If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You could also get new content delivered directly to your inbox. Thanks for stopping by!
At some point during the past few years, apparently I’ve become an existentialist.
Despite encompassing a staggering range of philosophical, religious, and political ideologies, the underlying concepts of existentialism are simple:
- Mankind has free will.
- Life is a series of choices, creating stress.
- Few decisions are without any negative consequences.
- Some things are irrational or absurd, without explanation.
- If one makes a decision, he or she must follow through.
Existentialism, broadly defined, is a set of philosophical systems concerned with free will, choice, and personal responsibility. Because we make choices based on our experiences, beliefs, and biases, those choices are unique to us and made without an objective form of truth. There are no universal†guidelines for most decisions, existentialists believe.
–see the complete article here.
Five years ago, after a 13-month period of enormous emotional upheaval, I buried myself in philosophy books. Not self-help books–I couldn’t imagine a worse way to spend time. Hm, now that I think about that statement, I’ll rephrase: I couldn’t imagine many worse ways to spend time. I read exhaustively. ‘Course, I didn’t have nearly so many kids then.
And then real life started back up again; I put the books aside and have barely glanced at them since (other than when I want to get Joe excited). Last night I was looking something up online and ran across the site from above.
Clearly I’ve been spirited away by the existentialists and baptized into their faith–must have happened in the dead of night, while I was deeply asleep. My parents would be horrified. This would hardly be the facet of my life they’d be most horrified about, if they knew. But if I challenged my mother’s fervent belief that everything happens for a reason, she’d have a heart attack.
The statements above are very broad but I’m curious what you make of them. Do tell.
