Definition

I am going to start by saying that I am obviously not going to be able to answer that question, as we all know this question has alluded the most prestigious philosophers themselves.  But I am going to answer what existentialism means to me today.

I don’t know why but I have always been seduced by the idea of philosophers sitting around in Parisian cafes drowning in cigarette smoke discussing life, its meaning, its purpose and its love or love in general.  In my mind, we should all be doing that.  Really, what could be more enjoyable than that? What could be more enjoyable than to push humanity forward with new thinking, thinking that answers our most deepest questions, our raison d’etre?  We all know deep inside that it’s not just about being successful, living in a tower, running around like a crazy person to make it all work etc... etc... but that is all we do, exactly.  And, of course, at a certain moment in life it hits us, as life always does, and we face something very difficult. Something which makes our head go spinning round and round. And we have to ask ourselves all the questions we have been very good at concealing from ourselves!  And that is not the worst part. The worst part is finding out that we absolutely do not know the answers to those very pressing questions that we have been very good at concealing from ourselves and worst still nobody else does either! 

Hello anxiety, hello fear, hello chaos and craziness and crisis, oh and tarot reader, astrologer, shaman, drugs, alcohol and God? Nice to meet you all.

So I guess just like me these incredible people (Beauvoir and Sartre and many others) sat together and started asking these same questions! Realizing no one was going to give them the answers they decided to look for answers, and if not answers at least a way to look at things that can help guide each of us towards our own certain answer/s: the asking of the questions and the way to look at possible answers is what we call existentialism. What is Love, Fear, Purpose, Happiness? These are the themes we’ll try to explore on this blog. We will share with you our feelings and thoughts hopping that it will maybe make you question some things and share your own views or thoughts on these issues with us. Thus we can all grow from this experience and even if we are not unfortunately sitting in some Parisian cafe discussing this all together, we will be virtually pretending to do so in here.

xx

Salander & Alice