{"id":1844,"date":"2020-10-14T02:29:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T02:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/?page_id=1844"},"modified":"2025-12-02T00:02:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:02:05","slug":"lla2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/live-like-an-existentialist-week\/lla2\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2 – ESSENCE OR EXISTENCE?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Day 2:<\/b>
Essence or Existence?<\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Live Like an Existentialist<\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Background<\/b><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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When I use the word “woman” or “feminine,” I obviously refer to no archetype, to no immutable essence; “in the present state of education and customs” must be understood to follow most of my affirmations…One is not born, but rather becomes, woman. No biological, psychic, or economic destiny defines the figure that the human female takes on in society; it is civilization as a whole…
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\u2013\u00a0Beauvoir, <\/span>The Second Sex,\u00a0Part II: Introduction and Ch. 1<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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If \u201cTo the things themselves!\u201d is phenomenology\u2019s slogan, then existentialism\u2019s is: \u201cExistence precedes essence.\u201d Traditional Euro-American philosophy (and perhaps some, but certainly not all, philosophical traditions) presupposes that the particular shape a thing\u2019s existence takes originates from a pre-existing core: the essence of the thing. That essence is something like Mencius\u2019 sprouts: a (metaphorical) genetic code which contains the blueprints for the existence of a particular kind of thing; anything that is the same kind of thing will have the same code. So these codes, or essences, reveal the character of particular categories of things; we learn how each thing will exist by learning that essence all things of that category have. And that means they also reveal what a good (natural, authentic, fulfilled, satisfied) existence will look like for that particular category. Existentialism suggests otherwise. It claims that human beings (at least) don\u2019t have essences; there is no genetic code for the \u201cHuman Being.\u201d Instead, our existences are radically open-ended: every action, decision, or thought could have been otherwise, because no essence dictates what they must be. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Today's Exercise<\/b><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Today, you\u2019ll isolate another three moments in which you make a decision, produce an action, or experience a thought. Immediately after, write for ten minutes: this time, try to describe why whatever happened happened. Each time your explanation reaches a point of reference to an essence\u2013\u2013for example, \u201cI ate that donut because I love sugar-drenched fried dough!\u201d\u2013\u2013put that reference \u201cin parentheses\u201d and make it the subject of the interrogation: why do I love sugar-drenched fried dough? Because it\u2019s delicious\u2013\u2013why do I find it so delicious? Because it\u2019s so sweet and fatty\u2013\u2013why do I enjoy the taste of sweetness and fat?…And so on! If you stop before the time is up, be suspicious; go back and try to see what explanations stopped prematurely.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Once you’ve completed the assigned exercise for today, click here<\/a> to access the prompt for tonight\u2019s reflection<\/strong> and to submit your 1-2 paragraph journal entry.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBack to Live Like an Existentialist Week<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 2:Essence or Existence? Live Like an Existentialist Background When I use the word “woman” or “feminine,” I obviously refer to no archetype, to no immutable essence; “in the present state of education and customs” must be understood to follow most of my affirmations…One is not born, but rather becomes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":1105,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1844","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1844"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7769,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1844\/revisions\/7769"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}