While we are on Bergman, Wiki states:
Bergman's films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and religious faith.
So, I had to understand what Existentialism is.
Existentialism is a term applied to the work of certain late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences,[1][2][3] shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.[4] In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.
The rest of the things in Wiki are too heavy for my small mind.
However Bob Corbette made it a little more easy for me by saying the following:
http://www2.webster.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/existentialism/whatis.html
I can define certain characterists that most Existentialists (and precursors to Existentialism) seem to share:
Going by the themes, I am astonished. I am having the same questions. I don't know philosophy. I haven't read anyone. I haven't watched great movies on this topic. But, I am going through the same existential crisis. How coincidental? I guess when man is given some basic education and left to his own devices, he will analyze himself and the world - initially he will be confused and overwhelmed and cynical at the world, then he becomes a little clear, then he goes on to lead a great life. All this mental anxiety and chaos I am going through, seems like big bang. After the big bang, the earth was created. Let me hope that I end up finding myself in this process of feeling lost and end up doing something of great value, for a greater cause than just earning a livelihood.
Bergman's films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and religious faith.
So, I had to understand what Existentialism is.
Existentialism is a term applied to the work of certain late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences,[1][2][3] shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.[4] In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.
The rest of the things in Wiki are too heavy for my small mind.
However Bob Corbette made it a little more easy for me by saying the following:
http://www2.webster.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/existentialism/whatis.html
I can define certain characterists that most Existentialists (and precursors to Existentialism) seem to share:
- they are obsessed with how to live one's life and believe that philosophical and psychological inquiry can help.
- they believe there are certain questions that everyone must
deal with (if they are to take human life seriously), and that these are
special --
existential -- questions. Questions such as death, the meaning of human
existence, the place of God in human existence, the meaning of value,
interpersonal relationship, the place of self-reflective conscious
knowledge of one's self in existing.
Note that the existentialists on this characterization don't pay much attention to "social" questions such as the politics of life and what "social" responsibility the society or state has. They focus almost exclusively on the individual. - By and large Existentialists believe that life is very difficult and that it doesn't have an "objective" or universally known value, but that the individual must create value by affiriming it and living it, not by talking about it.
- Existential choices and values are primarily demonstrated in ACT not in words.
- Given that one is focusing on individual existence and the "existential" struggles (that is, in making decisions that are meaningful in everyday life), they often find that literary characterizations rather than more abstract philosophical thinking, are the best ways to elucidate existential struggles.
- They tend to take freedom of the will, the human power to do or
not do, as absolutely obvious. Now and again there are arguments for
free will in
Existentialist literature, but even in these arguments, one gets the
distinct sense that the arguments are not for themselves, but for
"outsiders." Inside the movement, free will is axiomatic, it is
intuitively obvious, it is the backdrop of all else that goes on.
There are certainly exceptions to each of these things, but this is sort of a placing of the existentialist-like positions.
Going by the themes, I am astonished. I am having the same questions. I don't know philosophy. I haven't read anyone. I haven't watched great movies on this topic. But, I am going through the same existential crisis. How coincidental? I guess when man is given some basic education and left to his own devices, he will analyze himself and the world - initially he will be confused and overwhelmed and cynical at the world, then he becomes a little clear, then he goes on to lead a great life. All this mental anxiety and chaos I am going through, seems like big bang. After the big bang, the earth was created. Let me hope that I end up finding myself in this process of feeling lost and end up doing something of great value, for a greater cause than just earning a livelihood.
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