The term existentialism refers to a set of philosophical currents that, although differing in many points, have in common the idea that TO EXIST MEANS THAT YOU COULD CHOOSE YOUR OWN WAY OF BEING FREELY.
Apart from some unavoidable conditions of every existence
FATE
each one creates for himself the course of his life which can not in any way be predetermined and predestined. Our whole existence is determined by the ability and the need to make choices.
SHERLOCK: Mmm! I can always predict the fortune cookies.
JOHN: No you can’t.
SHERLOCK Really? I correctly anticipated the responses of people I know well to scenarios I devised? Can’t everyone do that ? (hem...nope)
A precursor of existentialism is considered Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher (like the pale prince, to whom he compares himself).
Kierkegaard's life has definitely influenced his way of thinking. He spent his entire life in the conviction of having a guilt to expiate, a belief passed from his father. The latter, a shepherd enriched after having given himself to the trade, in the last years of his life he was convinced that he had been cursed because of a youthful sin (a blasphemy he did in his youth or perhaps the seduction of his second wife, or possibly the syphilide), and in some way he had to expiate his guilt. It is in this atmosphere that the young Kierkegaard grows, becoming the fulcrum of all paternal anxieties. By reaction he gives himself to a libertine and dissolute life. In this period all his brothers die (5), only what became a bishop remains alive. Kierkegaard discovers the sin of his father, magnified in his memory with the passing of years, and marries the belief that this guilt has cursed him, a fault that falls to son from his father.
For Kierkegaard, man is constantly faced with multiple choices, none of which is guaranteed, every choice brings in itself the possibility of failure.
Mediation is not contemplated, there is no synthesis between thesis and antithesis, no compromise. Either choose one thing, or choose another one, the choice of one precludes the realization of the other (AUT AUT). The awareness of this leads to ANGST, a feeling determined by the characteristic of the finiteness of life, by the inevitability of death. If there were not an end we could implement all the possibilities among which instead we are forced to choose. The possibility that every choice we make may be potentially wrong leads to DESPERATION whose only counterpoint is FAITH.
Relying on the latter corresponds to making a completely irrational leap. Kierkegaard speaks of fall, of abyss and of vertigo which the infinite possibilities give and which can only be overcome with a LEAP OF FAITH.
In the words of Kierkegaard Faith can be defined as an illogical trust in the occurrence of the improbable. Even from the Holmesian point, the improbable is that which, though impossible, includes the truth in itself.
The truth, the understanding, can only be achieved by looking backwards, but life can only be experienced in progression, forward, making choices, relying on the leap of faith (Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards).
The past is immutable, the choices have already been made, the one on which we can work are the consequences that bring new possibilities in themselves. (In reference to this meta x) .
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