Existentialism

What the Future Holds

Hume's problem of induction is that there’s no logical basis for drawing conclusions about what will happen in the future on the basis of what’s happened in the past. Doing so rests on an assumption that’s at best a leap of faith, and at worst an example of intellectual laziness.

Philosophers and the Meaning of Life

Many philosophers think asking about the meaning of life is confused or misguided. Or they try to explain what individuals can do to make their lives meaningful. But that does not offer the same existential solace as explaining what makes life itself valuable.

Sartre's Existentialism

让-保罗·萨特是我读本科时最喜欢的作品之一。我喜欢他的小说和戏剧,还有他那篇伟大的散文《作为人文主义的存在主义》。我甚至读过他700页的巨著《存在与虚无》(Being And nothing)。那么萨特所说的我们是完全自由的,我们是注定要自由的,是什么意思呢?什么是存在主义?

Camus and Absurdity

What would be the point of living if you thought that life was absurd, that it could never have meaning? This is precisely the question that Camus asks in his famous work, The Myth of Sisyphus. He says, “There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” He was haunted by this question of whether suicide could be the only rational response to the absurdity of life.