Are we perfectionists,
driven
by a deep sense of guilt we cannot overcome
no matter how good we become or how
much
we are able to achieve?
Have we striven mightily against our sense
of worthlessness
only to discover that we cannot satisfy our
longing for meaning?
Do we sometimes feel more guilty than
we ought to feel?
Does our sense of guiltiness keep coming back
attached to some new 'reason'?
If so, perhaps we need to probe deeper into
the human experience of guilt.
Hidden away in the inner
recesses of our human frailty
lurks a controlling problem or trouble that
eludes our attempts to name it.
"Meaninglessness", "depression", "guilt",
"anxiety", "loneliness"
—descriptive
labels that stick to our tongues when we try to spit them off.
Such psychological words fall short of
describing
our innermost struggle.
Our Existential Predicament is a problem of
our human spirits
rather than an understandable conflict within
our psyches.
In an age moving beyond moralism, can we still
call our problem "guilt"?
Might there be a level of guilt that is deeper
than misbehavior?
Our task will be to
isolate
and describe "non-moral guilt"
(an expression that may seem
self-contradictory
at first),
to explore how it interacts with our everyday
experience of conscience,
and to shine a light in the direction of
freedom
from this "existential guilt".
OUTLINE:
I. MORAL CONSCIENCE vs. EXISTENTIAL GUILT
1. General Description.
2. Cause.
3. Duration.
4. Scope.
5. Cure.
II. HOW MORAL CONSCIENCE AND EXISTENTIAL GUILT MIX
III. HOW DO WE DISCOVER EXISTENTIAL GUILT?
1. Exaggerated Guilt.
2. Misassigned Guilt.
3. Recurrent Guilt.
4. On/Off Guilt.
5. Uncaused Guilt.
IV. EXISTENTIAL UNEASINESS
V. WAYS OF RESPONDING TO EXISTENTIAL GUILT
VI. RELEASE FROM EXISTENTIAL GUILT
James Park is an
existential
philosopher.
This presentation is based on
a chapter called "Existential
Guilt" in his longest book:
Our
Existential Predicament: Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death.
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