So is there a term for a sense of enjoyment (for lack of a better term) from knowing things that normally cause an existential crisis?
The knowledge that life is temporary, theres no higher plan or purpose, that no matter how good or bad it goes that it ends the same for everyone, that there’s no authoritarian deity waiting to reward or punish you, that in the grand scheme our actions and experiences do not really matter and we’re just organic machines designed by evolution?
Existential opportunity!
Sublime?
Epiphany?
Yeah, the OP mostly lays out the pre-thoughts of existentialism. And the existentialists said “Accept, but ignore those facts and make the best of life anyway, for you and your fellows”, which is also my take on it. Existentialism is not a bad philosophy in my book.
My issue is existentialism has always been presented as a bad thing, like a recipe for depression and confusion. But what about people who look at those same facts and find it liberating and calming instead, is there a term for that?
Amor fati?
I’m no expert for existentialism, but I don’t think that it’s a recipe for depression, but only the insight that life has no sense or goal, which might be mundane for some, but shattering for others. This doesn’t mean you have to throw your arms up and say “nothing I’ll ever do does matter in the end”, but to work for a good world with a sense for humanism. I recommend reading Albert Camus’ novel “La Peste” (The Plague), very fitting to our times, for expressing this sentiment. It’s maybe the one novel that impressed me the most.
Wouldn’t that be a case of an existential crisis being effectively addressed with a humanist response? If so, it’s the humanist response that’s positive, not the existential crisis.
The positive existential crisis that the OP looks for would have to involve thinking that there is no sense or goal to life, and embracing that as a good and desirable thing. Such a person would reject humanist arguments that we should look for meaning through actions that are good (in humanist terms); if the lack of a sense or goal desirable, then search for a sense or goal is weak and, if the search is successful, destructive.
Existentialists.
The existential crisis isn’t supposed to be a permanent state of being, it’s supposed to be a thing existentialism helps you deal with. And it’s not a requirement.
I really explored existentialism in college (of course), and I personally found it a very freeing, liberating, and positive way of looking at existence. It’s not necessary to look at it as dark and bleak. To me, there being no inherent meaning or purpose to life is a wonderful thing, overall. This, combined with stoicism, is generally how I try to live my life.
Is there a word for the opposite of existentialism?
yes,
non-existentialism
Essentialism