DE Weekly: Traffic, Taoism, & the Illusion of Control
Imagine you leave for work one morning, hop in your car, and take your usual route, only this time, you end up in a standstill traffic jam. The cars ahead of you are not moving, the cars behind you are not moving, and you are not moving.
You try switching lanes: the other lanes move no faster. You try searching the horizon for the cause of the slowdown: you cannot see anything.
DE Weekly: Husserl, Aristotle, & Pyrrhonism
Would you believe me if I told you the ideas that led to the development of Existentialism appeared as early as the fourth century BC? The ideas I mean are those of suspension of judgment toward what we perceive, skepticism about the order of things, and the desire to adopt a tranquil disposition in relation to the world and the human condition.
Traditionally, philosophical ideas that we would call “existential” in nature are traced back to Søren Kierkegaard, the eighteenth-century Danish philosopher and theologian who approached the ideas through a Christian lens.
DE Weekly: Nagel, Irony, & the Backward Step
“Most people feel on occasion that life is absurd, and some feel it vividly and continually. Yet the reasons usually offered in defense of this conviction are patently inadequate: they could not really explain why life is absurd. Why then do they provide a natural expression for the sense that it is?”
This is the opening paragraph of Thomas Nagel’s 1971 essay “The Absurd.” Nagel is an American philosopher and University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University. Among many other things, his body of work explores the philosophy of mind.
DE Weekly: Creativity, Greene, & Until the End of Time
A little over a year ago, I read a great book by American physicist Brian Greene, a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, called Until the End of Time. The book explores the history of the universe from its beginnings to its eventual heat death, with a special focus on life and consciousness in the in between.
For someone who has little to no knowledge of universe-level physics (but who still has a wild fascination with such topics), I really enjoyed this book; Greene does a fantastic job explaining complex scientific processes with the reader and making sense of the material.
DE Weekly: Benatar, the Asymmetry Argument, & Camus’s Rebel
Earlier this week, I came across a post on social media from a so-called “anti-natalist,” someone who believes that it is wrong to have children, and that we should not do so. Their reasons, they claim, are philosophical. “When you bring someone into this world,” this person wrote, “you are introducing them to a lifetime of pain and suffering.” The conclusion they draw from this is that it is morally wrong to procreate.
I wish this view of humanity was a one-off. Alas, that is not the case; there have been whole philosophical treatises written on the subject aiming to advance the anti-natalist view.
DE Weekly: Mortality, Psyche, & Kierkegaard At a Graveside
The English word “psyche” comes from the Greek psyche (𝜓𝜐 𝜒𝜂′), meaning soul, self, life, mind, or inner being. It derives from the word psucho (𝜓𝜐 𝜒𝜔), meaning “breath” or “to breathe.” This is because the psyche, that is, the soul, is the animating energy behind the self in each person.
In the modern day, I wish we would treat the words “psyche” and “soul” in the English language as interchangeable. They should be, in fact; after all, when one feels one’s soul is lacking in something they seek a psychologist.
DE Weekly: Aestheticism, Wilde, & The Picture of Dorian Gray
“I sent my Soul through the Invisible, Some letter of that After-life to spell: And by and by my Soul return’d to me, And answer’d: ‘I Myself am Heav’n and Hell.’” This poem from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is repeated in a film I watched this past week, the 1945 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The poem is read throughout the movie by the film’s namesake, Dorian Gray. Sitting for a portrait painted by his friend Basil Hallward, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a man who lives only for pleasure, and suggests to Dorian that men should pursue only their sensual pleasures.
DE Weekly: Sartre, Being-for-Others, & the Invisible Guest Theory
Every now and then, interesting conversations arise on social media, allowing for philosophical perspectives to interject and offer insight into the topic. I came across just such a conversation this past week when I saw people discussing the “Invisible Guest Theory.” As I tend to do, I immediately thought about how existential philosophy applies to this theory.
The Invisible Guest Theory suggests that people in social situations, such as a party, are too preoccupied with themselves and their own insecurities to pay any attention to anyone else; in effect, they are thinking entirely of themselves and have no time or attention to focus on or judge you.
DE Weekly: Camus, Absurdism, & Revolt
One of the first names mentioned when one discusses the great philosophers of Existentialism is Albert Camus. There are those, however, who say that Camus was neither a real philosopher nor an Existentialist. One such person who claimed to believe both of those things was Camus himself.
“Why am I an artist and not a philosopher?” Camus wrote in his Notebooks, 1942–1951. “Because I think according to words and not according to ideas.”
DE Weekly: Existence, Essence, & the Cosmic Lottery
Every now and then, I come across a post online, usually accompanied by a graphic of some sort, that says something like, “If you were born in North America, remember that you had a 3.04% chance of being born there. How lucky you are!”
The same graphic contrasts this claim by saying the chances of you being born in Asia was 49.69%, and your chances of being born on the African continent 34.87%.