Existentialism in the stranger Albert Camus
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Added on 2020-05-28
Existentialism in the stranger Albert Camus
Added on 2020-05-28
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Running head: EXISTENTIALISMEXISTENTIALISMName of the StudentName of the UniversityAuthor Note
1EXISTENTIALISMThe philosophy is one of the major questions is the meaning of the man’s life in thisworld. It is not only one of the major questions in the philosophy but also one of the tenets ofphilosophy. In this essay, the concept of existentialism is explored in the purview of three majorphilosophers of their time, Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Friedrich Nietzsche. The view ofthese philosophers relation to life and the meaning of life put the foundation of existentialism inquestion. Though different in approach all these philosophers question the importance of humanlife and its meaning and try to evaluate the reasons of one’s existence. In their explanations, theyalso explain the different perception of human life an individual may have and the so-called idealperception of life. Existentialism is one of the major schools of philosophy, which rose against essentialism,questioning the absurdity of existence and the choices that an individual has in this world(Kaufmann 2016). Existentialism is school of philosophy, which questions the very existence ofhuman being and the cause of existence. The various philosophers try to answer the question ofwhy we exist and what is the purpose we serve. The philosophers Aristotle earlier answered thequestion and Plato in the philosophy called essentialism. The philosophy of essentialism claimedthat every animate and in animate object that exists has an essence which gives it the purpose.According to essentialists, the purpose of life was one of the main reasons of our existence andGod gave the purpose (Hale, Wright and Alexander 2017). Without the essence of existence, theexistence did not have a meaning. For example, a pen, which does not have its ink, has no causeof existence, as it cannot fulfill its purpose, making the ink the essence of a pen. Existentialistphilosopher put a completely different thought to this philosophy of existence. In simple words,the existentialists believed that the human life does not have a purpose of existence unless the
2EXISTENTIALISMperson attaches oneself to a purpose by their own choice. The existentialists believe there shouldnot be all governing laws to control the lives of the individuals.Nietzsche was one of the earliest proponents of existentialism. The existentialism ofNietzsche was dependent on two main philosophies Selbstüberwindung, which he defined as selfover coming and becoming the ubermench or the superman in the procedure. The philosophy ofexistentialism as shown by Nietzsche was to help people to become what they really are insteadof killing of their real identity to live their life in adherence to the social norms of the society.The proclaim by Nietzsche “God is Dead” is about the deterioration of the humanity in the formof loss of reasoning in the society (Nietzsche 2016). The basic philosophy of Nietzsche wasbased on the thinking of living a life based on the achievement of one’s desires. He greatlycriticized the human population in have in a herd morality or slave morality. He though thatreligion is a philosophy formulated by weak people to constrict the people who have the strengthto stand up to their own desires to fulfill those (Peters 2015). The concept of the death of god isthe lack of the values that would help a person understands the purpose in their life forcing theminto a moral dilemma known as nihilism. The overall importance of life is in the choices that theperson makes and in the case of contradicting moral laws and the loss of morality in the society aperson can choose to live by the laws of their choice and achieve their desires. Nihilism is senseof purposelessness in the mind of the human being and this lack of purpose puts them in anexistential crisis (Nietzsche 2016). Nihilism based on the fact of the nothing of nothingness andthe mortality of all things that exists puts all the existing items in questionable scenario. Theconcept of nihilism can be answered by the fact that one should have the ability find their ownpurpose of existence. The purpose of the existence is one of the dilemmas faced by thephilosopher Nietzsche and the answer to this was answered by a simple enquiry of self’s purpose
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