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13 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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List the common assumptions found among most existential thinkers.
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1) Existence takes precedence over essence. Existence is connected with the terms growth, and change; whereas essence is associated with stagnation and being static. Another way to look at is existence is the process; alternatively essence is a product.
2) Opposes the split between subject and object. Humans are active, subjective participants not passive participants watching life pass them by. 3) People search for some meaning in life. Individuals are on the quest to answer lifes big questions and desire to connect to something larger than themselves. 4) Each of us is responsible for who we are at what we become. Humans are responsible for their own destiny and for making decisions on how their lives will turn out. 5) Antitheoretical Authenticity is key. People strive to create real experiences, not artificially designed events. |
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Define
A) being-in-the-world Modes i) Umwelt ii) Mitwelt iii) Eigenwelt B) nonbeing. |
A) refers to the unique human experience of being. Our perspective and how we interpret the world around us is seen from our own unique vantage point. It includes our relationships with world of objects, world of people and ourselves.
Modes : i) Relationship the environment around us. In other words, the world of objects and things and world of nature and natural law. This includes biological drives like: hunger, sleep. Also, natural phenomena like: birth - death. ii) Relationship with others aka the world of people. This is how we relate to other humans. iii) - Relationship with ourselves. In other words it is our ability to be aware of ourselves as human. To fully comprehend who we are and how we connect with both people and the world around us. Healthy people live in all 3 modes simultaneously. B) Nonbeing is human’s understanding that our existence is not eternal and there is both life and death. |
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Distinguish between
A) normal anxiety B) neurotic anxiety |
A) is the episode of threat that occurs during times of change or growth in an individual’s life. Normal Anxiety happens when an individual’s values are challenged. The threat is constructively tackled at the conscious level.
B) occurs when the reaction to the threat is disproportionate. It can lead to the implementation of repression or other defensive strategies designed to block off of activity and awareness. Unfortunately, neurotic anxiety can prevent growth and healthy change. |
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Discuss the interrelationship between:
A) care B) love C) will |
A) is the opposite of apathy and is a source of love and will. It can be defined as being a state in which something matters.
B) is defined as a person having intense feeling of deep affection towards another person. Care must be present in order for love to exist. In today’s world, people view sex as comparable to love. But there is no will just wish when love is seen as sex. As it only temporary and seen as having a lack of commitment. C) is defined as one’s conscious ability to motivate themselves and work toward a desired goal. Care is an important component of will. In modern society people view will as the same as will power. However will power is self-serving and lacks in passion. |
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List and give examples of the four forms of love
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1. Sex - Biological function. Sexual intercourse or other strategies to release sexual tension can be used to satisfy this primitive desire.
2. Eros - Built on care, tenderness and philia. Psychological desire to build a lasting union with another individual and procreate. 3. Philia - Intimate nonsexual friendship between two people. Friendship in the simplest terms. Brotherly or sisterly love. 4. Agape - Altruistic love. Spiritual love that carries with it the risk of playing God. It does not depend on any behaviours or characteristics of the other person. Undeserved and unconditional. |
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Discuss May's concept of myth and explain why the Oedipal myth is important in today's world.
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The reason the Oedipal myth is important in today’s world is because it deals with common existential crises. For example it focuses on: birth, parental separation, sexual fantasies directed toward one parent and jealousy directed at the other parent, our search for identity and death.
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Describe the relationship between freedom and destiny.
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Humans are able to achieve freedom when they are able to comprehend their own destiny. Specifically we are free when we are able to come to terms with death as being inevitable. We are also free when we are willing to accept change. Freedom and destiny are intertwined as one cannot exist without the other. Freedom owes vitality to destiny, destiny owes its significance to freedom. Without destiny no freedom without freedom our destiny is meaningless.
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Define:
A) existential freedom B) essential freedom |
A): freedom of action. Freedom of doing. Freedom to act on the choices that one makes.
B): freedom of being. Existential freedom makes essential freedom more difficult. |
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Discuss research on terror management theory and explain how it relates to Rollo May's concept of anxiety.
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Disgust related to human natures that remind us of our animal nature serves the function of defending against the existential threat posed by our inevitable death. People experience anxiety when they become aware of their existence or some value identified with it might be destroyed.
Terror management theory - Basic assumption - mortality salience and denial of our animal nature. ... Used assumption to develop well-designed experimental studies. Humans unique in understanding of the world and realizing their own uniqueness. Humans have long believed they are more than just bodies - they have a soul, a spirit a mind. It exists when one confronts the issue of fulfilling one’s potentialities. Existential approach to the study of terror and death has carried over into “terror Manafment” a modern experimental offshoot of existential psychology. |
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Explain how physical fitness can be a defense against mortality awareness.
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If reminded of own morality, people would be motivated to do things that decrease the likelihood of dying.
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List five common elements of existentialism
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1) Existence takes precedence over essence.
Existence means to emerge or to become, essence implies a static immutable substance. Existence suggests process; essence refers to a product. Existence is associated with growth and change; essence signifies stagnation and finality. Western culture value essence over existence. 2) Opposes the split between subject and object. People are more than mere cogs in a machine. They are more than subjective thinking beings living passively through armchair speculation. 3) People search for some meaning in life. They ask: Who am I? Is life worth living? DOes it have meaning? 4) Each of us is responsible for who we are at what we become. We cannot blame parents/teachers. Antitheoretical. Theory dehumanizes people and render them as objects. Authentic experience takes precedence over artificial explanations. Theoretical models make experiences artificial. |
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Discuss May's concept of destiny.
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"the design of the universe speaking through the design of each one of us." In other words, our destiny includes the limitations of our environment and our personal qualities, including our mortality, gender, and genetic predispositions.
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Summarize the findings of terror management theorists, and explain how these findings relate to Rollo May's existential theory of personality.
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Existential approach to the study of terror and death has carried over into “terror management” a modern experiment offshoot of existential psychology. Humans are first and foremost motivated by fear of death. Human creativity, culture and meaning as unconscious defenses against morality.
Terror theory assumption: Humans are first and foremost motivated by fear of death. Human creativity, culture and meaning as unconscious defenses against morality. Humans unique in understanding of the world and in realizing their own uniqueness. Disavow their corporeal selves. - bodily functions continue to be among the most taboo and heavily sanctioned of social norms. To be cultured is to be complete control of biological nature of being human. STUDY: Investigate the extent to which morality salience would lead to greater denial of our animal nature. |
