The angst of being everything
February 16th 2007 17:24
Hey,
Hehe, before starting i have to explain why the hell i use the term "wisdom", and what i mean when using it. It's quite simple: like ethics is "studing how men should behave in society", i use the term "wisdom" define my "study on how men should behave to themselves"...so, getting back to the subject.
in this first post on Wisdom i'd like to present one of the ideas that will guide the whole thinking in the next posts. It's not a thing of my own, it has actually more than 100 years, hehe.. the first guy to present it was danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, and it was mostly developped by Heidegger and Sartre.
Kierkegaard calls it "angst". It says that the "freedom" men have to decide which actions to take creates him the problem of having plenty of possibilities. This "freedom" is the same as the one from Rousseau, which is the thing that put us apart from animals, which are not free, since they have to follow their instincts all the time. The "freedom" brings us a despair to life, and it is hard for men to keep living with this "angst" of being able to choose..
Heidegger takes is farther, saying that when men are born, they have infinite possibilities in life. As time passes, they choose (or not...) to follow some paths that progressively take him away this freedom. These things can be defined by "real" (maybe you're not born to be a tennis pro, even if you practise hard), can be defined by society (when you have to choose a profession that will define where you'll work and how you'll live), or even by yourself(when you say you don't like rock, and that's it).
The thing is, you don't have to follow this all the time. As you choose the way you'll act, it shouldn't prevent you from taking any other action in the future. I mean, all of this is to explain that you're not a "teacher", or a "loyer". You can be nothing and everything. You may have done your studies in law, but it doesn't force you to like to wear suits all day and have a huge library at home. You can maybe do this one day, and maybe in the other burn all of your books and buy a surfboard...
As Sartre says, "existence precedes essence". if you read my posts on physics you know that essence for me it's nonsense, but nevertheless we can understand the sentence as something like "you exist, and then you choose for what". It's up to you to choose, this brings you "angst", so it would be easier to have someone to tell you what to do all the time. But in the same time, you have the possibility to choose and change whenever you want.
All this comes to the point that you don't have a "style" to find out. You can be whatever "real" allows you, and change to be something completely different in the next day.
I mean, plenty of people sell around the idea of "be yourself", "have your style". That's nonsense: if i want to talk like Brad Pitt today and like Chirac tomorrow, that's my business. You don't have to block yourself inside your post-stablished definitions about yourself. "I should'nt drink in this party because i'm not a drinking guy", "I like rock so i don't like Madonna", etc., are good examples of how people restrict themselves in life, instead of embracing it and get deeper inside.
Haven't you ever met someone that surprised you one day, doing something you wouldn't expect? I mean, like that girl that only like discos and one day shows you her collection of Kent and Belle & Sebastien...you would say "she's deeper than i thought." This deepness is what takes you to know "real" better, and thus to be more powerfull in relation to it. You expand your mind (your base), and are able to project things from "real" in a better way, so that you get more inside things..
hehe, long post. hope this helps you for something! cheers.
Hehe, before starting i have to explain why the hell i use the term "wisdom", and what i mean when using it. It's quite simple: like ethics is "studing how men should behave in society", i use the term "wisdom" define my "study on how men should behave to themselves"...so, getting back to the subject.
in this first post on Wisdom i'd like to present one of the ideas that will guide the whole thinking in the next posts. It's not a thing of my own, it has actually more than 100 years, hehe.. the first guy to present it was danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, and it was mostly developped by Heidegger and Sartre.
Kierkegaard calls it "angst". It says that the "freedom" men have to decide which actions to take creates him the problem of having plenty of possibilities. This "freedom" is the same as the one from Rousseau, which is the thing that put us apart from animals, which are not free, since they have to follow their instincts all the time. The "freedom" brings us a despair to life, and it is hard for men to keep living with this "angst" of being able to choose..
Heidegger takes is farther, saying that when men are born, they have infinite possibilities in life. As time passes, they choose (or not...) to follow some paths that progressively take him away this freedom. These things can be defined by "real" (maybe you're not born to be a tennis pro, even if you practise hard), can be defined by society (when you have to choose a profession that will define where you'll work and how you'll live), or even by yourself(when you say you don't like rock, and that's it).
The thing is, you don't have to follow this all the time. As you choose the way you'll act, it shouldn't prevent you from taking any other action in the future. I mean, all of this is to explain that you're not a "teacher", or a "loyer". You can be nothing and everything. You may have done your studies in law, but it doesn't force you to like to wear suits all day and have a huge library at home. You can maybe do this one day, and maybe in the other burn all of your books and buy a surfboard...
As Sartre says, "existence precedes essence". if you read my posts on physics you know that essence for me it's nonsense, but nevertheless we can understand the sentence as something like "you exist, and then you choose for what". It's up to you to choose, this brings you "angst", so it would be easier to have someone to tell you what to do all the time. But in the same time, you have the possibility to choose and change whenever you want.
All this comes to the point that you don't have a "style" to find out. You can be whatever "real" allows you, and change to be something completely different in the next day.
I mean, plenty of people sell around the idea of "be yourself", "have your style". That's nonsense: if i want to talk like Brad Pitt today and like Chirac tomorrow, that's my business. You don't have to block yourself inside your post-stablished definitions about yourself. "I should'nt drink in this party because i'm not a drinking guy", "I like rock so i don't like Madonna", etc., are good examples of how people restrict themselves in life, instead of embracing it and get deeper inside.
Haven't you ever met someone that surprised you one day, doing something you wouldn't expect? I mean, like that girl that only like discos and one day shows you her collection of Kent and Belle & Sebastien...you would say "she's deeper than i thought." This deepness is what takes you to know "real" better, and thus to be more powerfull in relation to it. You expand your mind (your base), and are able to project things from "real" in a better way, so that you get more inside things..
hehe, long post. hope this helps you for something! cheers.
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Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
And if you're a determinist, can you reconcile that with existentialist freedom?
Comment by Uula Limanski
Thinking The World
i'm more to the "freedom" side, but with some different considerations.
Men are born free, but the thing is: the world around gives them all the time information (people "interpret" the world) that continuouly takes away part of the freedom men have. I mean, in every choice people make and everything they see, there is something they learn that will guide them somehow to act in the next time. If everyone around tells you that studing medicine is worthless, you'll be surelly less "free" to choose your profession... This is in a way a loose of freedom.
But still, as the "existentialist freedom" states (i'm not an specialist in psycology, but this is what i get from the things i've read) men have an inehent creativity, and this means that they are and will be free to take new decisions all the time. Please consider that sometimes be completely free to take a decision is no good at all, it means that you know nothing about something, because if you know, it will force you in one direction...
hehe, that's it. Hope it enought clear.
And what about you?
cheers. Uula
PS: Concerning the "inehent creativity" thing, i have also some considerations over it, but i'll write one post to talk about this...
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
But I think that the world of subjective experience has to be approached differently from the hypothesis of the mind-external world.
I mean, in our everyday life, we have to act as if we have choice. But in dealing with other people, or with the world generally, we see everything answering to the law of cause and effect.
Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
nice to meet you...
A long post? Yes... but very interesting.
I will read more of them over time too, as I have never really understood (deeply) what existensialism is? (Although I enjoy reading Sartre and Rousseau. But they are not as clear to me as you write it, well done!
thanks for this great service, I look forward to reading more of your posts in due course...
I guess the pupil was ready for the teacher to appear?
Lilla ..
Comment by Uula Limanski
Thinking The World
just remenber to have more than one source of information....hehe, in these inet days, one never knows....
anyway, if i write anything absurd, i think Adrian will be the first to tell....hehe
cheers. Uula
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
If you write anything absurd, that'll probably spur me to write something more absurd.