Compare Cartesian Skepticism To Existentialism

Cartesian Skepticism to Existentialism

The nature of our reality and existence has been a topic of debate since at least the ancient Greeks. Do we exist? Why do we exist? Does it even matter? These are questions I will attempt to address thoroughly. Answers may not be comfortable or satisfactory, but it’s better to rip that band-aid off now than continue blindly in the dark. Rationalism and Empiricism have both attempted to prove existence, but at their most extremes they fall apart. Using these two opposite systems of investigation, existence cannot truly be known without a shadow of a doubt. Does it matter? Existentialist philosophers say simultaneously yes and no: what passes for existence is intrinsically meaningless, but any meaning
In his work he gives several proofs that life itself is pointless and devoid of value. (Schopenhauer, n.d.) He says “All our striving is in vain because of death; the goal of our being is non-being”. The one I will focus on is his proof via the existence of boredom (as it shows up in several of its works). From Schopenhauer’s essay On The Vanity of Existence, the proof goes like this: the fact that boredom exists is a direct proof for the meaningless of life. If existence had any meaning, it would fulfill us all of the time. Man by nature has needs: hunger, sleep, sensual, curiosity, academic, etc. Man is constantly striving to satisfy these things. Some are easier to satisfy than others. However, once these have been satisfied, we enters a state of “painlessness,” but that only leads to boredom. As Schopenhauer puts it “boredom is nothing other than the sensation of the emptiness of existence. For if life, in the desire for which our essence and existence consists, possessed in itself a positive value and real content, there would be no such thing as boredom: mere existence would fulfill and satisfy us.” Schopenhauer goes on to say we only take real pleasure in existence when we are striving towards something, otherwise boredom, the emptiness of existence, consumes us. All of this leads Schopenhauer to believe that human life in itself must be some sort of a mistake. I have even heard the phrase from an unknown source: “we are evolved chemical byproducts that have tragically achieved self awareness.” An evolved chemical byproduct stuck hurling away on a rock through an indifferent universe; a universe who does not care whether we live, die, succeed, or