/lit/ - Literature

Truman Capote the trip not the author once said that Existentialism is as intellectually suicidal as religion.
He is correct. Existentialists have come to a conclusion about the meaning of life which is based on feelings and other bullshit. Nobody knows shit about our purpose so stop acting like you do.

>>1650888
hello truman, posting without a trip today?

Because it is currently fashionable to dislike them.

Because existentialism is the most pointless of all philosophies. It offers nothing. Existentialists are usually boring and juvenile, because they believe nothing they do matters and so they do nothing, but they also tend to tell other people that nothing that THEY do matters either, even though those people are not existentialists and clearly feel that they do have some purpose. There are some existentialists that seem to go for hedonism, which is pretty cool, but otherwise existentialists are just teenagers that never grew up. Or they are, predominantly, actual teenagers that are going to grow up. Unless I'm confusing this with nihilism. What's the difference, again?

Anyways, you sound like an existentialist. So why do you care if you're mocked? Not like it matters, right?

>>1650894

That wasn't me, but what I said is just a common sentiment amongst many intellectuals.

>>1650894

That wasn't me, but what he quoted me as saying is just a common sentiment amongst many intellectuals.

>>1650902
Existentialism challenges man to find his own meaning in life. Doesn't really just linger on "nothing matters".

>>1650894
actually he posted with a trip

and by trip i mean triples >>1650888


ZING!!

They're looked down on because life has given meaning, through Christ the Lord.

>>1650902
All those words put forth just to be completely off. Do you not pay attention to the stuff you read or do you just get your opinions from the Wikipedia articles you read like our other resident 'philosophers'?

>>1650902
So when Sartre put out "Existentialism is a Humanism" he was just pulling our legs, right?

Because people don't understand that nihilism and existentialism are separate schools.

/thread

>>1650989
Existentialism is just post-nihilism, they are not the same thing but they are inseparable linked. It's like, ok so theres no objectivity, lets move on.

>>1650999
Well obviously. But they're still separate. People who get stuck in nihilism and can't find a reason to live without a prepackaged meaning are the ones who should be being mocked.

Existentialism isn't resigning but embracing one's position as a clueless but capable human being.

I'd venture to say Absurdism is to Existentialism what Post Modernism is to Modernism.

>>1650950

>>1651055
Directly opposed worldviews?

hahano.jpg

>>1651060
I meant that the latter is a reaction to the former...

>>1651067
Ehem, other way around. Wow. I fail so hard in this thread.

because it's the philosophical equivalent to a child getting spanked by a parent and crying about it, then going into a huff and doing stupid shit just to spite the parent

not OP

ok, I want to start reading existentialists autors. I've read some philosophy but I'm very far of being an expert. I would like you to recommend me some autors.

thanks in advance

>>1650912
>implying somebody will like to quote a tripfag

>>1650914
I'm an existentialist who has found meaning and a goal and now I'm driven towards it.
What's wrong with that?

>>1650880
once existentialism was defined (fucken Sartre) it disappeared and there has never been an existentialist

existentialism is always too much of a lame middle ground for me. it doesn't have the ferocious and powerful negativity of an actual nihilism but it also lacks the ecstaticly creative and affirmational attitude of a nietzsche or a deleuze. it's literally just entry level, default position shit

>>1651168
>implying Nietzsche wasn't an existentialist
/derp

because teenagers

Nihilist acknowledges the meaninglessness of everything. And there it ends.

Existentialist is a faggot who thinks he's special because he realized (just like the nihilist) that he can live without a meaning.

>>1651144
nothing.

philosophy that can't be manifested physically is useless imo. so i can understand the sentiment in op's post. since so much of it is pure speculation.

>>1651201
to cont.

philosophy is almost like a pure intellectual art too. since language can be manipulated to justify so many things. and some great thinkers come up with these huge spider-web of ideas that are interconnected. it almost feels like they are a sculptor of sorts.

>>1650880
Because existentialists were hip, good looking young guys, and good looking kids aren't taking seriously.

> why the fuck do existentialists get looked down upon and sneered and mocked so much?

dude, they are not.
There is a certain popular stereotype of fair-skinned, chain-smoking four-eyes in black turtlenecks that talk about stuff normal folks do not understand (may those be "accurate" or not).

Also, existentialism seems to appeal a lot to young people. ANd everybody knows young people are dicks about the stuff they like. In turn people hate what lots of young people like.

Thats all.

And I have yet to find a group thats not hated by some on 4chan. Don't think this reflects mainstream opinion.

>>1650902
>>1651184
Existentialists live with meaning. You kids are confusing existentialism with nihilism.
>>1650989
Yeah basically this.

>>1651184
That's... not the case, really.
It's something of an academic distinction, but existentialism still holds that there's meaning to be had, it's just meaning generated by and for the individual, rather than handed down from on high. Nihilism takes the position that there's no meaning at all.

>>1651230
>There is a certain popular stereotype of fair-skinned, chain-smoking four-eyes in black turtlenecks that talk about stuff normal folks do not understand (may those be "accurate" or not).

Would you be able to find a representation of that that is not a parody? I mean, a recent presentation. Let's say, after Doug Funnie's sister.

>>1651073
This might be a good occasion to probe YOUR belief system D&E. Tell us.

>>1651240
I probably could if I wanted to, but I don't need to since this particular stereotype cleary is a parody of Jean Paul Sartre and the post-war Paris café-culture. There are no modern existentialists of the same cultural impact (or any impact, that is). Its the same with beatnicks. The picture that survived of them as a popular image is of a mocking nature. People might not even actively realize these stereotypes, or tropes, but they have ingested them by an almost osmotic contact with popular culture.

This has to do with the common essence of caricature and stereotype: extrapolating remarkable features to ridiculously dominating proportions.

>>1651179

>implying there isn't so much more to nietzsche than the crap sartre stole and mangled

>>1651073
>>1650912

So Deep&Edgy and Truman Capote, if you don't like existentialism which world view do you hold, if any?

>>1651268

>which world view

fuck off with your presciptivist category based thinking

'the world is neither true nor real, but living'

>>1651270

>Didn't read the "if any" right after that.

fuck off with your inability to read a whole sentence

>>1651268
wgaf

>>1651243
wgaf

>>1651268

Maybe absurdism?

I'm still not very sure.

OP, existentialists are looked down upon because most people have a reactionary (and inaccurate) idea of what existentialism is, including many people who identify as existentialists.
Read this thread through again and tell me I'm wrong.

>>1651284
Isn't Absurdism pretty closely related to Existentialism?

What makes Existentialism "intellectually suicidal" but Absurdism worthwhile?

damn, don't you guys ever grow tired of engaging into conversation with D&E, demanding to position himself?

haven't you already realised he draws his satisfaction mainly from a really cheap form of "aporia" like some petit-bourgeois socrates that is just as mass produced by manchurian child-labour as the clothes he wears?

>>1651295
Absurdism denies the concept of "bad faith," and because of this posits that the freedom found in existentialism is as futile as any other search for meaning.

>>1651308
>>1651295

Pretty much.

Essentially the absurdist strives to find individual meaning without denying the absurdity of the universe, unlike the existentialist who ceaselessly try to escape the absurd.

You don't have to study deconstruction to laugh at stupid things other people have said and lived by

Also OP it's a common misunderstanding of people who first discover Sartre think that he is, at one point or another, speaking ethically, and he isn't. He was primarily interested in ontology and as far as I can tell after reading further, technically Sartre's ontology was too convoluted to provide real contributions.
What remains, however, for the reader is some very insightful statements about subjectivity, inter-subjectivity, and the processes of individual expression in all its forms, behavioral as well as communicative.
A good secondary text to get a little further into this is "Sartre, Foucault, and Historical Reason."

>>1651321
What do you mean by "escape the absurd"?

I thought Existentialists were all about the absurd!

>>1651359
An absurdist would say that existentialists can never define or say when they are or are not acting in bad faith. The absurdity is ever-present and there is no state of being that will change that. The "freedom" of the existentialist is simply denying the absurdity, not dispelling it.

>>1650902

I find it annoying when people start talking about a philosophy but finish talking about the attitude some people have you quote it. Not all existentialists are juvenile, it's just that you don't speak to anyone over 30.

>>1651371
Sounds like Absurdism is kind of a 'back-seat', 'agnostic', but pro-active existential view.

Eh?

>The "freedom" of the existentialist is simply denying the absurdity, not dispelling it.

So is absurdism a deterministic idea then? Surely it must be if it rejects the freedom of existentialism?

>>1651380

Yes, it's like mature existentialism. Absurdism simultaneously tries to hold on to meaning and freedom without abandoning intellectual integrity.

>>1651421

But you can find freedom in the conscious struggle against the inevitable.

>>1651421

Existential freedom does not depend on the truth or falsity determinism.

>this thread

This thread is an example of why existentialism is looked down and sneered upon

>>1650880
Because people don't know what the fuck they are talking about (this thread, case in point)