“I was keen to dispel a familiar misunderstanding: that existentialists somehow relish the alienation of human beings from the world. This may have been Camus's attitude, but it was certainly not that of Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, each of whom tried to show that we can only experience the world in relation to our own projects and purposes. The world is initially one of 'equipment', said Heidegger: it is a world of 'tasks', said Sartre.” WorldHumansMayHas BeensSaidShowsPurposeHuman BeingsAttitudeProjectsTasksRelationFamiliarEquipmentMisunderstandingAlienationRelishExistentialistHeidegger Author:David E. Cooper
“For me, the existentialists are important critics of 'absolutist' claims, and Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty are, at least in their later writings, also exponents of a doctrine of mystery: Being or the 'well-spring' of everything is, for Heidegger, ineffable, just as what Merleau-Ponty called 'Flesh' is for him.” WritingWellsImportantMysterySpringClaimsCriticsFleshDoctrineIneffableExistentialistHeideggerExponents Author:David E. Cooper
“I think it's true that for existentialist thinkers, appreciation of what we are - free, makers of meaning, 'issues' for ourselves, and so on - is at the same time a recognition of how we should try to live.” ThinkingShouldTryingIssuesAppreciationRecognitionMakersThinkerExistentialist Author:David E. Cooper
“I rather shared Nietzsche's conception of the kind of individual that an ideal education should be cultivating. 'Authenticity' is not Nietzsche's term, but as used by some existentialists, it nicely captures what Nietzsche admired - the resolve of an individual person to forge his or her own 'table of values', to be emancipated from strait-jacketing conventions, traditions, and ideologies. As embodied in the 'Overman', authenticity is the antidote to 'bad' nihilism.” ShouldKindPersonsUsedValuesIndividualTermIdealsTraditionTablesAuthenticityIdeologyResolveConceptionCaptureConventionsAntidoteNihilismCultivatingExistentialist Author:David E. Cooper