I am currently doing graduate work in existentialism, and I must say that of my seven years of studying philosophy as an undergrad and grad student, this form of philosophy is the most exhilarating and rewarding. Existentialism addresses the most serious and pressing questions of human reality–death, emotion, time, community, etc. A constant among both the theistic and atheistic existentialists is the reality of authentic freedom of which the human subject finds himself/herself equipped. Freedom is exercised, say the existentialists, in space and time. Not space as in matter or outer space, but within the horizon of personal experience as an embodied being within a contained environment. Not time as in that which is kept by a watch, but the actual experience of passing time, which accelerates or drags depending on human possibility that is deliberately chosen through human freedom.
Existentialism is not a philosophy that attempts to prove facts or argue for an objective system. Rather, it pays attention to human experience as it is given, seeking to describe and illumine. The careful reader of existentialism isn’t so much in need of convincing by what is presented so much as he/she simply recognizes that it resonates: “Yes!–that is the way things are.” I believe that any thoughtful and reflective person can find an existentialist or two who can really speak to him/her in a manner hitherto unfelt. Hence, existentialism can be as exhilarating and liberating to a college freshmen as it can be to the seventy-five year old blue-collar man (the latter is actually my professor!).
There has always been a deep affinity between existentialism and art, whereby art attempts to express some of the innermost aspects of human reality that cannot be described in words. Well, one such artistic mode could be the following music video for the song “Smile Like you Mean It” by The Killers. Death, fleeting time, used space and embodiment are the themes of the video, and when I watch I think “Ah ha!” It may or may not resonate with you, but do give it a watch.
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