| Looking at the brain from a metaphysical perspective.
I never could explain existentialism, as I see it, very well, but always thought that was the holy grail of education i.e. when one can see it in their minds eye. We American's do not think enough about philosophy. Philosophy is what gave us no less than democracy and indeed civilization itself.
Even science did not give us that .Nothing else did that.
Last night I thought of a way. First though, I think most people get existentialism wrong and really do not understand it even as they try and explain it e.g. dictionaries, wiki, etc.
The classical definition is that "existence precedes essence". Sure, but what is the end product? That is an equation. And while I agree that is the fundamentally correct "process", it does not explain the idea as seen in the minds eye.
So that is not really what it is, but rather explains the equation for its formation.
In my opinion, what it is, is the awareness of reality. The awareness that virtually everything we know, excepting science, are primitive precepts (e.g. social mores, norms or religion) that distort reality. Which is why when people say Kierkegaard was the first existentialist it is absurd as he was a Christian. All dogma is antithetical to existentialism.
And I would say Zen is more or less the Eastern idea of existentialism. Not idea so much as an awareness that what most people believe is mostly made up stuff and not even very sophisticated. We humans can do better witness Denmark where the state does every thing in its power to educate the populace. And dogma is at a minimum.
The fact that understanding existentialism requires a good grasp of reality, and that can only be achieved through education, is the reason it cannot be taught to uneducated folks or children. One has to have a certain level of understanding of reality in order to see a picture in their minds eye and the right psychological disposition to see it e.g. limited hard core brain washing when young.
Liberals, generally speaking, are basically existentialist's even if they do not know it. I say basically, because existentialists only give lip service to all subjective social mores and norms as necessary for the functioning of society, but not take them seriously for the individual if they do not hurt society or the individual.
There is NO original sin.
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