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Unit 4The continental tradition in philosophy and

existentialism

Sunday, December 1, 13

I. The crisis of the

modern - an intellectual

history


What is meant by modern?


I. The Crisis of the Modern - An Intellectual HistoryMeaning

Rel

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al E

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Scie

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and

Faith

in P

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A. The Erosion of Religious Sources of Meaning

1. The Protestant Reformation


One Truth . . .

. . . or many?


2. Science as challenge to Religious Authority


Galileo

Newton

Lyell

Darwin



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B. The Erosion of Traditional Economic Relations

• Feudalism

• Guilds

• Communally directed economies

Out

• Economic relations guided by self interest alone

• No communal planning of economic relations

InI’m

Adam

Smith!



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C. The Erosion of Traditional Political and Social Structures



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D. Challenges to Science and the faith in progress

• World War I - 15 Million dead

• Russian Civil War - 9 million dead

• Stalin’s Rule - 20 million dead

• World War II - 55 million dead

• Chinese Civil War - 2.5 Million dead

• Mao’s rule in China - 40 million dead



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? ? ? ?


II. Continental Philosophy and Existentialism

A. The Continental tradition

B. Existentialism

C. What existentialism is not and is

The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, and especially of systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy’s superficial, academic, and remoteness from life - that is the heart of existentialism (Kaufman 12).

D. Common themes in existentialist thought

E. Existentialist thinkers


Reading Questions for Kierkegaard

1. How are these passages different from what we have read in class before (try to pin down the essential difference)?

2. What themes emerge from these passages? Be prepared to share your themes and quotations that support them.

3. What is Kierkegaard’s relationship to religion?

4. What questions emerge as you read these brief passages?


Soren Kierkegaard

1. Biography

2. Keys to Kierkegaard’s philosophy

A. A rejection of the crowd

B. Subjectivity

C. Inwardness and passion


Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821-1881

1. Biography

2. Religion, “the problem of evil” and personal responsibility


The Problem of Evil

1. God is all good

2. God is all powerful

3. An all good and all powerful being would prevent the existence of suffering

4. Suffering exists

Therefore: God does not exist


Theodicy

• A theodicy is a logical explanation of the problem of evil

• In the passage from the Brothers Karamazov Ivan rejects the Greater Good theodicy, which argues that suffering exists to serve a greater good that God understands, but may not be intelligible to mere humans.

• Ivan’s rejection reflects the theme of freedom and responsibility. By rejecting the idea of God, Ivan insists that people must accept responsibility for horrific events like the one described in the passage.


Friedrich Nietzsche 1844-1900

1. Biography

2. Keys to Nietzsche’s philosophy

• Rejection of the otherworldly

• Morality - Master and slave mentalities

• Nihilism

3. Misunderstandings of Nietzsche


Jean-Paul Sartre 1905- 1980

1. Biography

2. Keys to Sartre’s philosophy

• Existence precedes essence

• Freedom, responsibility and abandonment

• Consciousness, intersubjectivity and anguish

• Modes of Being and Bad Faith


Sartre’s Modes of Being

1. Being in itself - “en-soi” - something exists and has facticity - a rock, a stone and a table. These aspects of being are fixed. Our histories are our facticity.

2. Being for itself - “pour-soi” - a being of consciousness - something that is aware of itself.

3. Being for others - Often our primary knowledge of ourselves come not from observation of others, but from being observed by them.


unit 4 - dhaydock.org 4 - existentialism/unit... · unit 4 the continental ... c. inwardness and...

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