Atheistic Existentialism - Essay Example

This in turn refers to the vast improvements achieved in agriculture, the sciences, the arts, and in almost all spheres of human life, in activities which contribute to the cultivation, betterment, and refinement of the individual person, and of societies in general. Modern culture therefore refers to the sum total of all human experiences and phenomena, starting with the period mentioned and continues up to the present time. Modern culture is the integrated system of learned behavior and actions, mediated by new technologies such as in telecommunications, the Internet, and others.

Culture is produced from the creative, imaginative, inventive, and innovative ideas that people make during their time. Culture is primarily in two forms, that of physical things made by a group of people, called as artifacts, and secondly, the intangible culture made up of language, customs, traditions, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and a particular worldview. In particular, the intangible aspects of culture can be evidenced by the prevailing or prevalent philosophy at a certain time, which in turn guides human thinking and behaviors.

Relatedly, there are various or different types of life philosophies over the course of human existence. In this connection, this is the focus of this paper. The philosophy of existentialism is a fairly modern kind of world view, a product of the modern times. It can be traced to around the nineteenth century and clearly within the modern period in human history; its main tenet is the emphasis on the individual person. Discussion Existentialism is a philosophy which states that thinking begins with the individual.

It is further claimed by existentialists that acting, feeling, and living are the true indicators of what it termed as an “existential attitude” which refers to a vague sense of disorientation and confusion, felt by people who are truly living in the real meaning of the word. This feeling of disorientation is experienced when an individual realizes he is living in a meaningless, absurd world. People have always asked since time immemorial what constitutes reality, because human existence is faced with doubts whether human existence is the reality or merely a reflection of it.

This feeling of doubt was expressed succinctly by the famous Dutch philosopher, priest, and humanist Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) with his utterance of “cogito ergo sum” or in the plain English language translated roughly as “I think, therefore I am.” Basically, existentialism advances the idea that it is the individual himself, and not society or religion, which determines and gives meaning to human existence. In other words, it is up to that individual, by his actions, how to live his life the way he wants, how it will turn out to be.

This is quite a radical departure from previous life philosophies, because the sole responsibility is placed squarely on the person. Man acquires essence, once he acts on his thoughts, by using his free will (Sartre, 1947). Existentialism as a life philosophy ignores the basic question of whether there is really a God or not. It rather dwells on the capacity of Man to act by himself through his free will; that is Man himself is ultimately responsible for what happens, based on a doctrine of action.

A God is seen by existentialists as a limitation or a hindrance to what Man can achieve (Webber, 2009). Conclusion Existentialism as