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appleorange
Rainbow Technician



Registered: 12/30/07
Posts: 4,868
Loc: Reykjavík
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The Word Existential
#7982527 - 02/05/08 12:33 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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I see this word getting thrown around a lot in life, usually alongside the word confusion or breakdown or something negative like that. So, what the hell does it mean to have an existential breakdown or whatnot?
Does someone have a nervous breakdown because they realize that their viewpoint on life is subjective or something?
Maybe I'm just a tard though
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DontFearThePeepr


Registered: 11/21/05
Posts: 730
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Re: The Word Existential [Re: appleorange]
#7982951 - 02/05/08 02:50 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
appleorange said: alongside the word confusion or breakdown or something negative like that.
rofl, yeah i saw that thread too.
aaannyway, the word itself doesnt have a very well rounded definition. some people say it emphasizes taking responsibility for your own actions since our species has been blessed with the gift of free thought. though there are others who would assign it to a sort of 'intellectual punk' kind of idealogy where we're all just sort of a 'slave to the electron' and there really isnt any control. hell it's very essence might be that it doesnt have a real meaning, which i guess you could also parallel to the nature of life (if that's your 'point', that is). so to put it kinda blunt, an explanation doesnt really carry much weight for a clear-cut response about it as a whole. it just started as a literary/philosophical movement and just took off according to whoever decided to adopt the phrase. everyone had their own ideas, and i doubt there was ever an opportunity to get together and hammer it out since some of the frontrunners were probably a bit uhh dead.
most people nowadays just use it to relate to the simple fact that they're not happy. maybe they feel helpless? or confused? or despaired? unimportant? who cares?
only you can decide what to think of life, if you want to wallow around in your own negativity then i guess that's it.
-------------------- It's only the strongest people who will actually help
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Orbus
The Liberator



Registered: 02/14/06
Posts: 85
Last seen: 13 years, 2 months
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The word existential alone doesn't really have any meaning although you can probably guess that existence has a lot to do with it.
Existential philosophy deal mostly with questions of human existence, meaning, and purpose. Common existential questions are Who am I, Is there any reason not to commit suicide, is life meaningless, does anything in the world have value. You could imagine how someone could have a breakdown over these kind of issues.
Surprisingly many existential philosophers are pretty optimistic.
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------------------------------------------------------ Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery -- the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets -- is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together. - Alan Watts
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: The Word Existential [Re: appleorange]
#7986003 - 02/06/08 09:37 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Does someone have a nervous breakdown because they realize that their viewpoint on life is subjective or something?
Quite possible. Most humans are trained to believe that there is an objective truth out there. They base their life on it. If they begin to doubt, complete emotional breakdown can be the result.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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backfromthedead
Activated


Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 3,592
Last seen: 15 years, 6 months
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Re: The Word Existential [Re: Icelander]
#7986037 - 02/06/08 09:44 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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In my experience it has to do with conflicting realities that make up that 'truth'.
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NiamhNyx
I'm NOT a 'he'



Registered: 09/01/02
Posts: 3,198
Last seen: 14 years, 8 months
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Re: The Word Existential [Re: Orbus]
#7988560 - 02/06/08 07:32 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Orbus said: The word existential alone doesn't really have any meaning although you can probably guess that existence has a lot to do with it.
Existential philosophy deal mostly with questions of human existence, meaning, and purpose. Common existential questions are Who am I, Is there any reason not to commit suicide, is life meaningless, does anything in the world have value. You could imagine how someone could have a breakdown over these kind of issues.
Surprisingly many existential philosophers are pretty optimistic.
A lot of these philosophers talked about experiencing and working through a total loss of meaning, and most of them (aside from Camus) came out with some kind of answer (choosing projects, avoiding bad faith, elucidating Existenz, coming into authenticity, etc.) Camus thought that grasping any meaning was cowardly and delusional, but that life was better than suicide and ought to be lived as well and as fully as possible. I really appreciate how optimistic they all were, and I relate quite closely with alot of this stuff.
The crisis seems to be necessary in order to come to whatever exists on the other side. Avoiding the questions of existence causes one to live in 'bad faith,' a false sense of identity.
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nolongerinuse


Registered: 05/14/06
Posts: 947
Last seen: 10 years, 1 month
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Re: The Word Existential [Re: NiamhNyx]
#7988819 - 02/06/08 08:08 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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The word existential always seemed to relate a sense of helplessness in whatever it was related to. So, an existensial meltdown of one's life- ment that they felt completely helpless, not only in our society but in the whole electron or string theory shit that they think they know about.
I always think of existentialism as the idea that nomatter what happens in this society, something else is bound to happen afterwards-wheater with ourselves or with the earth or whatever. Alls i know is that i'm gonna be apart of it.
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