frankl; various
- What does Frankl mean by ‘Logotherapy’?
Logotherapy means a will to meaning; in the face of horror and tragedy, you must not give up. This is our project in life; our meaning in life is to find meaning. It is not about negotiating between different wills (like the ego/id/super ego of Freud’s psychoanalysis or Nietzsche’s competing wills). The word ‘logo’ literally means ‘meaning’.
- What does Frankl think humans desire most?
Our primary desire in life is to find meaning. Even though we have no power over the events that unfold in our lives, we can still emotionally overcome them through finding meaning.
marcel’s ‘what is a free man?’
- How was Marcel’s view of god and faith different from Kierkegaard’s?
He rejected the idea that faith was a single, absurd leap; he believed that god was the ground of all being, and that higher forms of love (other than just self-love) came from religion. He was much more open to it being a social, communal experience than being a very personal thing.
- What were Marcel’s concerns with materialism?
Deep down we’re just animals; whenever materialism takes hold, that’s what we become. Both Buber and Marcel were trying to come up with an explanation for how something like the holocaust could happen: that’s what happens when people become materialistic. Without a higher morality to keep us in check, that is what we fall back to.
- What did Marcel make of the ‘death of god’ and the idea that ‘man is in his death throes’? How are the two related?
By the ‘death of god’, he meant the rise of materialism, and ‘man in his death throes’ is the result. Man today faces possibilities of self destruction within himself instead of apocalypse or natural disaster. He has WWI and the creation of highly destructive weapons in mind; for the first time, we have the ability to blow up the entire world.
sarte’s ‘being and nothingness’
- What does Sarte mean by ‘existence precedes essence’?
Think of a building; construction workers don’t just arrive on site and start building. An architect designs the building first, and then the construction workers build it. Existence is the same way. Since we are individuals, the question of our essence (who we are) is determined by us. The question of who we are is entirely up to our choices.
- Why does Sarte argue that man is ‘condemned to be free’?
Although we can’t control the conditions we were born into, man is always free. You are responsible for yourself as an individual; all you have to do is choose not to be a coward anymore.
- Why does Sarte argue that we experience our freedom in anguish?
You can’t blame what happens on anyone else because your freedom is your own responsibility.
- What does Sarte mean by ‘hell is other people’?
We judge ourselves with the means that other people give us to judge ourselves; the general conflict is that you get locked in and objectified by the other, and you’re doing the same to them. You never know for sure how someone perceives you, and you have little control over it.
- What is the conflict and tension according to Sartre between you and the ‘other’ and ‘being for others’?
As humans, we are constantly objectified and pinned down by others. It causes the question of who you are to be outside yourself, and there’s nothing you can do about it. We actively subjectify ourselves – especially when it comes to social networking. On Facebook, we put up the best pictures of ourselves and we tell a selective story about who we are because we want to be recognized by a conscious mind.
- What does Sarte mean by facticity?
The circumstances that are beyond our control and what we do with it; for example, a soldier in war can’t control what goes on around them, but they do have control over how they respond to it.
zizeck’s ‘fragile absolute’
- What does Zizeck mean by value/desire surplus?
Capitalism’s primary surplus; consumption perpetuates consumption. Capitalism doesn’t just produce products and services; capitalism produces desire.
- Why does Zizeck argue that capitalism consumes itself?
Capitalism produces value transfers; it leads to you consuming produces that means nothing, stripped of their original significance.
- Why does Zizeck argue that capitalism produces products that are devoid of their original significance? What are some examples?
This means that the product is the promise of the real thing, but isn’t. An example of this is caffeine free diet coke. Coke is the quintessential American product; everyone wants it, and it’s dirt cheap to make. People drank the original coke because it tasted good, and the caffeine wakes you up. Diet coke doesn’t have caffeine or the original coke taste; it’s not coke, it’s the promise of a coke. So why do people drink diet coke and not the real thing?
rand’s ethical egoism
- What does Rand mean by ‘ethical egoism’?
Essentially, it is the idea that greed is good.
- What does Rand mean by the ‘morality of self sacrifice’ and why does she reject it?
Instead of being free to serve your own interests, we are forced into a ‘morality of self sacrifice’. There are two forms of this: communism – the idea that it’s all about the state, that the state comes first and the worker works for the state – and religion, which asks the believer to make sacrifices for the sake of others. She felt they devalued the human spirit; with communism, people are too concerned about their neighbors’ interests, and that religion makes people complacent with their own, rotten lives (the meek will inherit the earth).
- Why does Rand argue you have no moral obligation to help anyone else?
Everyone should find their own happiness first, because you know what your best interests are; however, in this society, everyone who does that immediately feels both guilt and resentment. You feel guilty because of the people less fortunate than you, and resent those better off. The worst thing you could do is to help to a person, because in that moment they are demanding that you are their personal property, which is wrong.
buber’s ‘i and thou’
- What did Buber mean by ‘I and thou’?
It implies reverence for something transcendent and dialogue; however it is not limited to a relationship with a spiritual thing. You can still have a transcendent kind of interaction with an object or nature, like a painter with his work. The art is more than just visual; it has other things and experiences. The ultimate ‘I and thou’ relationship is with God.
- What are the two primary modes of consciousness according to Buber?
‘I and Thou’ and ‘I and It’
- Why was Buber so concerned about materialism?
When everything is reduced to materialism, the value of humans becomes devalued. This causes alienation. This is primarily a result of ‘I vs. It’ relationships; it becomes so where two individuals never really need each other, and relationships become an issue of how the person will be useful to you.
ponty; various
- What did Ponty mean by corporeal consciousness?
Consciousness isn’t just mind and body; it is a continuum. Your mind isn’t an operator and the mind isn’t a machine; everything is synchronized. This doesn’t mean that you aren’t aware of your body all the time. It’s like typing – if you know how to type, you don’t have to look at the keyboard.
- How was his view of freedom different from Sarte’s?
Like Beauvior, he thought that freedom is contextual and subject to influences like instinct and conditions a person is born into.
beauvior’s the second sex
- What does Beauvior mean by the question, what is a woman?
She argued that women are the second sex; since women can be just as rational as men, women should have the same rights as them.
- What is wrong with the way the female gender is viewed by society compared to male according to Beauvior?
Beauvior argues that gender is developed. A man’s development is almost celebrated and they are allowed to develop freely and quickly. It’s a more confusing process for women, since there are a variety of stereotypes and they’re almost treated as a second class. Women are perceived as the other, something dangerous and deviant. Male is the norm and the female is the deviant from it.
kierkegaard’s truth in subjectivity
- What does Kierkegaard mean by ‘the public’?
The public is nothing; it is a collective force of everything and nothing. It levels everything down and makes everyone equal. This is contrary to our nature; we are unique and are individuals, and we’re not all going to be good at the same things.
- What is the difference between ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ knowledge according to Kierkegaard?
Subjective knowledge is rooted in you as an individual, like art; objective knowledge is factual, like the sciences. Subjective knowledge is something that no one but you can figure out, especially when it comes to love. Objective knowledge speaks for itself.
- What is the nature of faith according to Kierkegaard, and what is the difference between the ‘knight of faith’ and the ‘knight of infinite resignation’?
The knight of infinite resignation is one who knows God, and is willing to give up everything, but doesn’t understand God. He thinks of God intellectually. The knight faith does not try to understand God; he has taken a leap of faith.
- Why is faith a paradox according to Kierkegaard?
You can’t possibly know that God exists; it’s not something that can be proven in a lab. Faith is absurd, but in a good way; it is trans-rational. It is a spontaneous leap, and cannot be reasoned through.
