Existentialism: Core Themes

• Core philosophical themes revolve around the rejection of essentialism, embracing immanence, addressing the death of God, confronting nihilism, and the search for meaning.

Rejection of Essentialism

• Traditional philosophy includes Plato's Forms and Aristotle's essences.
• Forms are ideal realities.
• Essences are inherent natures.
• Nietzsche critiqued the traditional philosophy with the "leaf" metaphor, stressing the uniqueness of individual leaves rather than seeing them as copies of a universal Form.
• Nietzsche believed that Forms create illusions, obscuring concrete reality.
• Existentialists like Sartre and Beauvoir applied this rejection by stating that "existence precedes essence."
• This means humans define themselves through actions, not pre-defined nature.
• This challenges the idea of a fixed "human nature."

Embrace of Immanence

• Transcendence refers to meaning derived from "beyond," such as divine authority or abstract ideals.
• Immanence emphasizes the "here and now," focusing on lived experience.
• Nietzsche rejects Platonic idealism and metaphysical abstractions.
• Nietzsche emphasizes concrete experience.
• Nietzsche's quote "sin against the earth" demonstrates the concept of immanence.
• Existentialism reinforces individual freedom and responsibility within the concrete world.
• Facticity and being-in-itself are examples of immanence.

The Death of God

• The "Death of God" is a symbolic concept of the decline of traditional religious and metaphysical frameworks.
• This decline creates a vacuum of meaning and the potential for nihilism.
• Nietzsche saw the Enlightenment as undermining older values.
• Existentialists use the "Death of God" to describe humanity's state without God, or abandonment.
• Cultural relativism challenges the idea of a single truth.

Nihilism and the Search for Meaning

• There is a danger of despair in a world without inherent meaning, creating a nihilistic threat.
• There is a temptation to cling to outdated beliefs, which is a nostalgia for certainty.
• Existentialists emphasize individual freedom to create meaning.
• Sartre and Beauvoir posited being "condemned to be free," meaning people must define their values.
• Nietzsche proposed the creation of new values through the Overman.

Nietzsche's Overman (Übermensch)

• The Overman is the ideal of human potential, which transcends convention and creates own values.
• It embodies self-mastery and creative freedom
• It is independent of historical and cultural constraints.
• The Overman affirms life and creates values.

Nietzsche: Transcendence vs. Immanence

• Nietzsche rejects transcendent ideals like Platonic Forms and traditional morality.
• He focuses on the imminent reality of lived experience
• He regards particulars (individual instances) as more real than universals.

Nietzsche: Three Metamorphoses

• Camel: represents endurance and obedience, accepting societal burdens. This is necessary to understand historical context.
• Lion: embodies rebellion and negation, rejecting traditional values. This is necessary to break free from constraints.
• Child: symbolizes innocence and creativity, creating new values, freedom, and spontaneous affirmation of life.

Nietzsche: Truth as Metaphorization

• Knowledge is shaped by human interpretation rather than being objective.
• Perceptions and concepts are "metaphors" simplifying experience, such as the leaf example, nerve stimulus, image, and word.
• Humans impose structure and forget that they did so.

Key Terms

• Essence: Inherent nature of something.
• Form: Platonic ideal reality.
• Transcendence: Going beyond ordinary experience.
• Immanence: Existing within experience.
• Nihilism: Belief in meaninglessness.
• Overman (Übermensch): Nietzsche's self-creating individual.
• Abandonment: Existentialist concept of being "thrown" into a meaningless world.
• Metaphorization: Interpreting reality through representations.
• Facticity: "Given" aspects of existence (body, past, etc.).
• Being-in-itself: Being of objects, fixed.
• Being-for-itself: Being of consciousness, free.