Existential Themes
Anxiety
Ryan's thesis is that much of the Existential literature of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s is a response to this historical event.
World War 2
The gap between what we expect from the world and what we get is...
Absurd
This is the book where a man turns into a bug
The Metamorphosis
Which philosopher had the theory of the Forms, which said that everything that exists takes part in an eternal form of something.
Plato
The idea that all stories designed to explain the world using only one perspective will fail
Rejection of Metanarratives (also called "Perspectivism")
This new type of science was very important to disrupting previous ideas of human nature. It introduced the idea that people are not always aware of their motives.
Psychology
The most important question is...
Should you commit suicide?
This woman is condemned to hell for killing her child in this play
Estelle (No Exit)
Which philosopher came up with the theory of the Categories of Reason, which argues that people have a built-in understanding of the world that exists prior to their experience and that this proves that our knowledge of the world is neither wholly based on experience nor wholly based on reason.
Kant
According to the existential understanding of Responsibility, how is meaning created.
People have to do it for themselves.
LaPlace once told Napoleon "I don't need that hypothesis" when asked about the role of God in the universe. What scientist arguably came up with the most significant theory contributing to that vibe?
Charles Darwin
Choosing to believe in God or to derive a logical meaning from philosophy or even science are all forms of...
Philosophical Suicide
These two guys are waiting for Godot
Vladamir and Estragon
The Great Chain of Being
According to existential thinking, metanarratives always want to treat people as an example of something, because that's the way an all-encompassing story communicates meaning. This destroys something existentialists want to defend, which is...
The individual self
An idea held by many early 20th century analytic philosophers, Logical Positivism asserts that any statement that cannot be correlated to a possible experience that would prove the untruth of that statement is...
Meaningless
The feeling caused by a "mechanical" life that may set the stage for the confrontation with meaninglessness that can set you free from mundane thinking and make you an existentialist
Weariness
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find", where do the Misfit and the Grandmother have their confrontation (symbolic value)
The Woods
What are Phlegm, Yellow Bile, Black Bile, and Blood?
The 4 Humors
Name three existential philosophers (authors aren't always philosophers, careful) discussed in this class.
Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, Simone de Beauvoir
This "ism" is a word that describes part of the aesthetic of modern art, literature, and poetry. Work that uses this technique tries to communicate meaning by making very specific, precise references or by using very precise details and relying on the audience to understand the connotative meaning.
Imagism
The name for a kind of rational philosophy current in Camus' time that he rejected because although it claimed to merely describe the world, he found that it was in fact creating comforting structures of meaning out of logic.
Phenomenology
The Shadow
A pre-modern solution to epilepsy and insanity is called "trepanning". What does that involve?
Using a needle to put a hole in someone's head to let the demon out.