Philosophy : People

Figures important or interesting in the history and development of Philosophy

Samuel Becket (Existentialist)

We gotta laugh. We gotta laugh and find something amidst the absurdity and meaningless to bring meaning. Or maybe just laugh for the sake of laughing and nothing more. Maybe that’s the point. We wait (for something or someone). We talk (to someone about something). We laugh (at someone or with someone about someone or something else). Then we die.

Jeremy Bentham (founder of Utilitarianism, 1700s-1800s)

"…it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong."

He treated pleasure as the end good; the idea that a person should always choose more rather than less in terms of happiness. In other words, humans are meant to enjoy life, and more enjoyment is better than less enjoyment, therefore society must recognize that if something is not making the greatest number of people happy to the greatest amount…something must change.

Albert Camus (Existentialist)

He talked about how we can choose to be happy, regardless of circumstances. Like Sisyphus.

John Stuart Mill (titan of Classical Liberalism, 1800s)

Childhood prodigy, son of a father who was a disciple of Bentham, and who raised him as a type of experiment - he was isolated from friends and pers and flooded with learning and education. He became the leading thinker of the 1800s, but at great personal cost, including intense bouts with depression and loneliness. Spent his adult life as the great intellectual of the century and pushing for societal reforms that would lead to reduce human suffering.

One of his ideas I love: those who are happy - truly happy - are pursuing something else other than their own happiness. They are working perhaps to improve humankind, or pursuing an art or discipline, and as a by-product, they find happiness. This places great importance on activities that might sometimes seem trivial or unimportant or non-life changing…but make life good.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Nineteenth-century German moral philosopher who was a massive influence on various modern world views. A big idea of his was the notion of the ubermensch, otherwise known as superman; those who would rise to the hero’s call and lead people forward through their strength and superiority. Much of his positions have to do with taking risk, rising up, and facing both life and death with intensity and strength.

Jean-Paul Sartre (Existentialist)

He believed there is no objective meaning to our lives where we serve a particular function. There’s no meaning or function waiting for us, therefore, we need to choose it or figure it out ourselves. Basically, it’s up to us to make decisions. Which sounds great for a while, and then ends up being a heavy load. Sometimes it seems like it would be so much simpler and easier to be preprogrammed with whatever it is we’re ‘supposed’ to be doing with our lives.

A big thing of his was the idea of choice. There’s not guidelines waiting for us to follow. We must figure out the absurdity of life on our own.

“…we have no predetermined essence”