Existentialism: Questions NOV 5

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

Questions NOV 5

Congrats to our classmate Brent Mercer, who successfully defended his Honors Thesis on strife, order, and chaos Wednesday!

Presentations Connor-MoL 1. Chris-Dark

Dark 2. Rec MoL 2

Where do you draw the line, in your own experience, between "normal" sadness and clinical depression? Do you think our culture is too quick to medicalize pain, worry, and unhappiness? Do we collectively suffer a variety of nyctophobia?
Do you think you have to choose between being good and being happy? Do you side with Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans, or none of the above? 50-2
Do psychological "tools" imply a broken psyche or spirit? 53 Are you surprised that positive psychologists are often Epicureans?
Should parents try to raise optimistic children? Was that the message of Inside Out? (And by the way: Do you think "optimistic existentialist" is an oxymoron?)
Is Jody's family "emotionally illiterate"? 59
What does it mean to say that happiness and sadness cannot coexist? 61, 73 Don't the Epicureans simply propose happiness as an aspirational ideal, rather than the suggestion that sadness can actually be entirely eliminated?
When does a positive attitude become tyrannical? 63 Can't a generally-positive person also achieve "intimacy and connection"? "Do humans connect best when their spirits are up?" 66 Are you good at detecting "companions in misery"? 67 (And is that another way of describing most existentialists?)
Do you agree with Unamuno and Brene Brown that it requires strength to be vulnerable? 69 What's an example of that?
"Joy and hope need not be bright-sided... Sadness is not the opposite of happiness." 71 Comment?
[MoL] What do you think of MacBeth's soliloquy? 38
What do you think of Douglas Adams's "ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything?" And what do you make of the answer appearing on the page it appears on? 42
Is life a problem in any sense? 43 Comment?: "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced." Kierkegaard
What do you think of Schopenhauer and his philosophy? 48-50
Is commitment the key to authentic existence? 53 Is this what WJ meant by "the solid meaning of life"? (See the sidebar)

Just a friendly reminder: commenting on the assigned material in the discussion thread prior to class is how you earn participation credit, which could redound to your benefit when final grades are assigned. More importantly, though, it's the best way to prepare for class discussion and sustained learning. You don't have to respond to my questions, if you can come up with relevant comments unassisted. But if you find them helpful, please do... preferably at least 24 hours before class, if possible.

2 comments:

MarissaNovember 5, 2026 at 1:58 PM
5. Is Jody’s family “emotionally illiterate?”

I don’t think it’s unfair to categorize Jody’s family as emotionally illiterate. I understand the urge to help someone when they come to you with a problem or a worry, but I think it’s important to resist that urge most of the time. With my friends, we always ask each other, “Do you want solutions or do you need to vent and process?” I think this is a good practice and it works for us. This opens the door to hear each other out without prematurely jumping into a solution, unless that is what is wanted. I agree with Alessandri here that connecting with someone about their problems in an open and curious way is a good way to get to know them more intimately, “in the dark,” as she puts it. I do think Jody’s family, while well-intentioned, ultimately failed to recognize her whole person by overlooking the real issues she was trying to address. It can be problematic to dwell on these kinds of worries for too long, but it is important to address them when they arise so they don’t get buried in the shame of “I shouldn’t be feeling this way.” Left unaddressed, those problems and feelings will persist and worsen. Sometimes, when I’m going through a hard time, the most helpful thing I can hear is “that sucks.”

2. Do you think you have to choose between being good and being happy? Do you side with Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans, or none of the above? 50-2

I would like to think you don’t have to choose. I side with Aristotle on this one. I think being “good,” or trying to be a kind and virtuous person, creates happiness. I do put a lot of emphasis on my relationships with other people, so, for me, being a good friend and doing acts of kindness make me happy. I also have to keep in mind being virtuous and kind to myself, as I see that as what allows me to be virtuous in other areas of my life.
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Natalie MorenoNovember 5, 2026 at 2:53 PM
Do you think you have to choose between being good and being happy? Do you side with Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans, or none of the above? I don’t believe you must choose between being good and being happy, but instead I think they inspire one another. By Alessandri’s definition, I believe that would align me with Aristotle.

Is Jody's family "emotionally illiterate"? More than Jody’s family, I think she may be suffering emotional illiteracy herself. Jody is unable to understand her own frustration in balancing professional life and motherhood, and she is upset when her family is unable to either. While community can be a helpful tool in working through emotional turmoil, I think it’s equally important to emphasize self-sufficiency. I don’t think it’s her family’s responsibility to reinforce her negative behavior, and that expectation is somewhat selfish.

Comment: I was a bit taken aback by Alessandri’s confession that “I may be the only one of my siblings who wants to see my father get sicker” 69. I think there’s danger in believing that human connection hinges in despair and sorrow. I’m sure everyone can relate to finding connection in misery, although it’s unacceptable to will misery for others so that you may achieve closeness. In fact, I’d argue that wishing to see our loved ones suffer for the purpose of connection is the furthest thing from emotional literacy. An inability to understand your own feelings does not justify your desire to see others in a similar boat. Grief is not a prerequisite for meaningful connection, and I think that idea can be harmful.
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Just a friendly reminder: commenting on the assigned material in the Questions discussion forum prior to class is how you earn participation credit, which could redound to your benefit when final grades are assigned. More importantly, though, it's the best way to prepare for class discussion and sustained learning. You don't have to respond to my questions, if you can come up with relevant comments unassisted. But if you find them helpful, please do... preferably at least 24 hours before class, if possible.

Screens down. Engage!

In other words, ATTEND class in more than just the literal sense of the word. Please always direct your attention to whoever is speaking, whether Prof or student, and be prepared to participate--above all by listening thoughtfully, and contributing appropriately to discussion. That, along with presence and posted comments/questions, counts as PARTICIPATION (which can be a difference-maker in terms of the final grade... and far more importantly in the long run, in terms of the quality of your education).

COURSE GOALS (I refuse to use the cliche "Learning Outcomes" lingo favored by academic bureaucrats)

Many self-avowed Existentialists have a not-entirely-undeserved reputation for being sad, solemn, pessimistic, cynical, despairing, and world-weary (and this goes for both the Atheistic and Theistic branches, from Nietzsche to Sartre and Kierkegaard to Jaspers et al). But we must recall what Camus said about Sisyphus: we must imagine him HAPPY. I usually teach a course called The Philosophy of Happiness in the Fall. This is the first time I'm teaching Existentialism instead. But a personal GOAL is to say many of the same things I would have said in that class. To wit: A philosophy that takes human freedom and responsibility seriously really SHOULD pursue and value happiness. On my reading, this is what Existentialists and Pragmatists share: a commitment to free and intelligent action in service of human flourishing. So a primary GOAL of our course is to show that Existentialists can and should be happy. Another GOAL is to show that the best of Existentialism is also the best of Pragmatism. (I call myself, when pressed to produce labels, a pragmatic-stoic/naturalistic/humanistic/democratic and pluralistic epicurean .) More broadly, one of our GOALS is to survey the roots and branches of a philosophy that has long historical antecedents going back centuries, that got its wings from Nietzsche and Kierkegaard (and Emerson and Thoreau, in the space of intersection between it and Pragmatism) in the 19th century, and that gained a name and a following in the 20th century and beyond with Sarte, de Beauvoir, Camus, Husserl, Heidegger, Jaspers, Marcel, Merleau-Ponty and others... while finding common ground with the likes of William James and John Dewey and (later) Richard Rorty. And of course, our constant GOAL is to love learning about all this, and consequently to live better lives. jpo

Texts Fall '26

We'll read surveys and commentaries. But I urge you all to dip into primary sources when presenting and posting your reports. The projected "outcome": you'll learn a lot about Existentialism, you'll come to understand some of the Existentialists' salient connections with other philosophies and traditions, and you'll be motivated to apply the insights thus gained in pursuit of your own and others' well-being. You'll find that philosophy again has enhanced your life. It makes sense that we begin with Nietzsche, and specifically with John Kaag's book: he will be our invited Fall Lyceum speaker on October 2. I'm giving us a day off in early September; I expect you all to repay that by attending the Lyceum and meeting our author at the after-party. That's October 2, 5 PM in COE 164 and at a reception site tba... OUR REQUIRED TEXTS: 1) Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction... 2) John Kaag, Hiking With Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are... 3) Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger,... 4) Mariana Allesandri, Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves through Dark Moods... RECOMMENDED: 5) Irvin Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept...6) The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction... ALSO RECOMMENDED (& on library reserve): Todd May, A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe... Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters... Samuel Scheffler, Death and the Afterlife... Soren Kierkegaard, tba... William James, What Makes a Life Significant; Is Life Worth Living; On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings; tba...

Understood backwards, lived forwards

"Poor Nietzsche's antipathy"

For Nietzsche the saint represents little but sneakingness and slavishness. He is the sophisticated invalid, the degenerate par excellence, the man of insufficient vitality. His prevalence would put the human type in danger. “The sick are the greatest danger for the well. The weaker, not the stronger, are the strong's undoing..." Poor Nietzsche's antipathy is itself sickly enough, but we all know what he means, and he expresses well the clash between the two ideals. The carnivorous-minded “strong man,” the adult male and cannibal, can see nothing but mouldiness and morbidness in the saint's gentleness and self-severity, and regards him with pure loathing. The whole feud revolves essentially upon two pivots: Shall the seen world or the unseen world be our chief sphere of adaptation? and must our means of adaptation in this seen world be aggressiveness or non-resistance? The debate is serious. In some sense and to some degree both worlds must be acknowledged and taken account of; and in the seen world both aggressiveness and non-resistance are needful. It is a question of emphasis, of more or less. Is the saint's type or the strong-man's type the more ideal?" --William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture XV

Spinoza and James on true slave morality: to be free, don't just negate the bad; affirm the good

Spinoza long ago wrote in his Ethics that anything that a man can avoid under the notion that it is bad he may also avoid under the notion that something else is good. He who habitually acts sub specie mali, under the negative notion, the notion of the bad, is called a slave by Spinoza. To him who acts habitually under the notion of good he gives the name of freeman. See to it now, I beg you, that you make freemen of your pupils by habituating them to act, whenever possible, under the notion of a good. Get them habitually to tell the truth, not so much through showing them the wickedness of lying as by arousing their enthusiasm for honor and veracity. Wean them from their native cruelty by imparting to them some of your own positive sympathy with an animal's inner springs of joy. And, in the lessons which you may be legally obliged to conduct upon the bad effects of alcohol, lay less stress than the books do on the drunkard's stomach, kidneys, nerves, and social miseries, and more on the blessings of having an organism kept in lifelong possession of its full youthful elasticity by a sweet, sound blood, to which stimulants and narcotics are unknown, and to which the morning sun and air and dew will daily come as sufficiently powerful intoxicants... And if, in addition, you can also see him sub specie boni, and love him as well, you will be in the best possible position for becoming perfect teachers. --William James, Talks to Teachers XV

The Essence of Humanism (1905)

Humanism is a ferment that has ’come to stay.’ It is not a single hypothesis or theorem, and it dwells on no new facts. It is rather a slow shifting in the philosophic perspective, making things appear as from a new centre of interest or point of sight. Some writers are strongly conscious of the shifting, others half unconscious, even though their own vision may have undergone much change. The result is no small confusion in debate, the half-conscious humanists often taking part against the radical ones, as if they wished to count upon the other side... William James, continues: https://www.authorama.com/meaning-of-truth-6.html

Existentialism is a Humanism (1946)

My purpose here is to offer a defence of existentialism against several reproaches that have been laid against it. First, it has been reproached as an invitation to people to dwell in quietism of despair. For if every way to a solution is barred, one would have to regard any action in this world as entirely ineffective, and one would arrive finally at a contemplative philosophy. Moreover, since contemplation is a luxury, this would be only another bourgeois philosophy. This is, especially, the reproach made by the Communists... J-P Sartre, continues: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm

Essentially everything? Bad Faith!

"Tech billionaires have decided that they should determine our futures for us. According to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and more, the only good future for humanity is one powered by technology: trillions of humans living in space, functionally immortal, served by superintelligent AIs. In More Everything Forever, science journalist Adam Becker investigates these wildly implausible and often profoundly immoral visions of tomorrow—and shows why, in reality, there is no good evidence that they will, or should, come to pass."

Simone and Henry

“Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.” ― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex ///// "By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man’s morning work in this world? I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and I threw them out the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house? I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the grass, unless where man has broken ground." --Henry David Thoreau, Walden

HDT

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”...I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one.”

Revel and Ricard

"Jean Francois-Revel, a pillar of French intellectual life in our time, became world famous for his challenges to both Communism and Christianity. Twenty-seven years ago, his son, Matthieu Ricard, gave up a promising career as a scientist to study Tibetan Buddhism -- not as a detached observer but by immersing himself in its practice under the guidance of its greatest living masters. Meeting in an inn overlooking Katmandu, these two profoundly thoughtful men explored the questions that have occupied humankind throughout its history. Does life have meaning? What is consciousness? Is man free? What is the value of scientific and material progress? Why is there suffering, war, and hatred? They ask each other questions about ethics, rights, and responsibilities, about knowledge and belief, and they discuss frankly the differences in the way each has tried to make sense of his life..." g'r

Existentialism

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

Questions NOV 5

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Simon Critchley on Heidegger, Thinking, and Philosophy

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