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23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 1. Existentialism

[key to life is freedom and self-creation]

23 ideas
Socrates emphasises that the knower is an existing individual, with existence his main task [Socrates, by Kierkegaard]
The good is realised freedom [Hegel]
Humans have no fixed identity, but produce and reveal their shifting identity in history [Hegel, by Houlgate]
While big metaphysics is complete without ethics, personal philosophy emphasises ethics [Kierkegaard]
Speculative philosophy loses the individual in a vast vision of humanity [Kierkegaard]
The greatest possibilities in man are still unexhausted [Nietzsche]
If we say birds of prey could become lambs, that makes them responsible for being birds of prey [Nietzsche]
We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special [Nietzsche]
Not feeling harnessed to a system of 'ends' is a wonderful feeling of freedom [Nietzsche]
If faith is lost, people seek other authorities, in order to avoid the risk of willing personal goals [Nietzsche]
Nietzsche tried to lead a thought-provoking life [Safranski on Nietzsche]
The struggle for Existenz is between people who are equals, and are utterly honest [Jaspers]
My helplessness in philosophising reveals my being, and begins its upsurge [Jaspers]
Once we grasp freedom 'from' things, then freedom 'for' things becomes urgent [Jaspers]
Dasein has the potential to be itself, but must be shown this in the midst of ordinariness [Heidegger]
Existentialists says that cowards and heroes make themselves [Sartre]
To live authentically, we must see that philosophy is totally useless [Cioran]
Man is never himself; he always aims at less than life, or more than life [Cioran]
Man is a brave naked will, separate from a background of values and realities [Murdoch]
Central to existentialism is the romantic idea that there is nothing to lean on [Berlin]
It is more plausible to say people can choose between values, than that they can create them [Graham]
Existentialism focuses on freedom and self-making, and insertion into the world [Le Poidevin]
For existentialists the present is empty without the pull of the future and weight of the past [May]