Wombat wrote:
Let me say a bit more about why I really hate the existentialist gloss on this stuff. The freedom that we are supposedly frightened of seems to me to be a very capricious and superficial kind of freedom. If we were all free in this sense we would be characterless, willful brats. We wouldn't be genuinely autonomous persons. We would lack personalities. We would have no long term plans. In the deeper sense in which freedom really matters to us, we wouldn't be free at all.
I think you're misunderstanding the freedoms of existentialism. It's not a question of long
term plans, it's a question of pre-defined choices. It's about every action being a choice,
and it is certainly true that there are consequences to choices (which the existentialist accepts
as his own doing, because existentialism rejects fate to an extreme - are choices -are- the
cause of what happens to us). To choose not to commit murder in order to avoid the
consequence of being arrested is certain valid, as is the choice not eat sweets in order to
avoid the consequence of weight gain, etc. What existentialism says, I think, is that there's
nothing inherently morally right or wrong about an action. A murder is as morally neutral as
a walk in the park, but usually the existentialist chooses the walk in the park anyway -
because it has benefits to the health, is of itself pleasant, and so on, compared to the
murder which has risks of arrest and imprisonment that would severely limit future choices
and occupations in a disagreeable way. The existentialist does -not- say 'I don't commit
murder because it's bad' or 'I don't commit murder because I'm an honest citizen', he says,
'I don't commit murder because I don't want the results of committing murder.'
Existentialism fundamentally says you are what you make of yourself, no more and no less.
(Granted my study of philosophy consists of a 101 and a bit of random reading here and
there, so I could be on the wrong page, but I think I've got a handle on it... hopefully.
dictionary.com and wikipedia have entries that are good for little more than memory aids,
and my memory of reading Neitschze and Kirkegaard is kinda hazy.... )