From the philosophy of existence to existential practice

Abstract

Philosophy has had many roles and tasks throughout history. Ever since Socrates, the Stoics and Epicurus, one of the tasks of philosophy has been to nurture the human soul. Through philosophy, as a love of wisdom, man learned to lead a good life, achieve true happiness, contentment and inner peace. This meaning has never ceased to be the inner purpose of philosophy, although throughout history this purpose has often been marginalized and forgotten. In the Middle Ages, philosophy was reduced to the "maid of theology", being used as a mere organ to present evidence in scholastic debates about the nature of God and man. In the Italian Renaissance, from the middle of the 14th century, philosophy spoke the language of ancient thinkers again, wondering about the meaning of individual life. Modern philosophies of rationalism and empiricism have returned to man as a subject, but mainly to examine his cognitive abilities and his logical-empirical connection with the world (object). The philosophy of German idealism represents the culmination of the aspiration to form philosophy as a systemic speculative science and pure conceptual knowledge. Positivism, under the influence of natural sciences and mathematical logic, returns the "mother of all sciences" to the subordinate position of a maid, but this time a maid of special sciences. As a reaction to such self-understanding of the essence of philosophy, the philosophy of existence is emerging, which will set as its task the understanding of the human being as a concrete and unrepeatable existence thrown into the world.