Why are threads like this allowed on here?

Whats wrong with threads like this? Do you want more "Rick talks shit with everyone!" threads?

I found the idea to be in direct conflict with some of his other views, particularly the notion that we are 'condemned to be free', as it were. After all, the ONLY unfree act in our lifetimes, the only forced-choice... is birth. After that we are responsible for everything. And the idea that our actions can unconsciously effect those of our peers seems to imply that they are somehow less free...

 

Ultimately Sartre was laying down a blueprint for society - What is acceptable for a man, his entitlement, he judges based on his consciousness, which affords him the ability to compare and contrast. But that world view has a horrific aftertaste; that we cannot change. And obviously we're free to change at any time - man can undergo great spiritual transformations at any time! This renders all judgement - and all thoughts of influence - redundant in the face of the bigger picture.

 

vewwy intewesting. My gut feeling when I first read excerpts of 'Existentialism is a Humanism' is that this added responsibility to represent humanity, as it were, directly contradicted the sense of freedom, alienation and individualism constitutive of existentialism. It makes sense for an existentialist to take on the passionate task of defining who they are, but for Sartre to tack on a sort of duty to humanity (the blueprint you mentioned) seems to suggest that he's almost supporting the idea of a preexisting human essence...since we are no longer just responsible for ourselves, but for everybody (reminds me of Father Zosima in the Brothers Karamazov).

 

or since Sartre's philosophy is clearly distressed and unhappy by the absence of God and a meaningless universe, Maybe he's striving to partially fill this void with his societal blueprint. Is that at all close to what you were saying above?

 

What I also find strange about Sartre is his wavering disposition towards humanism. He compares existentialism to it in his lecture, and then outright attacks it in the book Nausea. I know the term is used in different ways, some of which can oppose and concur with existentialism, but could you help clarify this?

 

 

Dear Yossarian,

who is your favourite philosopher? I went to a book store today and wanted to buy somehting by Sartre, because I haven't read anything by him, but I'm not sure if he's a good place to start. I usually get all my philosophic input through poetry and essays by poets so I'm a bit lost in the big field of philosophy. Thanks very much!

What Yossarian says trumps whatever I'm about to say, but I'd say the most direct description of existentialism is in 'Existentialism is a Humanism'. Camus's "The Myth of Sisyphus" is also important, although I'd call him more of an absurdist.

As far as novels go, existentialist canon includes 'The Stranger' and 'The Plague' by Camus ('A Happy Death' is also fascinating although he never wanted it published), 'Nausea' by Sartre, 'Notes from Underground' by Dostoyevsky, and stuff by Kafka like 'The Trial'. Nietzsche is also a huge precursor of existentialism, but I haven't read enough of him to suggest anything.

I like Kafka

Yossarian doesn't answer my questions. :disappointed: :P

 

He's an alias.

Why, do you know who he is? :uhoh:

 

No, I think he's just a garden variety troll, though perhaps slightly more competant at being amusing than some of the others. (Probably some bored kid from At Ease.)

I'd guess that he was a reader for a long time, then decided to start posting. Its odd but as much as aliases bother me (especially half-alias half-person), this one doesn't, mainly because I can tell when its being an alias and when its being the person.

I like Kafka

I only started reading him day before yesterday, what's your fave?. I found an old compilation of his works on the shelf and I like him so far, especially 'a country doctor' and 'metamorphosis'.

1) i do think people who are eg manic- depressive do consider themselves as being fairly ill, and would love to get help. being bi- polar is just not a very attractive alternative way of perceiving our world, is it?

and being stigmatised (because of a diagnose) to their friends and families? those people usually have to deal with an awful lot of frustrating shit, too. having words and a catalogue of symptomps and explanations, however inaccurate it is, may be a bit of consolation. i do agree, that western civilisations could learn a lot from other cultures' perceptions and treatments of mental syndroms.

 

2) sure, that's how psychotherapy works too. maybe not as effectively as a tuition in taoism, but the basic principle applies as well.

 

 

3) she will rather pop her pills than confront herself with the tao te king. :D

what do you study? you're the first one on here who seems to fiddle with the topics that i studied ( ages ago though), which were ethnology/ ethnic medicine and alternative medicine.

 

 

I used to study History, but then I realised that it was set in the past and that no matter how much I understood it, I could never effect or change it. So I changed to Religious Studies.

 

Yossarian too would rather pop pills than read the Tao Te Ching. Subsequently, he feels the wisest of paths is study of the Tao Te Ching under the influence of a variety of pills. Tomorrow Yossarian is going to go and see his doctor and see if he can get his filthy hands on some Valium... Yossarian has enough ecstasy to combat his manic episodes but it really isn't convenient or mild enough to take on a regular basis... certainly doesn't help Yossarian sleep either. :lol:

Dear Yossarian,

who is your favourite philosopher? I went to a book store today and wanted to buy somehting by Sartre, because I haven't read anything by him, but I'm not sure if he's a good place to start. I usually get all my philosophic input through poetry and essays by poets so I'm a bit lost in the big field of philosophy. Thanks very much!

 

To be honest Yossarian does not really like philosophical works if that is there sole objective. Essays and manifestos and such, it does nothing for the soul. Stories on the other hand are quite different, and some of the most interesting schools of thought articulate their philosophies through literature rather than through the rather dogmatic thesis.

 

So with regards to Sartre, I would advise you to read The Age of Reason... it's like a fictional companion piece to Being and Nothingness but it makes its point rather clearer. It is a difficult book to read however it has some truly beautiful characters, Ivich being my personal favourite. My understanding is that it's just one volume of an unfinished series of novels (he got as far as the third) through which the characters and themes are kept consistent, however it's the only one of the three I've read so I can't really comment on 'the work' as a whole. I can tell you however that it's a really rewarding and worthwhile read... took me a long time to finish it but I'm glad I got round to it in the end. It's semi-autobiographical... that is, the main character Mathieu is loosely based on Sartre and is voicing his views and philosophies... not complete fiction. In fact Mathieu is a socialist philosophy teacher... In much the same way that Dostoevsky (a great and unwitting influence on existential schools of thought) invariably employs writers as his protagonists. They 'write what they know', as it were.

Yossarian doesn't answer my questions. :disappointed: :P

 

Why, do you know who he is? :uhoh:

 

No, I think he's just a garden variety troll, though perhaps slightly more competant at being amusing than some of the others. (Probably some bored kid from At Ease.)

 

Just as Yossarian has been PERSECUTED and BANISHED by the cold game, he has also been the victim of BANISHMENT from a tease.

Oh my god the Yak is back! I missed you! :laugh3:

To be honest Yossarian does not really like philosophical works if that is there sole objective. Essays and manifestos and such, it does nothing for the soul. Stories on the other hand are quite different, and some of the most interesting schools of thought articulate their philosophies through literature rather than through the rather dogmatic thesis.

 

So with regards to Sartre, I would advise you to read The Age of Reason... it's like a fictional companion piece to Being and Nothingness but it makes its point rather clearer. It is a difficult book to read however it has some truly beautiful characters, Ivich being my personal favourite. My understanding is that it's just one volume of an unfinished series of novels (he got as far as the third) through which the characters and themes are kept consistent, however it's the only one of the three I've read so I can't really comment on 'the work' as a whole. I can tell you however that it's a really rewarding and worthwhile read... took me a long time to finish it but I'm glad I got round to it in the end. It's semi-autobiographical... that is, the main character Mathieu is loosely based on Sartre and is voicing his views and philosophies... not complete fiction. In fact Mathieu is a socialist philosophy teacher... In much the same way that Dostoevsky (a great and unwitting influence on existential schools of thought) invariably employs writers as his protagonists. They 'write what they know', as it were.

 

 

Thank you very much for your advice. That sounds very interesting!

I used to study History, but then I realised that it was set in the past and that no matter how much I understood it, I could never effect or change it. So I changed to Religious Studies.

 

great. goldsmiths? if so, you might have had lectures from the same old dude, that i've had, when i studied ethnology in heidelberg. now wouldn't that be awesome.

 

Yossarian too would rather pop pills than read the Tao Te Ching. Subsequently, he feels the wisest of paths is study of the Tao Te Ching under the influence of a variety of pills. Tomorrow Yossarian is going to go and see his doctor and see if he can get his filthy hands on some Valium... Yossarian has enough ecstasy to combat his manic episodes but it really isn't convenient or mild enough to take on a regular basis... certainly doesn't help Yossarian sleep either. :lol:

 

why don't you just change? :P:nice:

just popping pills is so lame, i'd rather thrust myself into psychotherapy ( problem: finding a therapist who is at least as intelligent and witty as yourself) and additionally the tao te ching, and of course the teachings of their late holinesseseseseses and psychotherapists dudjom and dilgo khyentse rinpoche.

 

 

excellent strategy to tame manic episodes with ecstasy, how very strenuous. :rolleyes4::lol: take care!