I generally kept a habit of writing at least one post per month since the founding of this blog, but over the time, this law of gradually faded out. At some point, I began to write things not out of instant desire of sharing, but instead a pressure to record so that to make sure I am not wasting my life. That, is a sign of existentialism.

The word existentialism maybe quite confusing especially when translated into other languages (e.g., Chinese). The word itself seems to stress only the "existing" part, but as an English speaker we do know it has extended usage, e.g., stressing a matter of life-and-death importance, for instance "an existential threat". It carries the weighty, survival related significance beneath the surface.

Being a philosophy topic, existentialism is bound to be questioned and debated. Indeed, there are quite some branches I would disagree with (especially those parts regarding "to disparage scientific knowledge, and to deny the existence of objective values, stressing instead the reality and significance of human freedom and experience" which is quite popular among some existentialists. In fact, in this regard, I would not count myself as an existentialist at all. Then, since I don't really care if I am, so does that actually make me one now, ha! Reminding me of the apathy party in Futurama s02e07.

The whole thing of to "emphasize the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will" makes it so funny that a real externalist, in my opinion, would be unable to define himself as an existentialist because tagging himself by an objective concept would eventually become obstacles to determine his own development out of free will.

Beware this is not a serious critique as there may be logic traps hidden. One rebuttal would be that the self-aligning to an objective concept would be out of free will, which of course cannot become obstacles to itself. However, in that case, it becomes quite difficult to discuss existentialism with each other because there would not be an objective standard to align the concept of existentialism with everyone.