Modern European Philosophy: Week 12

My last Modern European Philosophy glass is done and gone. Can't say I'm sorry to be finished with it - it was a pleasing diversion for a while, but I will also be pleased to get many hours of my life back and get back to reading more stuff in which I am truly interested. I don't regret taking the class; it was intellectually stimulating, and I enjoy knowing more about Philosophy than I did a few months ago.

Existentialism is the philosophy that most interests me, and that is what this last class was about. However, this was another session where I felt I didn't learn that much more in class than I did from just doing the reading (Sartre's Existentialism Is A Humanism) on my own. This was a great text though, because Sartre speaks quite plainly as he explains the basic tenets of Existentialism. It is nice to have some firm guidelines with which to frame the many Existentialist novels that I have read. I would definitely like to read more Sartre (Nausea is a favorite and is the reason I got into Existentialism in the first place), and I have Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex on my bookshelf (she and Sartre were tight). No telling when I will pick it up and read it, but at least it's there.

In reading Sartre last, we came full circle in a way: Sartre was a Cartesian and believe that everything started with the cogito. In covering the basics of Sartre, we reviewed the basics of Existentialism:

• Existence comes before essence
• There is no common human nature, but there is a common human condition
• No outside force can determine you - you are what your choices are and you are the only thing that determines who/what you are
• It is possible for you to be mistaken in knowing what is best for you, but it is not possible for you to chose what is worst
• Choices can be made based on what is best for you, with no need to consider what is best for humanity
• The unconscious is an excuse mechanism
• Anguish comes from knowing that this life, no matter what you do, is meaningless in the long run
• People can be moral without believing in G-d, but want a crutch to help them make decisions
• There is complete dignity in having responsibility for yourself

On an amusing note, our professor felt that Mother Theresa wasn't a sufficient example of goodness to be the antithesis of Hitler, so he nominated Jane Goodall for that roll. The professor was certainly a knowledgeable and entertaining character. The classes were almost worthwhile simply because of his off-the-wall views, skill at playing devil's advocate, and non-sequiturs. It's gonna be nice to have my Thursdays back though.