History and Context of Journalism - lecture/seminar three;

Existentialism - Heidegger and Sartre;

Nihilism is the idea that there is no point to anything; there is no god and no order in life. Existentialists take this idea further – what do you do if there is no point? Make choices because we have the freedom to do so. 

Nietzsche;

‘God is dead’, by this he means that there is no longer any certainty and we are all faced with a crisis – we need something to sustain us. This crisis is in fact not a problem as it means we have freedom. Nietzsche believed we have our own morals and that human nature is not universal. This opposes the position of natural rights (Locke) and credits Fanon’s violence. His idea of the Ubermensch overcomes what defines us as humans and renounces it. 

Heidegger;

Being and time was highly influential and highlighted Heidegger's interest in what is means to exist and the problems of human life. Before we know this we must investigate the nature of being as such and to do this we must question the nature of being. This he calls Dasein and is in all of us.

Heidegger directs his philosophy against Descartes. Cartesian dualism is something that makes philosophy impossible and understanding ourselves impossible. How do we get out of our minds to know the world in itself? (skeptics like Hume doubted we could ever know the world.)

In place of consciousness and subjectivity, Heidegger talks of Dasein. Existence is in our engagement in the world. Dualism is absurd - for Dasein to exist it must exist in the world. Therefore wouldn’t exist without the world.

Das man self – the inauthentic self – is a social contrast of the self, based on facticity rather than the potential of the choices there is to be made. Existence is possibilities and choices. The inauthentic self is turning existence into an object by no making a choice.

Facticity – events that bought you to this place. We are thrown into the world ‘throwness’ and where we end up is pure luck. It is the choices we are faced with that determine our existence. In existentialism the future is most important and living by past events is denying the freedom we have to choose, making you inauthentic. The past is irrelevant.

Transcendence = the reaction we have to facticity. 

Sartre;

Sartre believed that existence precedes essence; we create our own purpose. There is no guiding spirit, no teleological driving force. Stuff happens without reason; life is ridiculous and absurd.

The life of a person is not determined in advance by moral laws or by god, the only thing that we cannot escape is the need to choose. The possibility of recreating oneself is frightening – people try to avoid this freedom. This is bad faith.

The alternative is to take responsibility for your actions and be defined by your choices. The next choice you make could recreate you.

For Sartre, humanity is;

ABANDONMENT; god is dead – there are no divine set of rules to follow; we are alone and there is no one to guide us.

ANGUISH; humans are fundamentally free ‘ condemned to be free.’ We are responsible for everything we are, no excuses.

DISPAIR; the realisation that the world may prevent us from getting what we want, but we still have the choice of how we react to the setback. We are the totality of what we do.

Bad faith;
We are radically free - we have no obligation. People are making a metaphysical mistake - turning themselves into an object.

The moral ascent in Kierkegaard;

Kierkegaard’s moral system is similar to Schopenhauer in many ways;

-          They have a pessimistic view human kind’s ethical condition.

-          They have spiritual career which leads to renunciation.

But Kierkegaard’s ideas evolve against a background of protestant Christianity. Schopenhauer’s are built on aesthetic metaphysics. He believed that renunciation is the high point of the ethical life and is only a preliminary to an ultimate leap of faith.

Kierkegaard aim to put the individual in full possession of his own personality as a unique creature of god. 

The ethical;

An aesthetic person is governed by his feelngs and is blind to spiritual values. He is portrayed as one of two protagonists. He is cultured, law abiding popular in society and not without consideration for others.

The aesthetic person is distinguished from serious moral agent – he avoids anything that limits their pursuit of what is immediately attractive.

Kierkegaard believes he aesthetic person is deluded when he thinks he was free, really he is limited. He also believes this person is in despair – no hope of anything other than his present life, ‘they pawn themselves to the world.’

Kierkegaard believed the first step to a cure is realization. The aesthetic person will be faced with the choice of abandoning himself to despair or moving upward by committing to an ethical existence.

Kierkegaard attaches great importance to the concept of self. In the aesthetic stage the self is undeveloped and undifferentiated. To enter the ethical stage is to undertake the formation of ones true ‘self’ – self is a freely chosen character. It is a duty.