Jason Raikes                                                                                                    12/12/11

Philosophy 1000C

What determines a man’s limits? Existentialism is a philosophy designed to help people understand that, as an individual, we have power. The power to create ourselves based on how we choose to define ourselves as individuals. The power to change our circumstance based on which actions we choose and choose not to do. Existentialism is a frame of mind centered around the idea that people’s lives don’t solely rest in the hands of invisible Gods that exist on a celestial plain. The lives we live are the end result of the life we’ve worked to create for ourselves. We determine the outcome of our own lives. We each create our own individual experience. Therefore we are the Gods of our own experience.

 This is a positive perspective of the human condition because of the freedom it suggests. With this concept in mind people are no longer thought of as beings basked in sin eternally indebted to a higher power that, for some reason, needs a weekly donation from your life savings. With this mindset you realize you are free to be anything you want to be and live any way you want to live. Of course now that you can’t simply pass your sins over to God to be forgiven you are left with sole responsibility for your mistakes(Existentialism is humanism,page23). But when you can embrace your mistakes and shortcomings with no fear you realize its okay to make mistakes from time to time. With mistakes come valuable life lessons on how to succeed. When the concept of sin is in a person’s mind every mistake they make is accompanied with an abundance of self loathing. Imperfection is not tolerated when trying to appease a higher power. But when these concepts of Gods and sin are removed a sense of relief takes its place. There’s no longer a need to try so hard to reach the goal of perfection and a new level of comfort is established. By then the question of “ what can I do to make my God happy” is then changed to “ what should I do to find my own happiness”. That is where the growth begins.

The principles of life are very much interconnected. Any being with life has the potential to greatly affect all the lives around it. It is all the individual interconnected lives that come together to create one big entity known as life. Now if every individual life creates their own experience then the experiences themselves are interconnected as well and, as a collective, make up the accumulative experience known as life. This being said every individual life has a contribution to the accumulative experience known as life whether they are conscious of this or not. Now what existentialism is saying is what you contribute to the experience is entirely up to you. It’s your life therefore it is your experience to create and define(Existentialism is humanism,page22). Understand that everything that you do or choose not to do has the power to change everything. Take for example a child being scolded by their parents. If the child speaks their mind and angrily retaliates the child risks further punishment and quite possibly a beating of a life time. Whereas if the child assess the situation and remains as obedient as possible they can more than likely leave the scenario safely with minimal damage to their backside. Or let’s say a college student has a term paper due in three days. The student has the option of doing their work ahead of time in order to reduce the amount of stress they’ll have to undergo or wait until the last minute and lose a lot of sleep. Either way the experience the student chooses is up to them.

“Man is not only that which he conceives himself to be, but that which he wills himself to be, and since he conceives of himself only after he exists, just as he wills himself to be after being thrown into existence, man is nothing other than what he makes of himself”(Existentialism is humanism,page22). Everything we have is everything we’ve worked to achieve. No one is born the best at anything. We work to become whatever it is we’re trying to achieve. Meaning everything we are is developed over time through trial and error. As people there is nothing we cannot do because there is nothing we cannot learn how to do. To be able to learn is to be capable of improving one’s self and man’s unparalleled ability to learn gives us virtually limitless potential. No matter how similar two people can look it is impossible to find two people that think the exact same way or have the same talents. Learning is the rate at which someone or something can understand a concept. The sooner you understand something the faster you can learn making understanding the key to development, the key to growth, the key to progress. So when a person understands how to be something that understanding will eventually manifest into a state of being. If I understand how to draw I am an artist. If I understand how to fight I am a fighter.  If I understand how to educate I am a teacher. This is the condition of the human mind. We have a blank slate that we fill with our own interests. It’s almost as if the brain acts as a genie in a bottle. We are our own wish granters. We need only be aware that these wishes don’t manifest instantly but gradually through sheer will and understanding.

Man is a very impressionable. Even though we have limitless potential if we are not aware of this potential it is the same as the potential not existing. Again understanding is the key to growth, the key to development. If we do not understand that we are limitless we are limited. The concept of Gods revolves around their omnipotence, their ability to create, destroy, and influence. But when broken down their abilities are simply exaggerated versions of our own. People can create other people. People can create concepts and objects and numerous other things. People can destroy. People can destroy objects, their environment, and other people. Most importantly people can influence other people.  Once an idea ferments in the mind of a person they can potentially be changed forever. A person can virtually change another person with an idea. That person only has to believe what they were told. Like when a parent tells a child about Santa Claus. The child is told that if they are well behaved for a year a fat man will reward them with gifts and with that knowledge the child’s entire demeanor can potentially change simply because they believe what they are told. The child’s belief in the idea makes it real to that individual child and therefore the rules and conditions that are required to receive a gift are now followed. To control a person all you have to do is make them believe they will be rewarded for their obedience and they will obey.

In order to limit the potential of the people you have to limit the mindset of the people. The concept of Gods places people in a bubble where they are not in control of their own experience. The experience they live in is in the hands of an invisible higher power that can make them suffer if they do not please it.  So people go about thinking “If I want to find happiness I must make God happy” and, much like Santa Claus, the primary way to make God happy is through obedience. The end result is countless generations born into a state of mental submissiveness and ironically enough most of them are miserable. We are subconsciously taught a mentality that teaches us that there is a natural hierarchy in the world and those on the bottom should be happy at the bottom and submit to those at the top. People are free to create their own experience but they choose not to because they feel as though there is an invisible force above their heads ready to cast judgment and create a series of unfortunate events if angered. The people of the world are subject a state of mental slavery where they are not free even in their own minds. No longer free to be who they want to be and forced to be who they’re taught to be. “we merely mean to say that God does not exist”(Existentialism is humanism,page27) With no God to restrict us we are free to be who we choose to be. “If God does not exist, everything is permissible. This is the starting point of existentialism.” (Existentialism is humanism,page27)

Existentialism is a Humanism, a system of thought that centers the importance of life around people rather than supernatural or celestial deities. It stresses the limitless potential we have as people and the limitless good we can do for the world around us once we realize we have the power to do so. When you live a life at the mercy of Gods that seek undying submissiveness and obedience you’re left with an inescapable sense of powerlessness. Subject to a mentality where your input does not have great importance and your experience is already predetermined. But remove the concept of Gods for only a second and you have the power to make anything happen. You are in control of your own life. You’re free to live and free to think. Because we are the Gods of our own experience. We are the God of our own Existence.