How Philosophers Define Life

Student Name:
Tutor:
Topic: Creative Writing
Date:
Charles Bronson provides a unique case for philosophical interpretation. Bronson in his free days had the ability to pursue different causes of life (life projects) and was endowed with several options and dispositions. However, Bronson seems to choose a particular cause of life that Gasset refers to as “life projects” and he is locked up and deprived off his freedom. Even when he is given his freedom back, but he still ends up choosing the life of crime and ends back in jail. Interestingly, even when he is locked up and under duress he still chooses to pursue his criminal option of behavior and harasses fellow in-mates and guards. In addition, even when he is locked up and in isolation Bronson chooses engage himself in productive activities, for example, authorship. Therefore, we have been endowed with different “life projects” and we being “spirits,” have “freedom” to choose from multiple projects (multiple freedoms). The project we select should not interfere with the freedom of others since man is in “existents” with other human beings.
However, God is the “Greater Spirit” and, therefore, the source of man's “spirit” (man's freedom) and has endowed man with his or her spirit (freedom to choose), therefore, has freedom to make certain choice. This freedom is exercised by man while achieving his or her purpose and heading towards a predetermined fate (end).
Existentialism in life has been accused of promoting quietism and despair. Communists argue that if all approaches to a solution are hindered, any individual would regard all actions in the world as ineffective and finally turn to the contemplative philosophy for ignoring the brighter side of human life. It is argued that it focuses on what is mean, sordid, or base with the catholic critique Mercier lamenting that the existentialist have forgotten even the smile of a child CITATION Sar77 \p 17 \l 1033 (Sartre 17). Groups have censured existentialist for ignoring the solidarity among human beings and that they consider human beings as separate and isolated from each other a reason communists attribute to the subjective Cartesian approach “I think.” At this point, man attains a position by which he attends to himself and it is impossible to re-establish solidarity. The ego here cannot reach out to them via the Cogito CITATION Sar77 \p 18 \l 1033 (Sartre 18). Furthermore, Christians reproach existentialists as denying the reality and seriousness. Our ignorance of the commandments of God and the eternal values prescribed in Christianity has left us with only the thing that are voluntary and anyone can perform their own wishes and pursue their own wills CITATION Sar77 \p 18 \l 1033 (Sartre 18).
Definition of existentialism has proved difficult with existing definitions being vague and ambiguous and even reduced to being a supple, protean attitude rather than a school of philosophy that is well thought and cohesive CITATION Key10 \p 12 \l 1033 (Keys 12). This definition is further made difficult by its key figures such as Sartre who suggests that its definition cannot be narrowed down to a single definition as it is an intellectual quest that does not require wrapping it up into a single definition CITATION Key10 \p 12 \l 1033 (Keys 12). Therefore, existentialism can be viewed in the same light as Simone de Beauvoir's work that is ‘an increasingly complex intersection of accumulated meanings' which are constantly challenged, reconsidered and refined' CITATION Key10 \p 13 \l 1033 (Keys 13).
Heidegger's existentialism proposes that the world is human concern since man lives on earth alone. Man lives in the world and his existence comprise of the world as having any real significance CITATION Hei68 \p 61 \l 1033 (Heidegger 61). Man shares the world with others like him/her and is concerned with two crises that are his/her experience with the physical environment and his/her encounter with the world containing communal “existents.” Man possesses three characteristics; the fact of being in a physical world, the fact of becoming a greater being through decision making and bound by past decisions, and a negative quality that hampers him from becoming the greater being CITATION Hei68 \p 62 \l 1033 (Heidegger 62). His decision making and willingness to stick to his decisions are impeded by his intellectual curiosity, his/her “fuzzy” view of himself or herself, and the tendency to depend on others. Therefore, according to Heidegger, man has an infinite number of choices that require a crisis of anguish where in the crisis he/she finds no spirit, no mind, and no body. The limitations perceived here are to himself/herself and death CITATION Hei68 \p 62 \l 1033 (Heidegger 62).
The central themes in existential thought are reliability of our personal views of us and other people and the relationship between objective and subjective facts and experiences. In addition, there is significance of the temporary nature of mortality, the nature of the relationships between people, and society's role in the structure of individuals CITATION Web10 \p 4 \l 1033 (Webber 4). Blake and Shearer, in addressing the scale of communication in existentialism defined existentialism as “the tendency to explore the fundamental concerns of human existence and the capacity to engage in a meaning-making process that locates oneself in respect to these issues” CITATION All12 \p 21 \l 1033 (Allan and Shearer 21). People have different capabilities to explore and understand an existential issue (existential thinking). This can be described as the tendency of showing concern about life issues, transcendental concerns, and locating oneself with respect to the furthest reach of the cosmos. It involves the concern over the most vital features of the human condition as the meaning of life and death, the physical and psychological worlds' fate, and profound experiences like love CITATION All12 \p 23 \l 1033 (Allan and Shearer 23).
In explaining the options man has, Gasset in his book Man as a project alludes that Man is only a project but not the idea itself. Man works to satisfy the ego and has to constantly fight against the forces that oppose his existence in the world. Man is not allowed to choose in advance the world or circumstances for living, but we are placed in this world of the here and now without our prior consent. According to Gasset, man has several options to choose from. Since life is a project, man can choose a certain project to pursue and the zeal he pursues it with determines his becoming and the motivation here is to satisfy the ego CITATION Gas47 \p 7-10 \l 1033 (Gasset 7-10).
In addition, Hegel's psychology of freedom he perceives human beings as being a “spirit”. Hegel views the term spirit as being a synonym for the word “freedom.” He further eludes that while the word “freedom” is commonly thought as an adjective of a condition or property, the word “spirit” is substantive and denotes freedom as an actual life CITATION Heg77 \p 15 \l 1033 (Hegel, Miller and Findlay 15). According to Hegel, the essence of the spirit “is freedom” or the spirit is life as it has the freedom for principle. Therefore, the Hegelian argument as a whole provides a system of freedoms. CITATION Heg77 \p 15 \l 1033 (Hegel, Miller and Findlay 15)
True freedom is an actual ethical institution of life it is not subjective or self serving. This content exists through thinking so that it is impossible to remove thinking form the consideration of ethical, religious or juridical rights CITATION Jac00 \p 111 \l 1033 (Jackson 111). Therefore according to Hegel, the individual is a free spirit whom being, thinking, and doing are the same thing. Freedom is something that each and every individual has and it constitutes of the human nature in that the “mind” of the free personality is not enigmatic, supernumerary entity or quality grafted upon the human existence to be conceived and explained with an opposing approach CITATION Jac00 \p 111 \l 1033 (Jackson 111). Freedom here is an actual, living freedom where all the senses and the existence's significance are contained implicitly within the freedom” CITATION Jac00 \p 111 \l 1033 (Jackson 111).
Kierkegaard postulates that human beings have no limited responsibilities and specific. Man always works to outdo himself and to be better than what he is. He argues that a stone or object has no existence because it has no poss...