There’s always more to philosophy.
For some reason, the philosophy department at my university thought it would be fitting to schedule the weekly ‘Existentialism’ lectures in first year for 9 am on a Monday morning. This nicely prepared me and most of the group to spend the entire week reflecting on the question of “what’s the point of life?” before presenting these ideas to each other in a seminar at 4 pm on Thursday or Friday. I’m not suggesting causation, but I would be interested to review how this impacted the mental health and general well-being of the group.
During these lectures and seminars, we looked at the big names – Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, a little bit of Leo Tolstoy. Each of these had slightly different perspectives on the meaning of life, but generally, they all boiled down to there not being one. For Camus especially, this revelation could lead to existential anguish which was not a good place to be. Sartre also described being abandoned to make our own way through life and being vulnerable to acting in bad faith. These are normally interpreted as not particularly pleasant reflections, seeing our lack of purpose in life as overwhelmingly lonely. There’s no reason to do something or not to do it.
This was the existentialism that my friends and I would refer to in the future, as we left university or were placed in other situations where our abandonment to make a choice became obvious. Camus’ anguish became a tangible feeling, not knowing what option to take or how to avoid living in bad faith. The term ‘existential crisis’ was familiar and well understood by us and the whole topic of existentialism gained a bad reputation as something that could quickly get you spiralling into worse and worse thoughts. Existentialism was bad news.
Until recently, when I received a birthday message hoping the day was “as full of existential joy as possible :)”.
I was stumped. I had never realised that existential joy was also a possibility.
Somewhere in our existentialism lectures, the emphasis had been placed so much on being anguished that it overshadowed anything said about existential joy. Looking back on my notes, the joy option is there the whole way through and we completely ignored it in favour of the option all the philosophers are literally telling us not to go for. Camus goes on to explain that the way out of his anguish is with two options – suicide or hope. Admittedly, his version of hope is described as philosophical suicide anyway due to it being irrational and believing in some meaning despite knowing there isn’t any. However, his version of suicide doesn’t have to be as depressing as the title suggests. Instead, it’s admitting life is absurd and going along with it anyway!
Existentialism often goes hand in hand with understanding what freedom is. Freedom can be overwhelming and scary, sure, but it can also be liberating and glorious! On reflection, Beauvoir seems to get some of this when describing freedom as enabling transcendence. Because we are free to create our own destinies and put meaning into our lives, we can transcend the labels and boundaries placed on us. We can be authentic to ourselves and our own hopes, as the meaning of our life isn’t dictated by our gender, social class, history, sexuality, race or anything else. If we have any meaning in our lives it comes from the individual.
In a similar line of thought and potentially influencing Beauvoir, Kierkegaard expresses this freedom as a choice between faith and systems of the world. If we’re choosing where our meaning of life comes from, then it’s up to us to give this responsibility to the structures we exist within, like social norms. Alternatively, we can have faith, recognising that life is uncontrollable and committing to the things we find to be meaningful anyway. For Kierkegaard, this was committing to God, but it could equally be committing to causes we believe to be important, or committing to the people close to you.
When viewed this way, existential joy is possible. In realising that there isn’t some great purpose for our lives or meaning within each action, we get to assign importance and meaning to these moments. Things can be poignant and exciting because we say they are, transcending above what society tells us are the things we should be proud of or celebrate. Our choices can bring us joy and we are allowed to enjoy them because we are the judges and jury of joyfulness. Every option is open to us, so we can choose the fun things, the easy things, the exciting things. Maybe the purpose you give today is to eat something delicious. Tomorrow’s purpose could be to spend time with someone you adore. Your life purpose could be centred on learning who you are. It’s entirely your choice!
Now having reflected and re-taught myself about existential joy, I think I may have experienced some level of it during my birthday. That day, I had been abandoned to make my own decisions and spend the day as I pleased in a city I was getting to know. I chose to visit a grand cathedral, getting caught in one of the only rain showers the city had seen in months. I ate some incredible dumplings and potato wedges because I was at a food court and both options were available and no one could stop me. I journaled on a step in front of another incredible church facade. I called some friends and ate a red velvet cake. Perhaps the day was a microcosmic experience of existential joy, as any purpose or meaning in it was designated by me.
As we look to the future and see the randomness and absurdity of life, existential joy says this isn’t something to fear. Instead, it’s an opportunity to make our lives what we want them to be and choose for ourselves what makes them important. We can be true to ourselves and overcome the labels and rules put on us by other people. There is freedom to act as we see fit and from there can come joy.
For more philosophy, read my raving about Plato or how AI is infiltrating my life.
Rebekah's Ramblings 
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