The Idiot

eeyep. i read some of them. Sartre for sure. Liked it at the time (I was maybe 18, 19).

Now it just seems too artificially glum to me. You know, kinda like artsy films that just 'try too hard'.

I take it back. I just read the description of existentialism on wikipedia. While i don't think I'm a big fan of Sartre (actually, now i'm thinking i have to re-read Being and Nothingness. I did like it... then for whatever reason I decided I have outgrown it. But i'll be damned, I forgot why), I do like Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Nietzsche. If those are the roots of existentialism, I gotta give it a closer look, for I know not of what I'm talking about...

How you doing Montana? Nice to see you.

dagmaraka wrote:

I take it back. I just read the description of existentialism on wikipedia. While i don't think I'm a big fan of Sartre (actually, now i'm thinking i have to re-read Being and Nothingness. I did like it... then for whatever reason I decided I have outgrown it. But i'll be damned, I forgot why), I do like Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Nietzsche. If those are the roots of existentialism, I gotta give it a closer look, for I know not of what I'm talking about...

I went through exactly the same thing. I said to myself;

"This crap isn't practical, I have too concentrate on reality."

But I think now that it can be very positive. That you can actually apply it to your life and that it can help you except the world around you and help become more responsible (not pay your bills and be on time responsible. I mean in another way) . It is highly misunderstood.

But I will not abuse your ears for my own interest just because you are willing to listen.

Collect unemployment!!!! It's the poorman's vacation plan. I camand you to enjoy your time off.

Amigo wrote:

dagmaraka wrote:

I take it back. I just read the description of existentialism on wikipedia. While i don't think I'm a big fan of Sartre (actually, now i'm thinking i have to re-read Being and Nothingness. I did like it... then for whatever reason I decided I have outgrown it. But i'll be damned, I forgot why), I do like Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Nietzsche. If those are the roots of existentialism, I gotta give it a closer look, for I know not of what I'm talking about...

I went through exactly the same thing. I said to myself;

"This crap isn't practical, I have too concentrate on reality."

But I think now that it can be very positive. That you can actually apply it to your life and that it can help you except the world around you and help become more responsible (not pay your bills and be on time responsible. I mean in another way) . It is highly misunderstood.

But I will not abuse your ears for my own interest just because you are willing to listen.

ah, but i do need to be on time and pay bills and such... then again, maybe i'll just muddle through in much the same fashion for the remaining 50 years or so and nobody will notice.

I :heart: Dostoevsky.

Dostoevsky and Existentialism
With the publication of Crime and Punishment in 1866, Fyodor Dostoevsky became one of Russia's most prominent authors in the nineteenth century. Dostoevsky has also been labeled one of the founding fathers of the philosophical movement known as existentialism. In particular, his Notes from Underground, first published in 1864, has been depicted as a founding work of existentialism. For Dostoevsky, war is the rebellion of the people against the idea that reason guides everything. And thus, reason is the ultimate principle of guidance for neither history nor mankind. Having been exiled to the city of Omsk (Siberia) in 1849, many of Dostoevsky's works entail notions of suffering and despair.

Nietzsche referred to Dostoevsky as "the only psychologist from whom I have something to learn: he belongs to the happiest windfalls of my life, happier even than the discovery of Stendhal." He said that Notes from the Underground "cried truth from the blood." According to Mihajlo Mihajlov's "The great catalyzer: Nietzsche and Russian neo-Idealism", Nietzsche constantly refers to Dostoevsky in his notes and drafts through out the winter of 1886-1887. Nietzsche also wrote abstracts of several of Dostoevsky's works.

Freud wrote an article entitled Dostoevsky and Parricide that asserts that the greatest works in world literature are all about parricide (though he is critical of Dostoevsky's work overall, the inclusion of The Brothers Karamazov in a set of the three greatest works of literature is remarkable).