We’re All Existentialists Now

Discussion of articles that appear in the magazine.

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Philosophy Now
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We’re All Existentialists Now

Post by Philosophy Now »

Greg Artus contemplates (dis)embodiment, Zoom life and social media, through the ‘Looks’ of Sartre, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/145/Were_All_Existentialists_Now
Ansiktsburk
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Re: We’re All Existentialists Now

Post by Ansiktsburk »

This is a kind of important article now. Guess in my scandinavian home country as in other countries around the world. The take - at least one - is that we do need the physical company of others to function well, feel enjoyment and so on. And of course this refers to the restriction in contact due to the Corona pandemy. That people have been instructed to work from home, avoided meeting up and so on.

"Through our synchronous transcending of our subjectivity we can become a harmonious whole with others, and share the simple joy of being the same as others yet different". and then - "this is what we have all missed this past year since we can do it only being embodied in the same physical space".

This is a cruel and shortsighted notion, supposedly by a person being born extrovert and accepting nothing but his own traits, hopefully just ignorant of the fact that a large part of mankind do NOT flourish at coffe breaks, in meeting rooms, in school classes, in locker rooms or at parties or dinners.

While it is a relief for many to come back to office, come back to school and going to dinners, parties and the like, it is not such a relief for others.

And as for the social media that Greg Artus describes as so much worse than actually meeting people in person - yeah that´s true for the part of mankind born extrovert. For an introvert, those social situations - in person - will not add anything. Social media will instead give those people a way to communicate without feeling bad all the time.

So please, cut out the "we" and realise what you write is true only to the extroverts.
Ansiktsburk
Posts: 447
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2013 12:03 pm
Location: Central Scandinavia

Re: We’re All Existentialists Now

Post by Ansiktsburk »

Hope I didn't cause that landslide of OP´s without an answer, wasn't my intention anyways...
Vitruvius
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Re: We’re All Existentialists Now

Post by Vitruvius »

"In this past year of severe restrictions on physical social interaction, everyone seems to have been made starkly aware of the importance of what some existentialists would call Being-with-Others. A social life conducted through screens has shown people how impoverished life is without the physical presence of others. The popular expression of this has been through the language of ‘hugs’: everyone talks of missing hugs and other physical contact."


"Sheldon Cooper:
While Mr. Kim, by virtue of his youth and naivety, has fallen prey to the inexplicable need for human contact, let me step in and assure you that my research will go on uninterrupted, and that social relationships will continue to baffle and repulse me."
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