Damon asked:

In existentialism a main concept is, 'to exist is to be free'. I need confirmation on this. Does this mean
to exist in a rational way by combining thought, feeling, and action? This I assume would leave out
infants.

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Yes of course, infants cannot be free in this "Sartrean" sense to decide where to go from here and
now. In every moment you are "here and now" and not determined by your past. If you are wealthy —
you can this instant give your wealth to the poor and follow Jesus as he suggested in Matthew19,21.
Or you can this moment go to kill somebody. The idea is: Don't ask what has been or what is usual,
or what is expected of you, don't be determined by your past or by your habits or by the people
surrounding you, but realize that this very moment is a new platform to jump into any possible
direction like a flea.

A termination is a stop, a de-termination is a start. But you cannot expect such a de-termination from
a child, since a determination includes a decision and not only a childish mood. You could even take
this as a means to "define" the point of transition from childhood to manhood or womanhood. A child
is called "grown up" if it is able to decide "where to jump or to go" and to accept "responsibility" for
this decision.

Most people decide "for the usual" and "the expected", since there is little risk in doing so. But
existentialists stress the fact that this decision may be "usual" and "to be expected", but not in any
case compelling. They try to remind people that life is always a personal venture and that to decide to
behave "as expected" remains a free decision that can be revoked any time.

But then existentialism has been mainly a short-lived philosophical fad after the two World-Wars.
Why? Because in principle you can jump in any direction like a flea, but in practice nearly everybody
does and plans what is usual and approved by time and reason. It was the "media vita in morte
sumus" (In the middle of life we are surrounded by death) experience of the wars that generated this
surrealistic "you can do what you want — it doesn't matter" feeling. That explanation fits to the fact
that indeed surrealism and existentialism generally come and go together. It is this "we are thrown
into this absurd world" rather than a "we are placed into this world of God" that describes the true
existentialist feeling. But people can't live in such a state of mind for long — not even philosophers.
One student of Heidegger's got sarcastic characterizing a Heidegger lecture of the twenties by the
words: "We are wildly determined — if only we knew determined what to do!"

Hubertus Fremerey

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