Nietzsche and The Meaningful Life Philosophy - Essay Example

Nietzsche and The Meaningful Life Philosophy Introduction The discussion in this paper will focus on existentialism. It will focus on the thinking of Nietzsche, Sartre and Camus, and what they think constitute a meaningful life. Nietzsche holds that the death of God results to the creation of higher values affirming human life and also points towards the experience of de-centre pluralistic world. Sartre believes that a meaningful life must be created both individually and humanity as a whole, which must be done in self tendency to self deception. Camus on the other hand discusses absurdity and making it meaningful through a scorn. Nietzsche and The Meaningful Life Philosophy During the industrial revolution, the Western world engendered the new problem of individual existence in the world. This was based on the absurdity and alienation as portrayed in the sufferings of Etienne and Gervaise. People are still disturbed by the question of reasons of living and to find solutions on reasons of suffering. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher meaning of human suffering lies on ‘styling’ through ‘becoming’. He believes that people suffer because they are under delusion that there exists inherent meaning in themselves and the world. He believes that life is based on contingency and only individuals can instill meanings to their lives. He disagrees with persons following a ‘herd’ and a standard moral conduct. In pursuit to find meaning in life, one must be courageous and avoid indoctrination of social morals and values. Individuals should then go out to decide on what they want to become because there is no societal intrinsic morals that is permanently embedded in us.( Gravil, 72) Nietzsche in understanding this creates a theoretical argument called ‘eternal recurrence’. This is where individuals live there life in the exact manner over and over again. Having such life demands for aesthetic, ones desires harmony and experiences. Through this concept, our life is nothingness and it’s our responsibility to assert meaning to it. For styling to take place, everyone must be contended and build their lives from that. He holds that those who are dissatisfied with life will never find happiness as they will always resent who they are. Nietzsche also proposes the argument that God is dead in his book ‘The Gay Science’. He believes that God remains dead and humans have killed him and no longer aides the survival of species instead he kills them. Nietzsche believes that he is the first to have discovered the death of God. He states that the idea of God lost its full power and creative force. He states that he witnessed the world through transformation of rural agrarian that morphed not vast urban sprawls. He argues that the death of God results to nihilism, which means that the universe lacks purpose and meaning of life resulting into a sense of emptiness. He believes that life is a cosmic accident and therefore no supernatural order or any ordained goal. Nietzsche belies that superficial values and beliefs imposed by church have shackle minds of humanity and might be fatuous with time. Most people agree and are comfortable that the universe lacks meaning and objective but are not aware of facts and therefore require an external faith to help them understand. (Heidegger, 81) In a nutshell, Nietzsche holds that since God is dead, there is no meaning of life and fate will triumph faith. He provides an alternative, which is life affirming. As God is dead, we need to follow our instincts and do what we believe is good without following any stipulated order. Through this one learns to appreciate the elements of companionship, intellectualism, created in mind and independence especially when it comes to making rationale decisions. Sartre Sartre places high level of importance on the fact that existence always precedes essence. Therefore an existing of human beings must be the first thing in the bank. He states that an individual is defined by the totality of their actions and existing material existence. He believes that the person an individual is today, is what he/she has fashioned himself to be. He believes that there is no human nature whereby individuals are powerlessly and deterministically governed. He is quoted saying ‘all the limitations which a priori define man's fundamental situation in the universe’. He doesn’t believe that humans are governed by nature. Some of the key concepts under Sartrean existentialism include despair, abandonment, anguish, bad faith and authenticity. In his study, he divides existentialism into two; Christian’s existentialism like Marcel & jaspers while the second group are atheistic e.g. Heidegger and Sartre. He says that both groups believe in experience in subjectivity. Sartre suggests that there is coherency of atheistic existentialists compared to Christians existentialists. The nature of morality is usually affected by the existence of God and dismissal of human nature. The conception of good and bad in human beings cannot be enshrined in metaphysics. Sartre says that, "there disappears with Him all possibility of finding values in an intelligible heaven. There can no longer be any good a priori, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it. It is nowhere that ‘the good’ exists, that one must be honest or must not lie.’ Sartre’s argues that the most important thing is contingency; meaning that existence is not necessary. He believes that no one can explain existence and that contingency is an illusion which is obsolete, dissipated resulting to a perfect gratuitousness. Sartre’s believes that authenticity and bad faith forms the relative poles of existentialism. Bad faith means self deception, which is an affirmation of determinism, denial of one’s faith while authenticity is an approach towards existence. (Kaufmann, 72) He believes that morality starts from the perspective of subjectivism. Persons can develop their conversations and moral rules, which they should be responsible for. Since they are concerned with the outcome, humans always want the finest judgment. The creativity of Sartre’s provides a universal perspective and subjective argument with regards to morality. In a nutshell, Sartre’s holds that existentialism is part of humanism. His perception and understanding is however different. He presents a different advocacy of humanism, which is not anchored on humanity for the sake of human. He says ‘Man is all the time outside of himself: it is in projecting and losing himself beyond himself that he makes man to exist’. ((Kaufmann, 45) Camus The most important thing in the myth of Sisyphus is the absurd. Camus argues that there is always the natural conflict n what we want and what we get on earth (formless chaos). Therefore we will never find the meaning that we yearn to get. He believes that, meaning can only be discovered through leap of faith through believing in God or concluding that life has no meaning. In his analysis, he begins by saying that the meaningless of life is the cause of suicide amongst some people. He asks that if life has no meaning then is there a reason of surviving. He believes that humans have no option but either to make a leap of faith or to commit suicide. He presents a third possibility that humans can live in the world devoid of purpose or meaning. The absurd presented here is the contradiction that cannot be solved and an attempt to solve it is like running from it. He believes that existentialist philosophers such as Chestov, Kierkegaard, Jaspers, and phenomenologist’s such as Husserl have tried confronting existentialism but then escapes from it. He believes that existentialists usually do not find any meaning in life. Camus believes that living with absurd is a way of facing contraction and knowing of its existence. Committing suicide is not part of absurd; instead the latter enables us to live our lives to the fullest. He identifies three characteristic of absurd, which includes revolt, freedom and passion. He presents four examples of absurd, which includes; the seducer, the actor, conquered or rebel and the artist. In the Stranger by Camus, Mersaut, a narrator of his absurdity adventures is a detached honest person who never lies. He is a simple and independent guy, who never accepts God to get his happiness. He lacks ambition and employment by a company but not interested in exploring any possible opportunity for growth. He has no semblance of guilt as he sends the mother to a convalescent home. He is also presented no to be able to identify love and lust. Besides the above, he is very sensitive and attentive to very small details and refuses to believe in life after death. He holds that seeking God is like escaping an execution. (Camus, 91) Camus believes that Sisyphus is one of the ideal absurd present heroes and that the punishment he faces is a representation of the condition of human beings. He must perpetually struggle without any hope of success. Conclusion According to the above philosophers, our life is what we decide and desire it to be. There should nothing like an order to be followed. God created us and gave everyone n opportunity to decide what they want to have in future. Works Cited Camus, Albert, and Matthew Ward. The Stranger. New York: Vintage International, 1989. Print. Top of Form Bottom of Form Gravil, Richard. Existentialism. Penrith: Humanities-E, 2007. Print. Top of Form Bottom of Form Heidegger, Martin, and David Farrell Krell. Nietzsche. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1999. Print. Top of Form Bottom of Form Kaufmann, Walter Arnold. Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre. New York: Meridian, 1996. Print. Read More