Existentialism:
Those who adopt an existential posture typically express the conviction that human beings can never be certain of anything beyond the sheer fact of their own existence. What human beings assert that they know is wholly capricious and unreliable. The subjective quality of the process of knowing is seen by the existentialist as inevitable. When we claim to “know” something, the “knowing” seems to be rather an intuitive grasp that has, or can be given, personal significance. There is nothing stable or objective about it. It is neither rational nor empirical in the traditional sense. To state that one knows is merely to express a personal affirmation that may shift or change at random with no outside criteria by which it may be evaluated or criticised. It boils down to this: Truth is what I affirm it to be. It is for this reason that there can be no existential theory or system of of knowledge. It is for this reason that non-existentialists are likely to apply, and existentialists not likely to reject, the label “irrationalists.” Continue reading