HUM14 / B1

SW 2
Group 4: December 15, 2018
Members: Gregana, Ma. Carmela Therese
Guinto, Paul Justine
Katipunan, Angelika Michelle C.
Kumagai, Youki
Salvador, Shannon

Read the link “To have or to be” and relate to the issues of existentialism ppt.

Gregana, Ma. Carmela

Humans are born with no actual pre-determined purpose or pattern that ones have

to follow. Life essence is set by oneself. Everyone has a choice in what our life purpose would

be. One’s life path depends on the choices we made. We are responsible for what future might

offer us because it is the result of our life decisions in the past.

One of the agonizing concepts of existentialism is not the worlds lack of meaning

but its terrifying abundance of freedom. Most of us feel that having freedom is the best way to live

but, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre thought the opposite, having freedom could bring us pain.

Since there are no guidelines for our actions, we were forced to design our own moral code, to

invent a morality to live by. Sartre said, “You might think that there’s some authority you could

look to for answers, but all of the authorities you can think of are fake. Those authorities are just

like people like you - people who do not have answers, people who had to figure out for

themselves how to live.” Therefore, we have to learn to recognize that whatever our life’s meaning

is, it is set by ourselves.

Guinto, Paul Justine

The having and being modes of existence can be linked to some of the main concepts of

existentialism, which is the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the acting, feeling, living

human individual. Before we get to relating, we should have a look at one key concept of

existentialism. Namely, the concept of Authenticity. Authentic existence involves the idea that
one has to create one’s self and must live in accordance to this new self. Basically, this entails

not living by one’s acts or lineage. Now, which one of the aforementioned ideas can we relate the

concept of Authenticity to?

Well, I believe that we can relate the concept of Authenticity to the idea of being, as

opposed to having. As one famous adage once said, “know thyself”. (The concept of Authenticity

extends this to “don’t merely know yourself, be yourself.”) This easily relates to one interpretation

of the idea of being, “which refers to the real, in contrast to the falsified, illusory picture.” (Fromm,

1976: 87) Being authentic is being true to yourself and not trying to be what something you weren’t

meant to be, just as the concept of being refers to finding, and living in accordance with, the true

self, not the self-created by deeds or lineage. In short, the being persons have a true and

authentic sense of self that’s defined by nothing but their very existence.

Now, contrast with the concept of having. To have, as described by Fromm, is a normal

function of human life. We must have things to live, and enjoy, life as we see fit. Whereas the

being mode has the person rely on the true self to find happiness, the having mode relies on what

they have, what they can get, and what they can use to get what they want to find contentment.

Furthermore, whereas the having mode of existence has some inherently selfish traits, the being

mode has no such characteristics. For instance, the having mode of existence, due to being

heavily centered on property, profit, and material possessions, necessarily breeds desire, or need

for power. Oftentimes it leads to envy and jealousy. So, it can be said that the having mode of

existence rarely breeds Authenticity, as it heavily revolves around materialism and desire for

power, whereas the being mode of existence mostly just revolves the true, pure, authentic self.
Katipunan, Angelika Michelle C.

Based from the point of view of Master Eckhart about the concept of having and being, he

points out that it is essential in life to have or to consume things in this world. Thus, this leads to

the thinking of what he has defines himself. For example, if someone has luxury cars, he is called

rich. If someone has just simple things, he may be middle class. In reality, there are cases where

not everyone who has luxury is rich. There are some who are poor but has luxury, why? Because

they are spending all their money for luxury and not investing for the future. In contrary to that,

having luxury or even material things are not important or essential. These are all temporal and

we won’t be able to take it once we achieve death. When we die, only our soul will be brought to

what we call the afterlife. Material things are just for us to survive in the physical world but in the

end, we won’t take advantage of it once we die. Once a man achieves to have every

material things in life, investing in physical riches, and not on eternal riches, his life will be

meaningless and still misses something. The one and only important thing that is needed by us

that we can take it to eternity is a relationship with God. As said in the bible, “For what shall it

profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). Again, it is our

spirit that we will be having with as we live our eternal lives. Thus, we should invest it by trusting

our whole life to God, believing for what He had done, having faith in Him as we live our lives, and

sharing the good news to our fellow relatives and friends. Once we received the eternal life from

God, we won’t have grief, nor be afraid once we die. Why? Because we know we’ll have eternal

joy in heaven, and we are with the Lord eternally. Sufferings, and negative things in life will now

be vanished away.

However, the behavior of having something in the world is due to our sinful flesh and

because we are still in the world. No one is perfect, thus, there will be a tendency for an individual

to crave for something to consume. So, with this, we should ask for help from God to be content

in what we have and not desire to have more in life. Trusting everything in the Lord for we know

that He will provide for us when we really need it. Let this verse in the bible be implanted in our
hearts for us to be content in life, “Not that I speak of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state

I am, therewith to be content.” (Philippians 4:11). We should not be attached to any things, nor

being attached to someone, it may be an actor/actress, or someone important (2 Timothy 2:3-5).

We should just be attached to God and of course express the love that God gives to us to

everyone around us, in that, hatred in the end, or some trajectories of grief will be gone.

Kumagai, Youki

Existentialism is a philosophy entered upon the analysis of existence and of the way

humans find themselves existing in the world. It says that first exist then each individual spends

a lifetime changing their essence or nature. Basically, it means a person finding oneself and the

meaning of life through free will, choice and personal responsibility. The belief is that people are

searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their

experiences, beliefs, and outlook.

This philosophy became evident after the Great Depression and World war II. There was

a spirit of hopefulness in society but was destroyed after World War I and its mid-century

calamities. This despair has been expressed by existentialist philosophers during the 1970s

and continues on to this day as a common way of thinking and reasoning.

An existentialist could be a religious moralist, agnostic relativist, or an amoral

atheist Kierkegaard, a religious philosopher, Nietzsche, an anti-Christian, Sartre, an atheist, and

Camus an atheist, were credited for their works and writings about existentialism. Sartre is known

for bringing the most international attention to existentialism in the 20th century.
Salvador, Shan

Existentialism is to wonder, think, philosophize on your own existence, where did you

came from, where are you going to, and most important, “what is the meaning of me being here?”.

I take it from an atheistic perspective, (in most religions, God gives you a purpose and has a plan

for you, so no existential wonder is needed, and in many Christian and Muslim people, it’s actually

despicable to do so, and as such, i reflect and debate myself about the meaning of my own

life, knowing there is no ultimate purpose, but choosing what meaning to give myself, what i want

to do with what little time I've been allotted in this world, but at the same time knowing that such

purpose is not final, but will change, evolve, and perhaps be corrected on the way.

Isn’t that beautiful? at once soothing and scary. Soothing because it makes you realize

how unimportant many disputes and problems are, how futile the attempts to fill your life with

meaningless objects or rituals and tells you “whatever you did with your life, it was the best you

could, it was neither ultimately right or wrong, you just were”.

Scary, because you are aware it will end, and most likely this will be it, no second chances,

no extra time to do what you missed or didn’t do, no meeting your dead loved ones ever again,

and leaving your living loved ones forever, to once again become the stardust from which we

came, and still are.

For me it has been a lesson in humility, it has taught me to love my family and friends

even more, to love life and my journey through it, doing the best i can to be the best person i can,

and the experience of facing my own death progressively makes me stronger, and i hope wiser.