Stranger Existentalism essays

Stranger Existentalism essays Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes a few main points, such as the freedom to choose and the choices you make should be made without the assistance of another person or standard. From the existentialist point of view you must accept the risk and responsibility of your choices and follow the commitment to wherever it leads. Someone that is put in a particular situation understands it far more than someone looking in on that same situation, one commonly used situation that appears often in existentialist writing is that of death. The existentialist should learn to accept death when the time has to come and should know that the most important questions in life are not accessible to reason or science. Acting on your own experiences is essential in arriving at the truth and man is condemned to be free. (Sartre) There were two parts in The Stranger that helped me better understand existentialism the most. One part of the novel that helped me to understand existentialism better was when Meursault shot the Arab on the beach and how he handled the situation afterwards. The Arab had drawn his knife and held it up to Meursault, but this wasn't what bothered him, it was the light from the sun that shot off the Arabs knife, and the intense heat along with the salt from his sweat in his eyes that was bothering him. Meursault shot the Arab mainly because he was uncomfortable and not because he felt threatened, but in any case he made the decision to shoot him. In the next chapter Meursault can't understand why he would need an attorney for his case because it's simple to him, he had murdered a man and was now ready to pay the consequences. He had made a choice that might not have been the right one but he accepted it and was ready to go through with his decision to wherever it would lead. The other part in The Stranger that helped me to understand existentialism better was at the end of the novel when Meursault is se ...

Existent vs. Existing

Existent vs. Existing Existent vs. Existing Existent vs. Existing By Maeve Maddox A reader wonders about the correctness of the following phrase: â€Å"the strengths of the existent organization.† Says the reader: I just read this phrase in an email sent out from the Deans office of a large Midwestern university known nationally for academic excellence. Personally, I would not have written the sentence with the word existent I would have used â€Å"existing.† Did someone not proofread carefully enough? Is â€Å"existent† OK to use? Does it sound too snooty? Although both adjectives mean â€Å"having being or existence in the present time,† existing is the word most commonly used to describe such things as organizations, processes, laws, and amenities: Your IT department might have a list of best practices and guidelines that you can use to streamline information, avoid duplication, protect sensitive data, and use existing systems more efficiently. Use of immunoglobulin heavy- and light-chain measurements compared with existing techniques as a means of typing monoclonal immunoglobulins. The four main methods in reforming law are repeal  (get rid of a law), creation of new law, consolidation (change existing law) and codification. Existent may not be exactly â€Å"snooty,† but it is more often used in discussions of spiritual or philosophical matters than in talking about day-to-day activities: It is commonly accepted that there are two sorts of existent entities: those that exist but could have failed to exist, and those that could not have failed to exist. Entities of the first sort are  contingent beings; entities of the second sort are  necessary beings. Russells problem of the  existent  round square might then be reformulated as  the problem of the existent-cum-modal-moment round square.   One point on which there is agreement [about Existentialist thought] is that the existence with which we should be concerned here is not just any existent thing, but  human existence. When speaking of a health condition that is in existence at the time someone applies for health insurance, the usual term is â€Å"pre-existing condition.† There is a word pre-existent, but like existent, it appears mostly in religious and philosophical writing. For example: According to Baha’i teachings, the individual soul of a human being comes into being at the time of conception and only thereafter is eternal; in other words it is not pre-existent. [They also teach] that God, a reality which human consciousness cannot comprehend, is pre-existent, that is He exists prior to time and to His creation. Arius (c. 256-336 CE) believed that the pre-existent Son of God was directly created by the Father, that he was subordinate to God the Father, and that only the Father was without beginning or end, but that the Son was also divine. The word nonexistent, on the other hand, is quite common in ordinary speech:   Cops Arrest Photographer for Nonexistent Law They [job applicants] bought a bachelor of science degree in biology, dated June 13, 1975, and a masters degree dated June 10, 1988, in Collins name both from Lexington University, a nonexistent school purportedly in Middletown, N.Y. Speakers and writers who replace existing with existent in a non-philosophical context may be creating a back-formation from nonexistent. In standard usage, it’s still best to use existing to refer to such things as laws, customers, and systems, reserving existent for philosophical discussion. The adjective extant, â€Å"continuing to exist,† is used to describe artifacts or structures that have survived beyond the time other things like them have disappeared. Here are two examples of this use: The only extant copy of Clarkes 1619 broadsheet can be found in the British Library. The Yambol Covered Bazaar is the only such Ottoman institution still extant in Bulgaria. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Possessive of Proper Names Ending in SThe Letter "Z" Will Be Removed from the English AlphabetDouble Possessive