Existentialism

Existentialism is a philosophical movement that views human existence as having a set of underlying themes and characteristics, such as anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death, and consciousness of existing, that are primary and that cannot be reduced to or explained by a natural-scientific approach or any approach that attempts to detach itself from or rise above these underlying themes. It conceives of Being itself as something that can only be understood through and in relation to these basic characteristics of human existence. For existentialism, human beings can be understood only from the inside, in terms of their lived and experienced reality and dilemmas, not from the outside, in terms of a biological, psychological, or other scientific theory of human nature. It emphasizes action, freedom, and decision as fundamental to human existence and is fundamentally opposed to the rationalist tradition and to positivism. That is, it argues against definitions of human beings either as primarily rational, knowing beings who relate to reality primarily as an object of knowledge or whose action can or ought to be regulated by rational principles, or as beings who can be defined in terms of their behavior as it looks to or is studied by others. More generally it rejects all of the Western rationalist definitions of Being in terms of a rational principle or essence or as the most general feature that all existing things share in common. Existentialism tends to view human beings as subjects in an indifferent, often ambiguous, and "absurd" universe in which meaning is not provided by either the natural order or God but rather can be created, however provisionally and unstably, by human beings' actions and interpretations.

Existentialism in popular culture

The burlesque existentialist is a stock character of the popular imagination, dressed in black and uttering gnomic assertions about life and the universe.

Related Topics:
Burlesque - Stock character

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Film

Existentialist films deal with the concepts of existentialism that are familiar to the average person, such as free will, personal identity, individualism, responsibility, mind vs reality, and what really matters.

Related Topics:
Free will - Personal identity - Individualism - Responsibility

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The 2004 film I ? Huckabees (directed by David O. Russell) prominently features existentialism in its storyline. Though the philosophical conflict is between the so-called existential detectives (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) and the French nihilist detective (Isabelle Huppert), the film's resolution, focusing on the interplay between different aspects of existence, resembles the existentialism described by Sartre and others.

Related Topics:
2004 - I ? Huckabees - David O. Russell - Dustin Hoffman - Lily Tomlin - French - Nihilist - Isabelle Huppert

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Richard Linklater's Waking Life (2001) is a surreal exploration of existential questions. The protagonist wanders through levels of his subconscious, searching for meaning within Life, Death and dreams, collecting along his way many different perspectives. Existential Philosophy is explicitly addressed, and is connected with scientific fields such as quantum physics, psychology, and evolutionary theory.

Related Topics:
Waking Life - 2001

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The 1999 film American Beauty contains the primary themes of existentialism. Kevin Spacey's protagonist experiences the heightened anxiety and alienation consequent to sudden self-awareness. Meanwhile, his wife 'plays the game,' tries to do what's 'expected'--but the world is indifferent to her game. Spacey begins following his passions, instead of the morality and duties of the herd, but, after almost doing something completely socially unacceptable; (paraphrasing Nietzsche) he retreats to the cage he escaped. The film concludes violently, an example of Camus's "Absurd".

Related Topics:
1999 - American Beauty - Kevin Spacey

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The movie City Slickers (1991) has a profound existential moment: Jack Palance's character, Curly, says Life is about this: One Thing. This is Kierkegaard's idea that I could live and die for, in a simple leather-gloved finger. It's for each of us to find our passion, our One Thing. Billy Crystal's character, Mitch, finds his as he nearly drowns in a rain-swollen river. He is saved, returns to his family, and embarks on a more meaningful, purposeful life.

Related Topics:
City Slickers - 1991 - Jack Palance - Billy Crystal

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Tony Hancock's 1961 film The Rebel mocks Parisian intellectual society in general and the pretensions of the English lower middle class in particular.

Related Topics:
Tony Hancock - 1961 - The Rebel

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Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, depicts an existentialist way of perceiving our daily lives in a clever and humorous way, cf. Camus's essay The Myth of Sisyphus.

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Harold and Maude (1971), with Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, et al.

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The Graduate (1967), with Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, et al.

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Cube, Vincenzo Natali's 1997 independent cinema masterpiece sets its cast in a mysterious cube, which goes unaccounted in its genesis, and their subsequent placement therein.

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Suna no onna, Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1964 film in which a couple lives in a sand dune, which is perpetually caving in, as they continue to expel the loose grains.

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Humour

Existentialism was parodied in Paul Jennings's theory of resistentialism.

Related Topics:
Parodied - Paul Jennings - Resistentialism

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