Robby’s totally right with respect to Sartre. And a statement that doesn’t hold for Sartre doesn’t firmly stand as a statement about existentialism, I think; he’s too central. Virtually everything I’ve read of Sartre’s engenders a triumphant resolution to create the world I want to live in, and a sense that doing so is my personal responsibility. His philosophy is not all ponies and rainbows, because it’s sometimes extremely frightening, but it’s the opposite of depressing.
I’m not sure exactly when existentialism’s image switched over from Sartre’s ‘fuck yeah, life is meaningless! let’s do all the things!’ to ‘alas, life is meaningless! we are all sad and alone in the cosmos and stuff.’ I guess Camus happened. Plus Sartre is really terrible at PR.
Robby’s totally right with respect to Sartre. And a statement that doesn’t hold for Sartre doesn’t firmly stand as a statement about existentialism, I think; he’s too central. Virtually everything I’ve read of Sartre’s engenders a triumphant resolution to create the world I want to live in, and a sense that doing so is my personal responsibility. His philosophy is not all ponies and rainbows, because it’s sometimes extremely frightening, but it’s the opposite of depressing.
I’m not sure exactly when existentialism’s image switched over from Sartre’s ‘fuck yeah, life is meaningless! let’s do all the things!’ to ‘alas, life is meaningless! we are all sad and alone in the cosmos and stuff.’ I guess Camus happened. Plus Sartre is really terrible at PR.