Central Europe in mid1800s through 1918
Context
Søren Kierkegaard
18-13-1855Danish Father of
Existentialism
Kierkegaard as a Theologian
Christian ethicsObjectivity and subjectivity in
ChristianityIndividual’s subjective
relationship with religionAgainst political weaponization
of religion
Kierkegaard as a Psychologist
Focused on emotional responses to life choices
Kierkegaard as a Philosopher
Focused on developing antitheses to Idealist philosophies
So what’s the Idealist way of thinking?
Idealism
Idealism idea Greek idein “to see”
Idealists represent the world as it should be
Reality is incorporeal
Idealists believe that reality – or how we perceive and understand reality – is mentally constructed and essentially immaterial.
Idealism and Kant
Kant defined Idealism as “the assertion that we can never be certain whether all of our punitive outer experience is not mere imagining.”
Kant especially focused on whether reality was purely mental.
Is this all just in our heads?
You Idealists are all crazy!
Criticisms
Criticized for his support of subjective interpretations of religious doctrine
Criticized for having faith in the existence of God
It is suggested that the move between reason and faith is violent and unnatural
Friedrich Nietzsche
Interested in people’s quiet struggle with the apparent meaninglessness of life and the use of diversion to escape from boredom.
Explored the role of making free choices, and how choices may change the nature and identity of the person
German professor
KIERKEGAARD
Christian People should live
according to their thinking
Known to psychoanalyze characters in the Bible
NIETZSCHE
Atheist “Life-affirming” Individuals invent
their own values and create the very terms they excel under
Karl Marx
Alienation – Social classes alienates an individual from herself
As society places control on one’s life, that person quickly loses her humanity
Alienation – worker from worker (produce of her own labour)
Alienation – worker from working (production) Alienation from herself as a producer (species) Alientation – worker from worker
National Identity
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Divide between the Czechs and Germans
Empire dissolved after WWI.
Franz Kafka
1883 – 1924 Born in Prague Wrote in German Middle class Eldest of 6 siblings German educated in
Prague Spoke Czech-accented
German Lived with parents until
aged 31 Social anxiety
Kafka and Religion Early years:
Raised Jewish Fascinated with spiritual traditions of Jewish faith Felt disconnected from the Jewish faith because his
family wasn’t particularly devout.
Went through a phase of Atheism
Before becoming devout – but this devotion was more to the traditions, stories and customs than to the spiritual nature of Judaism
Essentially he was an agnostic with academic interests in Jewish traditions and folktales.
Daddy Issues
Hermann Kafka Harsh Overbearing Selfish Domineering Inattentive Businessman –
traveling salesman and then in a shop
Julie Kafka Came from an
affluent family Better educated
than Hermann Helped run family
business
Daddy Issues
The Lock Out Punishment
Kafka describes how this even haunted him years later in his journals, writing: “Even years afterwards I suffered from the tormenting fancy that the huge man, my father, the ultimate authority, would come almost for no reason at all and take me out of bed in the night and carry me out.”
Pleasing Father? Or pleasing himself?
Chemistry
Law
More time at university
University
Friends with philosophers and writers
Max Brod
Described as quiet but profound
Philosophies Kafka discussed
Friendship with philosophy major, Felix Weltsch brought him into contact with the philosophies of Christian von Ehrenfels
Which in turn brought him into further contact with the writing of Aristotle
e.g. “In the case of all things that have several parts and in which the whole is not like a heap, but is a particular something besides the parts, there must be some such uniting factor”
Kafka’s Self-Image
Although physically fit – a swimmer, hiker, and talented horseman – Kafka saw himself as thin, awkward, and cowardly.
In her journals, Milena Jesenká-Pollak wrote that Kafka seemed repulsed by his own body, and to a lesser extent, repulsed by her body.
Cursed to Write
Similar to Plath – the words demanded to be written
Kafka knew he was a gifted writer, a fact he recorded in his diaries.
He felt cursed by his gift, hating the need to write and the desire for public accolades.
Kafka spent his life in perpetual depression and blamed alternately his father and himself
An insurance man
Kept office hours – which disrupted writing time
Hermann didn’t approve of the job
Prager Asbstweke Hermann & Co. Working for the family breeds contempt
Individualism
Kafka does not theorize a utopian future for humanity. At best, Kafka has no philosophical or political motives and merely wants to reflect what he has seen of human nature. At worst, Kafka believes humanity is descending into an abyss of alienation in which individuals can rely on no external truths or communal obligations. The end result is an extreme version of alienation that is a forced, not chosen, individualism.
Kafkaesque
Oppression of bureaucracy Depression:
senselessness, disorientation, helplessness
Surrealism Struggling with identity Labyrinthine
Common in dystopian, totalitarian novels
Existentialism
The existential attitude begins with a disoriented individual facing a confused world he cannot accept.
However, the individual eventually accepts and even embraces the absurdity of life.
Inherent
Adjective
Existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute
Synonyms – intrinsic, innate, built-in, inborn, ingrained, deep-rooted
Absurdism
Human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life
Human inability to find any inherent value and meaning in life.
The efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning will ultimately fail because the overwhelming existence of information and vast realm of the unknown make certainty impossible; therefore, the efforts to find inherent meaning are absurd.
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