Tuesday, April 29, 2014
So Monday was our last day of presentations and it was sort of a recap of what the entire semester consisted of. The main question of the presentation was what is existentialism to you and how does it affect you. Before this class I only briefly knew of existentialism. I had only known a few philosophers and their general ideas. Taking this class has taught me so much more about these men and women philosophers and how profound they all are (in my opinion). For me, existentialism is an awakening. It’s an idea that thrusts you into real life. Existentialism has helped me to look at situations differently now. I reflect upon my actions more, I think outside of myself more, and I have a new way of thinking about things that can lead to a concise answer. I found the works of Albert Camus to be spectacular, especially “The Stranger”. Through this story is where I find inspiration to reflect on my life. It has taught me to accept responsibility for my life and if I want something changed then I must change it. Kierkegaard and his subjective truth also greatly impacted me. One struggle for me has been growing up in a Christian family and then changing my views to atheist. I do not believe that God exists and being around my family for 20+ years has made it difficult to accept their decisions to keep their religion. When I learned about subjective and objective truth, it kind of put my mind at ease from this internal struggle. In a way, we all subjectively know our own god or gods. This can even include the option of no god. Kierkegaard has helped me realize that it is just fine to have different views of what god is or isn’t.
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I think it is good that you have found some peace through this class. I feel the same way, to an extent. I want to look at things in a more objective way, while respecting other subjective views more. I personally knew none of the philosophers mentioned in the class prior to the class, although I am not a philosophy major. I did not grow up in a religious household, so I cannot relate to you in that way, but I did go to synagogue/Sunday school for many years, and it is hard for me, as an atheist now, to not go back to some ideas from that time. However, I am more comfortable with that now, as I am confident I can combine ideas from many fields into my own subjective truth. I also found Albert Camus to have some interesting stories. I felt mixed feelings about Mersault, negative feelings of The Fall, and pity for Sisyphus. He has a way of creating quirky characters that we can end up relating to, even if just a little. Obviously I do not mean this in the way of killing anyone. Overall, I found the class thought-provoking, even if a little boring at times. It seems you also took something positive from the class.
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