One of touching signs of the influence of philosophy on everyday life.
Is that people can sometimes be heard to complain that they're
Going through something what they call A Existential Crisis.
Man: "Noo!" (Dramatic music)
The phrase maybe used rather casually and vaguely but it nether the less-
Touches on one of the major traditions of European philosophy
Closely associated with the ideas of five philosophers
In particular .
And
(Boxing bell rings)Those these figures disagreed on many things it is possible of five of their thoughts
To come to a coherent view of what a Existential crisis really is
(twinkles)
And when it might therefore be helpful to refer to ourselves
As going through .... ( Inspirational music )
(Inspirational music continuous)
(funky music )
(*whoosh........whoosh,whoosh )
The crisis is marked by five distinctive features
(*Whoosh...Whoosh) ( Footsteps)
Firstly it's a period when a lot that previously seem like common sense or normal
Reveal it's contingent, chance, uncanny and relative nature. (Dramatic music)
For example, we might start to wonder "Why do we live in (THIS) part of the world?"
"Rather than (ANY) other?"
"Why we're doing (THIS) job and (NOT) somethings else?"
"Why are we with (THIS) partner and following (THIS) set of social norms
In short we realized rather disturbingly there are far more options under the surface
Than we normally allow ourselves to imagine..... We are more free than we thought
Secondly, this revelation is acutely in anxiety inducing
Man:(distress crying)
Recognition of our freedom doesn't bring with it calm quite the opposite
Man:(distress crying)
We recognize we've been deluding ourselves about what (HAD) to be.
No one (Really) cares quite as much as we thought about what we are and what had choosen to do
We could change everything around (Seagulls calling)
We could come to a disturbing awareness that our ultimate responsiblity
Is to ourselves (NOT) the social world
Thirdly, we develop a heightened awareness of death.
Time is short and running out, we need to re-examine our lives
But the clock is ticking ever loud (footsteps)
Fourthly, and cruciaily for(All) the existential philosophers
We have many chooses but are by the nature of human condition
Denied the information we would need to choose with ultimate wisdom with certainty
We are forced to decide and can never be assured that we've done so adequately
We are steering blind
And Therefore we can be guranteed to make a lot of mistakes
The condition of a mankind is to have to plot our course in the dark without adequate reason or incite
This leads to another favorite word for the Existentialist
(Crowed cheers)
Anxiety
The human condition is to be anxious
Not about " This or that" particular thing but is a basic feature of our lives
Because we must always choose without any security that we've chosen well and without sufficient time
To explore the options
This can call all sound paralyzing conspiracy
Man: (distress yelling) Yet the existential philosophers don't mean to depress us.
They want to learn dignity and grandeur
To dilemmas
which we too often we think of harsh alone
And therefore
Feel ashamed about some personal curse
When they are in fact
Fundamental features of the human condition
Which are immobile us
when we considered them with sufficient depth
(Music plays)
The existentialist offer us
A useful corrective to a normal
Pernicious view that intelligent
Choice might be possible and untragic
in Structure
An existential approach tempers
The modern sentimental notion
That perfection is within reach
(tire screeches) Man : (Cries) (Drives off)
Is that you suffer from agony
of choice isn't some
anomaly its one of the most
predictable and poignant things
About being alive (whoosh)
This is a message we benefit from hearing
Quite often because what helps
With regret is the knowledge that in fact
Every life is burden by it
In some shape or form
(Music plays)
(Music plays ) ( Woman singing in french)( Record scratch)
The regret free life only exist in movies and songs
The way to diminish our anxiety and panick
Is to alleviate the sense that one had the options to choose correctly but failed
A degree of disappointment
Is as a existentialist philosopher
So beautifully admitted
It's simply a human condition.