areas . Creativity, volunteer help, etc.
4. Just wait . Some argue that everything passes, and this condition will pass.
5. Concentrate on specific actions , skipping global goals.
6. Choose your life credo and live by it , without fear or reproach. You can find it with the help of philosophy, religious movements, biographies of the lives of some people you respect (however, you should not copy them completely. These people became famous because they went their own, unique path).
7. Seek help from a psychologist or psychotherapist. The advice is of course the most obvious, but sometimes you really need a disinterested third party.

Problems of existentialism

Existentialism in philosophy is a reaction to the crisis of rationalism (what is that?).

Existence cannot be dissected by rationalistic methods of analysis, sorted into shelves and structured.

Human existence is absurd and defies logic. A person himself can only see the light in borderline situations, when consciousness turns off and the true essence of the personality is revealed.

The main problems of interest to existentialists:

1. The uniqueness of the human personality and its existence. Each of us experiences everything in our own way, therefore we are not able to fully understand the other.
2. Scientific and technological progress kills the importance of man.
3. The gap between the inner and outer world.
4. Alienation of a person from society.
5. Human “abandonment”, global loneliness, the meaninglessness of life.

6. Finding yourself and your place in life, the problem of internal choice.
7. The problem of freedom and responsibility for one's life.

Man and self-knowledge

Since the essence of a person can be genuine and insincere, there are some rules and guidelines that help a person to approach the right way of life and understand his existentiality.

However, first of all, it is worth mentioning the obstacles that a person faces along this path. Existentialists believe that one of the factors that predetermines the fate and life of a person is his insufficiency. A person always depends on something. Sometimes on another person (boss, breadwinner or lover), sometimes on a group of people or the state.

The religious branch of existentialism emphasizes man's dependence on God and religion, on these moral and ethical principles. Many philosophers have attributed to God the ability to have unlimited control over human life and destiny and to dispose of it according to His supreme discretion. Some believed that although a person depends on God, can make some life decisions on his own, make some decisions within the framework of what is permissible, he still, in fact, depends on God and higher powers.

The atheistic branch, on the other hand, attributes to man a thirst for power, a desire to suppress the freedom of another or to ease the suppression of his own freedom. Philosophers in this field believed that each of us, motivated by fear for our lives and the desire to protect ourselves, strives to occupy the most advantageous position in society. Typically this position has some power. A person in a position of power enjoys greater privileges and protection than other people. This makes his life safer and more comfortable. To achieve this goal, each person strives to climb higher on the social ladder. In this desire for social progress, existentialist philosophers of the atheistic branch see the main reason for human slavery in the world.

Existentialists have a special view of the existence of animals. In their opinion, animals are inseparable from their existence, because they do not need to know it, it is already known to them. This is because animals do not have rational thought, do not "get in the way" of them, and do not separate them from their sensory perceived being. Animals do not need to sharpen their senses, try to make them more subtle and sensitive, they already feel the world as it really is, and are aware of all its unique complexity and beauty.

However, existentialists believed that there were ways in which people could understand and approach their existence.

Existentialists considered feelings to be the most important way of knowing oneself, and therefore intuition can be called the most important “weapon” for knowing one’s existence. Each of us must develop it and strive for its complete mastery. Intuition as “the touch of sensory cognition in rational cognition” can help us understand the entire essence of our being, unravel all its secrets and riddles and, merging into a single whole with our existence, feel all the beauty of the world in which we live.

In existentialism, it is believed that intensification of feelings occurs in a critical, extreme situation. For this reason, a person should not avoid unpleasant stressful situations. He can extract important new information from them and make interesting conclusions and discoveries. Living through an ambiguous, borderline situation, a person receives new ideas and thoughts and comes closer to understanding his existence and the world as a whole.

Existential psychology

Existentialism came from philosophy to the field of psychology thanks to the works of the German thinker and psychologist Karl Jaspers and the Swiss doctor Ludwig Binswanger, who, in fact, challenged the Freudian model of analysis, declaring the unique existence of each individual.

Existential psychology is built on the philosophical concepts of life and death, loneliness and the meaning of existence.

The names of many famous psychologists are associated with existential psychoanalysis. Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, Alfried Langle, Irvin Yalom - each of them developed their own original methods in the vein of existentialism.

German psychologist Erich Fromm in 1955 in his work “A Healthy Society” writes that a person will never be able to experience the fullness of life by satisfying only his basic physiological needs.

*Erich Fromm (1900–1980)

Fromm derives a formula of five existential needs , satisfying which a person moves along the path of self-improvement.

1. Communication, establishing connections, thanks to which the feeling of loneliness is dulled.
2. Transcendence is overcoming oneself, leaving the comfort zone.
3. Rootedness is the definition of one’s place in the world, a reliable rear that gives a feeling of security.
4. Self-identity is the acceptance of one’s individuality.
5. System of values.

Heidegger's concept of presence

Presence, “dasein,” is a special way of being that occurs through understanding the relationship to one’s being and to oneself. The concept of presence is directly determined by the logos of being. In this relationship between presence and being, presence is a kind of disembodiment. In this openness, presence itself will be open, so it should be understood that in the openness of presence, being as such is open.

Thus, openness is a special kind of being, an elementary interpretation of presence.

The philosopher does not make a categorical distinction between the phenomenal and the existential, so we can only regard them as two extremes of the same being.