Ethics of Existentialism

Ethics of Existentialism holds that an authentic life is lived according to the free choices that you make

It is a philosophical movement that focuses on the uniqueness of each human individual.

Jean-Paul Sartre defined it as ‘existence precedes essence,’ meaning that humans create themselves through free choices and are responsible for who they are.

Look inward (not outward) to find the meaning of life

Theories of human behavior also have similar assumptions such as:

“people are born with certain basic instincts that influence how they behave”

“People are shaped by their environment, conditioned by their experiences to be the kind of people they are”

Atheistic Existentialism: there is at least one being whose existence comes before his essence – man or human reality

SATRE:

You have the capacity to make free and independent choices

You are completely responsible for choices

We create ourselves through our choices, and those choices are free: we are without excuse

Man is entirely responsible for his existence and responsible for all men: In choosing for himself he chooses for all men because to choose is to affirm the value of what is chosen.

In other words with his/her choice man is setting an example of what he/she thinks is the right thing to do

Plato: People act immorally due to ignorance

Sartre” We always choose the good, and nothing can be good for us without being good for all”

Anguish

Abandonment

Despair

ANGUISH: it derives from the weight of being responsible in our choices and to set examples for others on the basis of what we consider right

ABANDONMENT: God does not exist and we have to face all consequences of this. It is not easy to find a priori Good or values (if there is no God). But then there is the necessity to face. Dostoevsky “If God does not exist, everything would be permitted” à This is the starting point of existentialism

DESPAIR results from recognizing that there are many things in our life that we cannot control

“There is no reality except in action”. You are the sum of your actions and accomplishments, not your dreams and desires

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986):

We can define ourselves as humans only through our interaction with others

Our existence can only have meaning in relationship to the existence of others

Albert Camus (1913-1960):

The Stranger

The Plague

The Myth of Sisyphus

The greatest challenge for each of us is to discover the meaning in this absurd world

Courage is the highest value to find the meaning of life

“Existentialism is not atheist in the sense that it would exhaust itself in demonstrations of the non-existence of God. It declares, rather, that even if God existed that would make no difference from its point of view. Not that we believe God does exist, but we think that the real problem is not that of His existence; what man needs is to find himself again and to understand that nothing can save him from himself, not even a valid proof of the existence of God. In this sense existentialism is optimistic. It is a doctrine of action, and it is only by self-deception, by confining their own despair with ours that Christians can describe us as without hope.”

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