Existentialism and the Authentic Life

“What’s the point of it all?” Most of us have asked ourselves that question at one time or another. The philosophers known as the existentialists certainly did—and for the same reasons you might: war, love, politics, racism, mortality, and more.

For millennia, people have been searching for the meaning of life. The term “existentialists” was first used in the mid-20th century to describe a group of philosophers and writers who focused their inquiry on exactly that. Luckily for us, they did not just ask the questions. Sartre, Beauvoir, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, Fanon, and others also came up with answers, ideas, and suggestions we can apply to our own lives today.

In the 24 fascinating lectures of Existentialism and the Authentic Life, Professor Skye C. Cleary will lead you through the writings of both famous and lesser-known existentialists to help you understand the biggest of all questions. Writing about love, death, sex, war, plagues, intrigue, murder, deception, and more, these thinkers guide you through living an authentic and meaningful life in a world that often seems absurd.

Explore Powerful Existential Ideas

Chances are you’ve heard the statement: “God is dead.” Written by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and published in 1882 in his book The Gay Science (and elsewhere), that one sentence has sparked debate for more than a century. Many have taken offense; others have embraced it. But Nietzsche didn’t mean that God (the deity) was dead. What was dead—and what the Enlightenment had ended—was a Western culture governed by the belief that God oversaw every single aspect of life.

But if God is no longer in charge of my life and not responsible for humanity’s rights and wrongs, who is? The existentialists answered with a resounding: you. You are responsible for your own life, and you have the freedom to choose what you do with that life. It’s up to you to give it meaning and purpose. If you were used to thinking that God was in control and your only responsibilities were worshipping God and following the society’s rules, then this existentialism presented a completely new, possibly even shocking, paradigm.

In this course, you’ll learn about some of the main issues addressed by existentialism. These include:

• Anxiety. In many ways, anxiety, choice, and freedom go hand in hand. When you realize that you are in charge of your one and only finite life, anxiety can certainly come into play.
• Freedom. The existentialists did not believe in absolute freedom. You are not free to do anything you want, for example, if you don’t have the authority or if your actions harm others. However, you do have the freedom to make your own path in this life and to choose your own actions within limits.
• Responsibility. With freedom comes responsibility, and not just responsibility for yourself. Being authentic means that you have a responsibility to support others in pursuing their authentic paths in this life.

Examine Misconceptions about Existentialism

In addition to learning about existentialism in this course, you’ll also learn what it is not. Many people hear the term existentialism, along with Nietzsche’s “God is dead,” and immediately assume this philosophy posits that God does not exist, and life is meaningless. Neither is true.

Existentialism does not require that you do or do not believe in God. But, if you do believe in God, existentialism says you are still responsible for all your own life choices. Do existentialists believe that life is meaningless? Definitely not. To the contrary, their works point to many ways in which you can infuse your life with meaning.

Other misconceptions about existentialism include:

• It’s Just a Historical Phase. While this philosophy did become popular in Europe after WWII, and war is certainly a time filled with existential questions, existentialism is just as relevant in today’s upside-down world as it was then.
• It Doesn’t Deal with Ethics. Many existential philosophers were deeply concerned with ethics. Simone de Beauvoir examined our webs of relationships and how we need to take others into account by virtue of the fact that we coexist. Her 1947 The Ethics of Ambiguity specifically explores existential ethics. Kierkegaard, too, pointed to ethics as a critical step toward authentic living.
• It’s Too Individualistic. Existentialism does deal with the individual being responsible for his or her own life choices. But many of the existentialists also addressed the importance of relationships—both as they bring meaning to life and the responsibility they carry.

Meet Existentialists You’ve Never Heard Of

Did you know that Sartre and Beauvoir hated being called existentialists? While they fought for a while against having their thinking boxed in, labeled, and catalogued, they finally gave up—realizing that they had more important battles to fight. Many of the philosophers—such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche—have been retrospectively classified as existential.

Still, other philosophers included in this course are not always considered existentialists, although their works certainly focus on the main existential themes. Some of these writers include:

• Frantz Fanon. Fanon grew up in the French colony of Martinique. He joined the Free French army to fight against Hitler in WWII but was shocked by the racism he faced among his supposed allies. His writing addressed the “existential deviation” that white Western culture inflicts on people by imposing “whiteness as the universal,” with everything else judged against a so-called “norm” that white people can’t even live up to.
• Toni Morrison. Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, railed against judging ourselves by how we look, rather than by who we are. Her 1970 novel The Bluest Eye addressed several existential issues, including standing up to those who would objectify us, taking responsibility for our own authentic self-regard, and being authentic friends and community members.
• Richard Wright. Wright’s 1953 novel The Outsider has been called the first existentialist novel written by an American. His characters attempt many different existential leaps as they try to bring meaning to the absurdity they find all around.

These philosophers thought deeply about our world—not just their own lives, but the lives around them. They continually put forward challenging ideas to help answer the question we all have from time to time: “What in the world is the point of it all?”

In Existentialism and the Authentic Life, discover how the existentialists can guide you toward answering that question for yourself.