Richie Ren

William W. Jacobs displays his existentialist nature through themes of freedom, responsibility, and death. In “The Monkey’s Paw,” Jacobs demonstrates these themes progressively through his characters and their actions after a cursed talisman eradicates all limitations. Arash Farzaneh defines existentialism as the measurement of humankind’s “responsibility when facing a universe devoid of laws.” Fundamentally unbound by religious conviction, humankind is required to take responsibility for their…

‘L’Étranger’ is a novel written by Albert Camus in 1942. The title of this work has an ambiguous meaning which leaves space to open interpretation; it has been translated to English as ‘The Outsider’ or ‘The Stranger’, as the French term ‘étranger’ comprises both these shades of meaning. Meursault, the multifaceted character that Camus chose as the protagonist, can be in fact regarded as an outsider, for he is completely alien to the society he lives in and to a series of social norms which at…

Growing up we all possess a natural youthfulness in our minds, we easily have the ability to imagine, create, explore, etc. This creativity is stopped by nothing, as we are all so ambitious at a grade school age. My grandmother is a 4th grade assistant teacher, seldomly I visit her at work. I often do so after leaving university, attending my personal classes. More often then not I find myself asking “why”. Why do I have to take this class? Why am I in my major of choice? Why am I repeating the…

20 million dead and one man responsible. That one man would be known as Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party. One question arises when discussing the immoral things that this one man did to humanity and that is was Hitler born with the mindset that he had to kill off all those innocent people or was he 100 percent in control of choosing his destiny? This brings up a very controversial issue as many believe that man has the freedom to do what he pleases and to define himself by his own…

Diagnosis Sam is a 42-year-old male suffering from Generalized anxiety disorder. Sam exhibits excessive worry occurring more days than not over the past year. Sam reports symptoms of muscle tension, fatigue, insomnia, irritability and was observably restless, which is more than the required three symptom minimum. He feels it is difficult to control the worry and it has impaired his functioning and caused significant distress over the past year and this distress in not better attributed to a…

At the beginning of Plato’s Phaedo Socrates tries to explain to his friends why he is “of good cheer in the face of death” (63e). He argues that those who practice philosophy are actually training in preparation for death. It would be absurd for philosophers to be fearful or resentful of death, he argues, since they have wanted and practiced for it a long time (64a–68a). In this paper I shall present Socrates’ argument for this conclusion and critically evaluate it. The argument appears to…

Franz Kafka’s the trial is cryptically symbolic piece of existentialist writing. More so than that, the one constant overarching theme that keeps coming up in every review I’ve read is the word parable used over and over again. Despite the general themes of The Trial there are a series of key microcosm issues that come up in almost every chapter. These issue depending on the interpretation of these smaller issues could change the general analysis of the entire book. In my opinion. Nevertheless,…

Group members in existential therapy are responsible for the issues they want to explore within the group. As such, they determine the direction of the group. Further, group members are tasked with taking responsibility over their life in terms of any guilt, anxiety, or loneliness they feel. They work towards a collaborative relationship with the group leader, and are expected to take charge within and outside of the group to make changes in their life. With regard to REBT, members play a…

Throughout history, humans particularly have always found ways to disagree with one on another in a subtle way. Intellectual philosophers mostly have often debated on theories sort of such as kind of do we kind of have very free will? And does God exist, for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) basically was a very French philosopher, author and developed existentialism the philosophy of existence, the freedom of the generally individual pretty human…

Friedrich Nietzsche and Soren Kierkegaard were both highly respected philosophers; Nietzsche for his influences in the Nazi movement and Kierkegaard for his pseudonymous writings. Although they both opposed Christianity, their oppositions were quite different. Nietzsche despised the entire idea of Christianity, whereas Kierkegaard disliked the westernization of the Religion. While Kierkegaard sought to return Christianity to its origins and de-westernize it, Nietzsche sought to remove it from…