Exploring Existentialism and the Character Leanord in the...

Exploring Existentialism and the Character Leanord in the Film, Memento Although Christopher Nolan does not acknowledge any philosophical basis for Memento, the film provides a character, Leonard Shelby, who serves as an example of several aspects of existentialism. Through Leonard, Memento illustrates Soren Kierkegaards idea of truth as subjectivity, Freidrich Nietzsches notion that God is dead, and Jean-Paul Sartres writings on the nature of consciousness. In Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard differentiates between the subject as the knower, and the world (object) as the known: the only way we know the world is through ourselves. Kierkegaard emphasizes the importance of how the subject is related to the truth,†¦show more content†¦Nietzsche points out that morals were not given to humans by God, nor was knowledge or instinct instilled in us by God: we have created morality just as we have decided standards for truth and explanations for our human nature, and so there is no transcendent external standard. If God is dead, there are no objective values and we are free to create our own values. Nietzsche says that although the death of God liberates us, leaving us free to rule ourselves, this results in a cage-like freedom: while no value is objectively right or true, if we can not choose then we are not free. Nietzsche supports the individual who, despite a lack of objective correctness or truth, makes a decision an yway, accepting responsibility for her self-created values and actions, knowing she is these actions. Jean-Paul Sartre provides explanation for the world in his definition of consciousness as existing as a being that is no thing: by inserting nothingness into the world, consciousness allows for being; (it worlds the world). He elaborates further, stating consciousness is not just free, it is freedom, since consciousness can never be the object it intends. According to Sartre, consciousness is the constant present: it serves as a nihilation of the past; by annihilating the past, what has been appears to us, giving us a sense of time. Since my consciousness can reflect on