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 since 1970

Although postmodernist thought became the focus of intellectuals in the 1970s and thereafter (whether or not the movement is strong today, and what, if anything, has replaced it, still is debated), much postmodern writing is existential--unsurprising, since postmodernism evolved from the thought of Nietzsche and Heidegger (two of the greatest existential philosophers), despite Heidegger's rejecting the existentialist label.

Related Topics:
Postmodernist - 1970s

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One should, however, not confuse postmodernism with existentialism. Thematically postmodern films such as The Matrix posit the idea of simulacrum, dealing with reality and appearance, and of how the latter renders the former indistinguishable, if the artificial can sufficiently mimic the real. Alternatively, existential cinema deals more with the themes of:

Related Topics:
The Matrix - Simulacrum

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• Retaining authenticity in an apathetic, mechanical world, something post-modernism would staunchly reject--as authenticity is related to a non-existent "reality".
• The consciousness of death; e.g. Heidegger's 'being towards death'--exemplified in Ingmar Bergman's film "The Seventh Seal" (1957).
• The feelings of alienation and loneliness consequent to being unique in a world of many, or, in Nietzsche's phrase, "herd-animals".
• The concept Alltägliche selbstsein (Everyday-ness) which Heidegger explicated in his book Sein und Zeit (1927), (English translation Being and Time).

Since 1970, much cultural activity in art, cinema, and literature contains postmodern and existential elements, which, ironically, would support the postmodern thesis of "borderlessness between concepts". Films such as Fight Club, by (Palahniuk), and books such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by (Dick), and ', by (Michael Szymczyk) all distort the line between reality and appearance while simultaneously espousing strong existential themes.

Related Topics:
1970 - Fight Club - Palahniuk - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Dick - Michael Szymczyk)

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In cinema, postmodern editing techniques (showing the displacement, discontinuity, and temporal perspective of postmodernism) can go hand-in-hand with a purely existential story, thus synthesizing technique and function to give meaning. Moreover, this has created the neologism "Neo-Existentialism"--combining postmodernism's epistemology with the reflective ontological belief of existentialism.

Related Topics:
Neo-Existentialism - Ontological

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