Existentialism

In the past I had a notion that Existentialism was a negative, depressed philosophy of life created by a neurotic Frenchman. As usual with these kinds of things, I probably formed that opinion by seeing a picture or two of Sarte and making up what I thought the philosophy meant from the pictures and the name. The name, Existentialism, seemed to imply cold, dry existence rather than a life of enjoyment.

The reality is much different. The stream of thought of Existentialism is rooted in individual expression, passion, positive self-esteem, self-realization, search for being, personal freedom, responsibility and authenticity. There can be no excuses for failure to act, take control of our lives or for any particular circumstance we might find ourselves. We are where we are in life because of our choices. There is no one to blame or congratulate but ourselves.

Individuality is admired since it is through self-expression that we experience self-realization. The result of this expression is positive if we approach life from a position of pro-active mastery and self-control rather than slavery and reaction. We are in control of our lives and must accept the freedom and responsibility that comes with that.

Given this, we cannot blame others for situations or our actions. We always have a choice within the constraints of a particular context. No matter what the context, there are choices. Even in a prison situation we'd still have our freedom of thought and consciousness.

We all have a will to self-esteem that leads us to self-actualization. This will can be frustrated if we do not make choices from a position of cause rather than effect. Master morality vs. Slave morality. We should be passionately committed to our choices.

Like any great philosophy, easier read/said than done.

Existentialism and New Thought

Existentialism is similar to New Thought in a few ways. Both emphasize individual passion as a path to true existence, or being. Exercising passion by becoming the person you are creates self-realization, or self actualization. Becoming who you are is important to both.

Becoming the person you are refers to the reality that we have a general fate through our character. We are born with a proto-character that is the foundation for the self-realization that has occurred so far. Our basic genetic character along with decisions that have been made from within that perspective during our lives has produced our "fate" so far.

To some degree we cannot completely escape our fate, since, we cannot act radically different from our basic disposition or personality type. But we do have control over the "style" we create within our overall personality context.

Existentialism is a secular expression of this idea. New Thought is a theistic version. New Thought proposes a relative world beyond the physical, absolute world. We can connect with this presence in our consciousness through regular prayer, silence and meditation. Connecting with the Spirit ensures the expression of the Christ/Buddha/Atman/Brahman within depending on your language/conceptual/traditional preference.

Existentialism supports a virtue ethics that is consistent with Aristotle's ethical system. Nietzsche refers to a Master/Slave dichotomy of ethics, where the Master ethics a self-actualizing virtue system and the Slave system is more constricted, reactionary and limiting. New Thought is similar in that it moves away from limiting language and traditional scriptural interpretations toward a more self-realizing, positive and this-worldly responsibility as opposed to some historical theological perspectives.