Existentialism.

🌳 - final form

Any deviation from usual thinking patterns leads you to ask some seemingly philosophical questions - why was I born? Why am I living? What is the meaning of life? We seldom find answers and these questions we once pondered on become craters our mind chooses to avoid - sometimes we stray into them and fall hard, very hard.

Philosophy is loosely defined as theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behavior. What do you stand for? How do you think? What dictates your decisions, your thoughts, your morals or lack there of. Philosophy is how you live your life.

Essentialism is the view that every entity has a set of attributes that are necessary to its identity and function. In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form" not to be confused with the minimalist ideal of doing less with more also called Essentialism - that’s about getting only the right things done.

Like Plato, Aristotle believed everything in life had a function. A bucket to store water, a pen to write, a tree for shelter and the same school of thought was extended to human beings - philosophers of the time defined humans as beings filled with a certain defining essence and purpose given to us by God. A purpose we’re bound by - only to be thought of as proper and good people should we choose to fulfill it. Not to say this train of thought states that we are inherently gifted by some higher power through some sort of divination what our life's purpose is. We have to figure it out because according to essentialism - our purpose is given to us before we exist. It precedes our being. There’s a reason for our existence and that reason warranted our creation.

Essentialism paved way for a lot the way early scientists and intellectuals understood the world. The idea that things existed to serve a particular function and they had defining characteristics is probably one of it’s short comings. Let’s take an axe as an example - it exists to perform a certain function: cut trees. It’s defined by blade which enables it to fulfill it’s purpose. It can have a wooden handle, a metal handle but that won’t affect its ability to cut trees. The second it looses its blade, it cannot function and ceases to exist as an axe - except it doesn’t. Something exists minus the blade, we just haven’t given it purpose yet. Thoughts exercising essentialist ideals have been used to define gender, reinforce stereotypes, justify oppression, colonialism and even racism - after all things are the way the are because they’ve always been like this and changing them is beyond us right? Hmm you decide - clearly though, essentialism has it’s fair share of controversy.

Go ahead a couple thousand years and humans now live in a world described as infinite - anything is possible and anyone can be anything. To a post World War 2 essentialist world where people had given up faith in institutions and systems of the time. After all, essentialist ideals of a superior race possessing specific qualities started the war that changed their lives forever. Existentialism gave way to a new hope of creating the world they wanted. No one had everything figured out and nothing was as solid as they assumed it was.

Existentialists refute any ideas of teleology - the belief that the world was made for a particular reason and humans with a set purpose. The irony of humans being rational creatures and living in an irrational and absurd world isn’t lost to Camun - he describes the human tendency to go out looking for meaning as absurdity. Searching for meaning in a meaningless world is pointless when we have the freedom to make what ever meaning out of our lives. Existentialism says we define our own essence through the way we choose to live our lives and the values we choose to carry.

"Being precedes essence" - Jean Paul Satre

Although the poster boy of existentialism - Jean Paul Sartre had a rather nihilist approach to life. Rejecting all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless. This to me defeats the basic of a life driven by freedom to choose - it defeats existentialism. Quoting Simone de Beauvoir “Each person must interpret God according to their own inclinations," others like Søren Kierkegaard who some call the father of existentialism had strong religious and faith based convictions - not refusing the presence of a higher power but rather the notion that we exist to serve a higher purpose. Not all existentialists are atheists. If we’re the hero of our own stories, questions of our origins are bound to arise. The question of the origins of man* isn’t one I’m here to answer. The answer to what the purpose of man is can only be given my man himself.

"We’re here and what interests us is knowing what to do" - Simone de Beauvoir

However most believe that man is enclosed in a sterile anguish - were we have enough freedom to realize that we’re in a cage but not quit enough freedom to escape it.

Albert Camun - "The literal meaning of life is whatever you’re doing that prevents you from killing yourself".

Once you realize that life is absurd and that the only things that matter are the ones you chose to make matter. It opens life up for you and this way you can live life more intensely and lead a more fulfilling life. Your barriers are made up, why let them stop you?

Existentialism preaches a life of authenticity - making decisions and choice that aren’t influenced by bad faith i.e the idea that everything is set and things are the way they are for a predetermined reason. We must live authentically and make choices determined by values we choose to accept and not those forced on us by society or religion. We often tell ourselves that we have no choice just so we can make a short term win at the expense of long term suffering. Our being embraces all the things we currently are not but could be… bad faith tells us the way we are now is the only way we can be and closes of the possibilities of anything else, any change and prospect of living a more fulfilling life.

Humans are ultimately responsible for what our life means to us, what we do with it and what we make out of it.

"To each his own" - Da Baby

How does existentialism apply today? We’re literally living in a global pandemic - what matters and what doesn’t have been shown to us as clear as it can be. As we watch our friends perish and our systems fail. Maybe it’s time to rethink what the norm is. Our systems are crumbling because they’ve never been tested. Everything is a lie - everything is made up. It doesn’t matter. Until we choose to make it matter there-in the only things that matter are the ones we choose to care for. When the veil has fallen and the lies have collapsed the only thing left is humans and life. The only thing that matters. If the world is to have justice and equality or equity we must put it there because otherwise it wouldn’t exist.

*man - used to represent humanity as a whole