Existential Theory Research Articles

Subjective Truth and The Leap of Faith: A Textual Analysis of Updike’s Terrorist

Kierkegaard’s existential theory that an individual with faith truly exists correspond to his idea of subjective truth that prompts the individual to take leap of faith. The current paper explores the treatment of truth in Updike’s Terrorist from theoretical perspective of Kierkegaard’s concept of subjective truth. After conducting textual analysis of the novel, we have come to understand that the higher truth is subjective and functions in an individual in such a way that he is ready to live or die for it. We also found out that passionate inwardness and commitment with the truth is necessary and truth develops with the passage of time according to the turn of events in the life of an individual, the way it happened in the life of Ahmad. Updike’s treatment of truth and its reshaping with the realization and understanding of Ahmad is tantamount in understanding how Kierkegaard is still relevant today.

Face to Face in Freedom: Beauvoirian Ambiguity in Sophocles’ Antigone

Abstract In my examination of Sophocles’ Antigone, I use Beauvoir’s existential philosophy as a lens and hermeneutic model and apply her language and terms—immanence, transcendence, and ambiguity—to the original ancient text to understand the gendered metaphors of the play and to reveal an area of oversight in her superficial treatment of the tragedy. Taking this theoretical approach, I use “feminist” or “existentialist” Beauvoir (The ethics of ambiguity, The second sex) against herself, that is, her interpretation of the Antigone in “Moral idealism and political realism,” to show how existentialist freedom is achieved in the tragedy. In my reading, I cast Antigone as a figure of ambiguity, situated in an oppressive context, and I argue that she creates her own project and strives towards freedom, in the Beauvoirian sense. I also extend the subjectivity of ambiguity to Ismene and illustrate the course of her own existential freedom to portray the reversibility of the transcendence/immanence polarity in these two figures and, ultimately, to suggest that the sisters are intertwined. Inscribing my reading in a tradition of feminist interpretations surrounding the Antigone, I advance a new reading that finds in the play a feminist political theory of existentialism, inclusive of the sororal pair.

Doing decoloniality in the context of a PhD born in precarity and pandemic

This article takes a deep dive into my doctoral journey and my lived experience as an emerging Black African scholar doing decolonial research in a South African colonial and Westernized university. I wrestle with the contradictions and tensions that emerged during this period that took place at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. I also look back with ‘willful resistance’ to the oppressive systems of knowledge productions and the limitations of doing decolonial work. I consider my own complicity with these oppressive systems of knowledge production as I attempt to work within institutional constraints to fulfil the requirements of a PhD degree. Using Black existential theory as a lens and autoethnography as method, the goal is to generate a discussion with other emerging scholars about their own lived experiences doing decolonial research in colonial universities.

Ax–Kochen–Ershov principles for finitely ramified henselian fields

We study the model theory of finitely ramified henselian valued fields of fixed initial ramification, obtaining versions of the Ax–Kochen–Ershov principle as follows. We identify the induced structure on the residue field and show that once the residue field is endowed with this structure, the theory of the valued field is determined by the theories of the enriched residue field and the value group. Similarly, we show that the existential theory of the valued field is determined by the positive existential theory of the enriched residue field. We also prove that an embedding of finitely ramified henselian valued fields is existentially closed as soon as the induced embeddings of value group and residue field are existentially closed. This last result requires no enrichment of the residue field, in analogy to the corresponding result for model completeness, which holds by results of Ershov and Ziegler.

Revival of the father-child attachment theory – in the context of existential theory and the principle of activation

Revival of the father-child attachment theory – in the context of existential theory and the principle of activation

Research on External Manifestation of Character Existentialism in Chinese Animation in the New Media Era - Taking The Outcast, Killer Seven and Incarnation as Examples

Existentialism, after over a century of development, has evolved from a philosophical idea into a way of life. In recent years, a group known as "refined egoists" has emerged in both reality and animated works. The appearance of these extreme existentialists who ignore social responsibility reveals that in this era of transition between old and new ideologies, existentialist thought has awakened in people's value systems. This article intends to analyze the external manifestations of character’s existentialism in animation works to summarize the reflections of objective phenomena in reality and to discuss the contradictions and problems that the current young generation are facing between themselves and society. This article uses qualitative research methods to analyze representative characters from three animated series, The Outcast, Killer Seven, and Incarnation, and uses a thematic analysis method that combines existentialism theory to summarize the external manifestations of characters in terms of their internal conflicts, conflicts between individuals, and conflicts between individuals and society. These manifestations include the denial of determinism, affirmation of subjectivity under relative justice, identification with minority groups, denial of authority, and autonomous choice of values. Young generation people are confronted with unprecedentedly great uncertainty and insecurity brought about by the freedom of choice, as well as the social reality of the gradual awakening of existentialist consciousness in contemporary society.

The Impact of Existentialism on Contemporary Mental Health Practices

Purpose: The general objective of this study was to explore the impact of existentialism on contemporary mental health practices. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the impact of existentialism on contemporary mental health practices. Preliminary empirical review revealed that integrating existential principles into contemporary mental health practices significantly enhanced psychological well-being by fostering self-awareness, personal growth, and the ability to cope with existential anxieties. It demonstrated that existential therapies offered a more holistic and personalized approach to mental health care, addressing both symptomatic relief and underlying existential concerns. Additionally, the study highlighted the importance of cultural sensitivity, emphasizing that culturally adapted existential therapies were more effective and accessible across diverse cultural contexts, thereby improving mental health outcomes globally. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Existential Theory, Humanistic Theory and Cognitive Behavioural Theory may be used to anchor future studies on the impact of existentialism on contemporary mental health practices. The study recommended integrating existential principles into psychological theories, training mental health professionals in existential therapeutic approaches, and developing culturally adapted versions of these therapies. It emphasized the need for mental health policies to recognize the importance of existential concerns and support the inclusion of existential therapies in standard care. The study also suggested revising mental health education curricula to incorporate existential psychology, providing continuing education for current practitioners, and increasing public awareness to destigmatize existential issues. These steps aim to enhance theoretical frameworks, clinical practices, and policy development in mental health care.

The Philosophy of Technology and Its Impact on Human Values

Purpose: The general objective of this study was to explore the impact of existentialism on contemporary mental health practices. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the impact of existentialism on contemporary mental health practices. Preliminary empirical review revealed that integrating existential principles into contemporary mental health practices significantly enhanced psychological well-being by fostering self-awareness, personal growth, and the ability to cope with existential anxieties. It demonstrated that existential therapies offered a more holistic and personalized approach to mental health care, addressing both symptomatic relief and underlying existential concerns. Additionally, the study highlighted the importance of cultural sensitivity, emphasizing that culturally adapted existential therapies were more effective and accessible across diverse cultural contexts, thereby improving mental health outcomes globally. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Existential Theory, Humanistic Theory and Cognitive Behavioural Theory may be used to anchor future studies on the impact of existentialism on contemporary mental health practices. The study recommended integrating existential principles into psychological theories, training mental health professionals in existential therapeutic approaches, and developing culturally adapted versions of these therapies. It emphasized the need for mental health policies to recognize the importance of existential concerns and support the inclusion of existential therapies in standard care. The study also suggested revising mental health education curricula to incorporate existential psychology, providing continuing education for current practitioners, and increasing public awareness to destigmatize existential issues. These steps aim to enhance theoretical frameworks, clinical practices, and policy development in mental health care.

Thinking Educationally about Psychology in Education:1 Gert Biesta's Critique Reconsidered

AbstractLearning and development are well established as concepts in educational psychology. Gert Biesta has used terms such as “learnification” and “developmentalism” to describe a tendency that, in his view, removes existential qualities from teaching and education. Although important in the right contexts, the concepts do not represent the core of what education should be about, he claims. Jostein Sæther notes that in many ways he shares Biesta's view on the most fundamental quality of education, i.e., helping young people exist as independent subjects in confrontation with their own will, responsibility, and freedom. In this paper, he addresses the overarching question of whether it is possible and desirable to think educationally about psychology in educational theory, specifically through relating Biesta's critique to selected handbooks, reviews, and metaliterature. Sæther does not propose integrating educational psychology into Biesta's existential theory but rather hopes to open a dialogue on different points of view that challenge each other in fruitful ways. The process of discussing certain principles, problems, and examples should yield a certain kind of “unclean” educational psychology, one that is relevant to “subjectification.” There are problems related to eclecticism and the tension between essence and existence, yet, in this context, Sæther sees a dialogical project as the only way forward.

Study on the Relationship between Elderly Tourism Motivation and Active Aging: A Case Study of Elderly Population in First-tier Cities of China

This paper explores active aging by examining elderly tourism through the lenses of existential theory, the broaden-and-build theory, and the circular theory. It investigates the travel motivations of the elderly in tourism scenarios, integrating factors such as positive thinking, positive behavior, and a positive organizational environment into the research. A path model was constructed to analyze how active aging influences travel motivations in a tourism context, supported by empirical analysis using 337 valid samples. The study found that key dimensions of active aging influencing elderly travel motivations include positive behavior, positive thinking, and a positive organizational environment. The path model and research data show good compatibility and explanatory power regarding the impact of active aging on travel motivations. Positive thinking, positive behavior, and a positive organizational environment all positively affect the travel motivations of the elderly. In the path analysis, positive thinking as an independent variable does not directly influence travel motivations; instead, positive behavior and a positive organizational environment serve as important mediating variables.

Silence as a magnifying glass for uncertainty and affect: The qualitative case studies of Karin and Dana’s journals

This article focuses on what diverse forms of silence (i.e., silence-phenomena) convey about affective processing and meaning-making as processes. Departing from a dialogical perspective that informs sociocultural and existential theories, we qualitatively analyze Karin and Dana’s (pseudonyms) cases. These two Master’s students attended a three-week-long intensive and interdisciplinary course at a Norwegian university. The course is about silence-phenomena, group dynamics, and quality of life. Our primary data consisted of journal entries (Karin, n = 21; Dana, n = 30) that the study participants wrote at different moments of the day during this course, including a morning session called “The Silent Time.” We also included email follow-ups exchanged with the students after the course ended (Karin n = 1; Dana, n = 3). We use Developmentally oriented Thematic Analysis (DOTA) as a method of analysis in order to address both state and process-oriented narratives in their writings. Our research findings suggest that silence-phenomena can amplify the human experience of uncertainty by bringing contrasts that shift our attention inwards or outwards, activating diverse emotions and positionings of the self. We discuss these findings in light of the model of hypergeneralization of affect in cultural psychology and how this model can integrate phenomenological time and existential meaning.

ECONOMIC KNOWLEDGE IN ISLAMIC ECONOMIC DOCTRINE IS A PHILOSOPHICAL VISION

The separatism that represents the challenge existing between reason and revelation is a distinctive feature of the Western intellectual heritage. This separatism arose from the concept of conceptualizing existential convergence, which enables philosophers to use standards of judgment to measure the outcomes of both reason and revelation. This existential convergence leads to the equality of fields. Cognitivism, and subjecting judgments to criteria or standards like this is in fact a declaration of the true sovereignty of reason, which led to man becoming the focus of Western philosophy, the dialectic of (Locke) that most knowledge comes from experience, and the hypothesis of (Kent) that knowledge A joint product of the mind and the external world, and the certainty of (Auguste Comte) which focuses on the scientific stage as opposed to the metaphysical and theological stages, and the experimental radicalism of (William James) are all many ideas stemming from the cognitive foundations presented by Aristotle’s empirical doctrine and keeping pace with human-centered knowledge. The approximation of the levels of existentialism stemming from the syncretic atmosphere of the Roman era, which was an essential element in Christianity, was gradually subjected to the two systems. Hume’s interpretation of God as the spirit of the material world, Hobbesian materialism in metaphysics, the theory of thought (the Absolute, the specific deity), and James’s idea of finiteness. Thinking are all exciting stages of formulating the cognitively specific existential theory of the Western heritage, which established a new model (Ihsanoglu, 2000, 122).

On Classifying Continuous Constraint Satisfaction Problems

A continuous constraint satisfaction problem (CCSP) is a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) with an interval domain $U \subset \mathbb{R}$. We engage in a systematic study to classify CCSPs that are complete of the Existential Theory of the Reals, i.e., ER-complete. To define this class, we first consider the problem ETR, which also stands for Existential Theory of the Reals. In an instance of this problem we are given some sentence of the form $\exists x_1, \ldots, x_n \in \mathbb{R} : \Phi(x_1, \ldots, x_n)$, where $\Phi$ is a well-formed quantifier-free formula consisting of the symbols $\{0, 1, +, \cdot, \geq, >, \wedge, \vee, \neg\}$, the goal is to check whether this sentence is true. Now the class ER is the family of all problems that admit a polynomial-time many-one reduction to ETR. It is known that NP $\subseteq$ ER $\subseteq$ PSPACE. We restrict our attention on CCSPs with addition constraints ($x + y = z$) and some other mild technical conditions. Previously, it was shown that multiplication constraints ($x \cdot y = z$), squaring constraints ($x^2 = y$), or inversion constraints ($x\cdot y = 1$) are sufficient to establish ER-completeness. We extend this in the strongest possible sense for equality constraints as follows. We show that CCSPs (with addition constraints and some other mild technical conditions) that have any one well-behaved curved equality constraint ($f(x,y) = 0$) are ER-complete. We further extend our results to inequality constraints. We show that any well-behaved convexly curved and any well-behaved concavely curved inequality constraint ($f(x,y) \geq 0$ and $g(x,y) \geq 0$) imply ER-completeness on the class of such CCSPs.

The presentation of the concept of existential despair in Lermontov's poem “Demon”

The author of the article believes that the main character in Mikhail Lermontov's poem “Demon” strives to become a part of earthly life, but he understands the objective impossibility of realizing this desire. The contradiction generated by this realization turns into tragic despair, which the founder of existentialism, Soren Kierkegaard, defined as “a disease to death”. As if extrapolating the thought of the founder of existentialism, Lermontov gives the immanence of despair to the main character of his famous poem. The demon wants to reunite with both earth and heaven, hoping to be reborn through love. However, the determinism of his demonic essence prevents the main character of the poem from realizing this aspiration. The rebellious spirit of the Demon, which cannot belong to any of the worlds, reflects the Russian intelligentsia of that period in general and Lermontov himself in particular. However, in this identification, the Demon's rebellion is much closer to the poet's own rebellion, given Lermontov's criticism of his contemporaries, whom the Russian classic describes as prisoners desperate in the face of power in his famous poem “Thought”. The author of the article argues that in identifying the Demon with Lermontov, the rejection of God and the Divine world order comes to the fore. That is why Lermontov's characters are sometimes considered as harbingers of Nietzscheanism. The Demon, paradoxically, begins his path of striving for good from evil, killing Tamara's fiancé. Thus, it is in the poem “Demon” that the existential and psychological foundations of the criminal behavior of artistic characters in borderline situations are laid. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that it is impossible for the Demon to make an existential choice, he is doomed to forever arrive in the borderline situation described in Karl Jaspers' existential theories, without the possibility of its resolution, which results in an irresistible despair, from which even the path of faith proposed by Kierkegaard cannot be saved.

Complexity of Neural Network Training and ETR: Extensions with Effectively Continuous Functions

The training problem of neural networks (NNs) is known to be ER-complete with respect to ReLU and linear activation functions. We show that the training problem for NNs equipped with arbitrary activation functions is polynomial-time bireducible to the existential theory of the reals extended with the corresponding activation functions. For effectively continuous activation functions (e.g., the sigmoid function), we obtain an inclusion to low levels of the arithmetical hierarchy. Consequently, the sigmoid activation function leads to the existential theory of the reals with the exponential function, and hence the decidability of training NNs using the sigmoid activation function is equivalent to the decidability of the existential theory of the reals with the exponential function, a long-standing open problem. In contrast, we obtain that the training problem is undecidable if sinusoidal activation functions are considered.

Film Attack on Titan dalam Pandangan Filsafat Eksistensialisme Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre is a famous figure in the fields of philoshophy and literature, considered one of the parents of contemporary existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical school which argues that all phenomena originate from existence, or the existence of something. Existentialism is a protest against the concept of “logic” and “nature” which were emphasized in the enlightenment period (Enlightenment) in the eighteenth century. Sarte’s existentialist philosophical thought is La Liberte or human freedom. Humans are free, independent. Therefore, he must be free to determine and decide, he acts alone without other people around or with him. This research analyzes Jean-Paul Sartre's views on the theory of existentialism in the film Attack on Titan. This film is related to the theory of existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre, a philosopher who developed the current of existentialism. By using the research method "library research" with a qualitative approach. The aim of this research is to describe the philosophical views of existentialism and analyze the extent to which the values and concepts in Jean-Paul Sartre's theory can be harmonized with the principles of Islamic teachings. In conclusion, it can be seen that the film "Attack on Titan" effectively reflects Sartre's thoughts about free human existence and responsibility for the world around him. Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism, although emphasizing personal responsibility and individual freedom, was secular and perhaps not in harmony with religious principles, especially Islam. Some concepts of existentialism, such as the emphasis on absolute freedom, can conflict with the Islamic view which places obedience to Allah as the main principle.

The Practice of Governance, Social Compartmentalization and Fragmentation of Desires

This article aims to relate natural teleology to the practice of governance. To do so, it presents the phenomenon of social fragmentation and evaluates it –following A. MacIntyre– as a negative aspect of contemporary social (dis)order due to the moral and psychological disintegration it promotes among ordinary people. Such disintegration leads to conflict and confusion between desires and goods. Among the causes of fragmentation, analytical philosophy and the social theory of existentialism stand out and, at their core, the abandonment of natural teleology. Institutional governance is not immune to fragmentation, so the author suggests that a perspective that explicitly integrates natural teleology in the practice of governance may have practical implications in decision-making and can constitute a significant, albeit partial, contribution to achieving social and moral cohesion.

Природа, общество, Бог: религиозно-философская концепция Кама̄ла Йӯсуфа ал-Х̣а̄джа

The article deals with the study of the religious and philosophical views of the Lebanese linguist and writer Kamāl Yūsuf al-Ḥāǧ (1917–1976). The author analyzes the dependence of the concept of al-Ḥāǧ on Bergsonian and existentialist theories, and also reconstructs its social dimension. As shown in the work, the philosopher dialectically explores the relationship between the rational and the irrational in human nature, as well as their subordination to existential faith. Separately, the teaching of al-Ḥāǧ about the role of the individual in history is considered — the figure of a political leader who retains, among other things, a traditional religious status.

The Metamorphosis as a Critique of Enlightenment

This research article deals with the failure of enlightenment in Gregor Samsa’s life which The Metamorphosis reflects. Enlightenment means the way of enlightening with the help of reasons, logics and skeptical power of knowledge on any subject/discipline. It implies the emancipation from superstitious beliefs through the power of reasons. It can be regarded as the cradle of modernity. Anyway, the God-centered medieval age is converted into the man-centered renaissance age, which is regarded as the beginning of enlightenment in the modern history of mankind. Different theorists of enlightenment believe that human life becomes perfect and social due to reasons. The modern technology and science that are uplifting the lifestyle of human beings is due to the power of reasons. However, the philosophy that reason is the core of human beings becomes a great failure in the life of Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis. After Samsa’s physical metamorphosis into a venomous insect, he suffers from alienation, consciousness, and existentialism though he uses his inherent rationalistic power of thinking. Hence, Immanual Kant’s theory of enlightenment can be applied to show the futility of enlightenment due to the effect of modernity. Likewise, Rene Descartes’ theory of existentialism can be applied to show the struggle of an individual despite the effect of modernity for the survival. Thus, for the broad theoretical framework, Kant and Descartes can be used as theorists. Their theory of enlightenment and existentialism can be used for the textual analysis of the select novella to discover that The Metamorphosis is a critique of judgment.

Nationalism and Madness in Three Translated Stories Of Manto: Toba Tek Singh; The Dog of Tetwal; See, Kabira Cried

The work of partition-affected and brutally honest Saadat Hasan Manto delves into existentialist theory, social justice, and the struggles of oppressed people. He questions accepted wisdom, explores the nuances of gender roles and human desire, and clarifies the issues surrounding mental illness. Studying Manto opens our eyes to a raw image of mankind that challenges social inequities and the intricacies of the human condition. This study explores the rapport between reality and madness that is recurrently found in literature from the olden days to the present. The eccentricities and prototype of mad genius push the writer to see and express the ruthless reality, and this can be seen in the work of tortured genii like Saadat Hassan Manto, Sahir Siddiqui, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Wolfgang Mozart, Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Allan, Kafka, and many others. This paper aims to analyze the content of three of Saadat Hassan Manto’s stories to see the nuances and association between madness and the cannibalistic actuality of nationalism during and after the partition. The qualitative method is used to analyze the content of the stories written by Manto. Descriptive and narratory research designs have been used to analyze the content of the stories. The study of his narrative reveals the desire to make a distinction between ‘ethnic’ and ‘civic’ nationalism. His writing was a creative and cathartic process for him where he was, at the same time, fighting with his inner and outer demons as well as producing timeless art. The way Manto exposes the pretense and canard of society through the ink of madness is remarkable.