There are more things in this World Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophies
Shakespeare
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more: adjective
relating to existence.
"The climate crisis is an existential threat to the world."
PHILOSOPHY
concerned with existence, especially human existence as viewed in the theories of existentialism.
"The existential dilemma is this: because we are free, we are also inherently responsible."
LOGIC
(of a proposition) affirming or implying the existence of a thing.
the existential proposition that truth and reality are constructed fictions"
Even physicists struggle with truth. Reality in the laws of physics repeatedly give way to new findings. The James Webb Telescope finds galaxies beyond the time and space of the established Universe. Anthropologists find evidence of civilizations earlier than documented history. What is truth?
The use of the word existential as a syndrome for virtual truth begs the question of reality. The philosophy of truth and reality as a construct of individual experience defines a low level of evidence-based open inquiry. Can truth be quantitative?
Scientists regard reality on theoretical levels: speculation, conjecture, hypothesis, theory, and, only reluctantly, laws of nature. Politically, we might rank truth quantitatively as dam lies, lies, mendacity, mass delusion, hysteria, the Media, existential, evidence-based, and outcome. The place for existential rests more on whose it is than on this scale, making it even more nebulous.
Civilizations under pressure often produce voices that crystallize their deepest questions. These are rarely kings or generals, but philosophers, teachers, and public figures who step into the square to provoke. Their role is not to rule but to make society face itself. In ancient Athens, that voice was Socrates. He wrote nothing. He simply asked: What is justice? What is virtue? What is the good life? His relentless questioning unsettled his fellow citizens, and Athens condemned him to death. He refused to flee, insisting that the examined life was the only life worth living. His death turned him into a symbol of Athens’ own unease. Our world has its own public voices. In recent years, Charlie Kirk became one of them. Whatever one thought of his politics, he drew large crowds, not only on American campuses but even in London and among Māori in New Zealand. He thrived on dialogue — fielding questions, sparring with critics, drawing applause. The style was different. Socrates aimed a...
Comments