I received two exciting Christmas gifts; two Great Courses:
1. No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life, and
2. Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe
So you may want to temper any future desire to visit this site with that in mind.
As proof I will offer this selection from the introduction on Existentialism:
The message of existentialism, unlike that of many more obscure and academic philosophical movements, is about as simple as can be. It is that everyone of us, as an individual, is responsible—responsible for what we do, responsible for who we are, responsible for the way we face and deal with the world, responsible, ultimately, for the way the world is. It is, in a very short phrase, the philosophy of "no excuses!" Life may be difficult; circumstances may be impossible. There may be obstacles, not least of which our own personalities, characters, emotions, and limited means or intelligence. But, nevertheless, we are responsible. We cannot shift that burden onto God, or nature, or the ways of the world.
2 comments:
I quit.
I have come to the same ethical conclusion concerning responsibility. However, I come at it from the Buddhist angle, namely: Everything is empty of essence and only exists and makes sense in the context of everything else in the universe. Because everything and everyone shapes everything and everyone else, we are responsible, in part, for the way things are.
The Stoics also chip in. You can't always control what people do to you, but you can control how you react. It's not exactly the same, but it's another philosophy that emphasizes your own power over yourself.
There isn't anything I disagree with in that introduction aside from clarification and specifics I'd like to know, which is probably in the rest of the course.
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