Eric Scheske

More Sartre So what did Sartre say? Basically, he simply denied that we have any natural traits (i.e., essences, characteristics). Instead of such essences, Sartre said, we have existence, and that's it. Our essences don't really exist. At best, they have a secondary reality because

It's Friday the 13th. Avoid ladders, black cats and ridiculous superstitions.

Office Party Night Office party tonight. There'll be a lot of drinking and, no doubt, the stereotypical office party drunken antics, including the woman who drinks too much, flirts outrageously with the boss, then goes home with him, leaving me to deal with the fall-out later. Fortunately,

Jean-Paul Sarte is also significant because his immense popularity offers further proof that there is something about existentialism that appeals to modern man. In 1945, after Sartre's philosophy began to filter through Paris' streets, he scheduled a public lecture. Although it was not widely advertised, by

The Catcher in the Rye is one of the few books that I've read twice. The narrator and protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is a teenage jerk, but his constant, pointed criticisms of the shallowness of modern life make me laugh. Holden punches and weaves through everyday banalities that most

Brews You Can Use My small town has a great event planned this evening for downtown shopping. My office is located in the middle of it all, thereby enabling me to have a few drinks, venture out and check out the sites, go back and have a few drinks, venture

The Stranger The whole attitude of existentialism is perhaps best seen in the most-popular existentialist novel of the twentieth century, Albert Camus' short book, The Stranger [https://amzn.to/2sNUVD9], which I'll summarize in hopes of giving the reader a good “feel” for existentialism. The hero

The experts often disagree about the definition of existentialism, but in general, the term refers to a type of thought that emphasizes existence rather than essence. Here's how one scholar put it: “[G]enerally we can describe thinking as existentialist if it makes existence rather than essence the

Existentialism and the Modern Man There is one good religious projection in particular that has been spraying for the past one hundred years in one form or another and has cropped up occasionally with tremendous popularity, though few recognize it as a religious phenomenon. It has been a spiritual artesian

Monday Miscellany If you're looking for this week's podcast, there isn't one. The Thanksgiving Holiday weekend proved too much. Look for it to resume on December 8th. I would hope to keep it regular from that point forward, though the Christmas weekends could prove