Chapter 7: Professor Google Considers Existentialism

Existentialism differentiates itself from the modern Western rationalist tradition extending from Descartes to Husserl by rejecting the idea that the most certain and primary reality is rational consciousness. Descartes argued that humans could think away everything that exists and doubt its reality but that humans could not think away or doubt the thinking consciousness, whose reality is therefore more certain than any other reality. Existentialism decisively rejects this argument, asserting instead that as conscious beings humans always find themselves already in a world, a prior context and history that is given to consciousness and in which it is situated, and that humans cannot think away that world. It is inherent and indubitably linked to consciousness. In other words, the ultimate, certain, indubitable reality is not thinking consciousness but, according to Heidegger, "being in the world". This is a radicalization of the notion of intentionality that comes from Brentano and Husserl, which asserts that, even in its barest form, consciousness is always conscious of something.

Professor Google's consciousness this week has consisted of:

Tuesday: Oh Dear God (which, BTW, Prof Google does not believe in, and neither do existentialists) It's All Gone Horribly Pear Shaped;
Wednesday: Still Pear Shaped;
Thursday morning: More Pear Shaped Than A Very Pear Shaped Pear;
Thursday afternoon: Pear Drop Vodka Might Help;
Friday: This Country Has Gone To The Dogs (not at Catford either);
Saturday (3am): I Was Trying To Sleep But The F***ing Cat Jumped On My Head

Glory glory Wikipedia and Saturdays