October 2010
35 posts
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An Existential Term a Day
Abandonment: a central idea of atheistic existentialism. According to this theory, as put forward by Jean-Paul Sartre, god does not exist and life therefore has no intrinsic purpose or meaning. Humanity has been abandoned in the world and each must create his or her own meaning and morality without the help of any divine being.
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An Existential Term a Day
True Heroism: a “daring to be entirely oneself, alone before God.”
“whether or not they exist, we are slaves to the gods”
– Fernando Pessoa (via honeyvoiced)
“I sat thinking how terribly sad it was that people are made in such a way that...”
– Jostein Gaarder, The Solitaire Mystery (via sensedelirium)
“I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest...”
– Michel Foucault
“What I write, bad as it is, may provide some hurt or sad soul a few moments of...”
– Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet.
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“‘Well, and what if I’m mistaken?’ he suddenly found himself...”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment (Submitted by northernpoint)
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“What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to...”
– Søren Kierkegaard (via -mendihotza)
“Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision...”
– Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (via ayychee)
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“I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias,...”
– Albert Camus, 1955, The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays, p. 51 (via qasimzk)
“Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself,...”
– Albert Camus (via thebackspacer)
“…we are constantly discovering truth by way of science. We can prove nearly...”
– Will Sloan (via killwill)
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“What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must...”
– Sherlock Holmes, from “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box”, His Last Bow, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, p. 1059 of The Complete Sherlock Holmes. (via ganymedeclub)
“O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life,
but exhaust the limits of the...”
– Pindar, Pythian iii (via parallel-synchronized-randomness)
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I shrugged my shoulders, muttered “back soon,” and plunged into the darkness. At first I couldn’t see anything. I fumbled along the cobblestone street. I lit a cigarette. Suddenly the moon appeared from behind a black cloud, lighting a white wall that was crumbled in places. I stopped, blinded by such whiteness. Wind whistled slightly. I breathed the air of the tamarinds. The night hummed, full of...
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“If my work has a theme, I suspect it is a simple one: that most human beings are...”
– Richard Yates (via ohmeohyou)
“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of True Romance...”
– Hunter S. Thompson (via whiteysplace)
“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your...”
– The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde.
“Sin is the only note of vivid color that persists in the modern world.”
– Oscar Wilde (via forthewildwest)
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“So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. It shall answer the endless...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1836 essay Nature.
Existential Depression in Gifted Individuals →
“Because gifted children are able to consider the possibilities of how things might be, they tend to be idealists. However, they are simultaneously able to see that the world is falling short of how it might be. Because they are intense, gifted children feel keenly the disappointment and frustration which occurs when ideals are not reached. Similarly, these youngsters quickly spot the...
“The ninety-nine cent price of a fast-food hamburger simply doesn’t take...”
– The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan.
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An Existential Term a Day
ethics - In existential works, ethics refers to a system, a formalized method for determining “right and wrong” in any situation. Morals are practices dictated by probability, producing a conformity of behavior among a community.
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An Existential Term a Day
facticity — Those features of reality that cannot be transformed. Many things are not controlled by anyone, especially in nature and science. Sartre recognized these external factors, to which sentient beings can only respond.
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The end begins here. Thanos is God. He is Supreme. Anything he wishes to be, is. Anything he wishes, is. Within his grasp rests the Infinite. The moment is upon the Multiverse to realise that the absolute truth is Thanos’, for he is the holder of the Infinity Gauntlet composed of the six Infinity Gems.
You want to make all being thinkable, for you doubt with well-founded suspicion that it...
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An Existential Term a Day
Transcendence — The mental act of projecting a consciousness beyond itself, referring to and establishing new relations with entities that are external to the self.
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Theological existentialism
For Kierkegaard, there is a moment when the believer realizes that faith is not reasonable, logical, or scientific. Trying to defend faith actually proves the believer has doubts. Faith is a surrender to something beyond what can be known. That churches and religious zealots try to prove the existence of the Creator(s) is evidence these individuals care more about what others think than what is...
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“All human life can be interpreted as a continuous attempt to avoid despair. And...”
– Tillich, The Courage to Be 