Existentialism

Existentialism is a philosophical movement characterized by an emphasis on individualism, individual freedom, and subjectivity. It was inspired by the works of Søren Kierkegaard and the German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, and was particularly popular around the mid-20th century with the works of the French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, and others, including the novelist, essayist, and playwright Albert Camus. The main tenets of the movement are set out in Sartre's L'Existentialisme est un humanisme, translated as Existentialism is a Humanism.

Though many, if not most, existentialists were atheists, Karl Jaspers and Gabriel Marcel pursued more theological versions of existentialism. The one-time Marxist Nikolai Berdyaev developed a philosophy of Christian existentialism in his native Russia and later France during the decades preceding World War II.

Major concepts in existentialism

"Existence precedes essence"

Among the most famous and influential existentialist propositions is Sartre's dictum, "existence precedes essence," which is generally taken to mean that there is no pre-defined essence to humanity except that which we make for ourselves. Since Sartrean existentialism does not admit the existence of a god or of any other determining principle, human beings are free to do as they choose.

Since there is no predefined human nature or ultimate valuation beyond that which humans project onto the world, people may only be judged or defined by their actions and choices, and human choices are the ultimate valuation. That is, to choose is to choose the good, the preferred, without exception. In a sense also, to choose the good for one's self is to choose the good for all people, which can lead to feelings of anguish.

Angst

Authenticity

Anguish

In Sartre's jargon, anguish is the feeling one gets when he recognizes that he is responsible not only for himself, but for all of mankind. Along with many of the other emotional states described by existentialists, anguish can be paralytic, and one of the goals of existentialism is to push people toward action even in the face of these emotions.

Bad faith

In existentialist philosophy, bad faith is an escape from anxiety and despair, etc. into a false or inauthentic way of existence.

Being for itself

Being for itself, in Sartrean existentialism, is that part — part, though inseparable from the rest — of human existence that is self-defined. Viewing human existence as entirely self-defined is one way toward bad faith.

Being for others

Being for others, in Sartrean existentialism, is that part of human existence that is social and socially defined. One path to bad faith is to view all of one's existence as disclosed through others.

Being in itself

Being in itself is the self-contained and fully realized Being of objects. It is to be contrasted with the being, or existence, of people. According to Sartre, human beings want to attain being in itself while retaining their freedom, a tendency he dubs "the desire to be God".

Despair

Sartre defines despair as the feeling resulting from the realization that there is no sure footing in the world, and we can never know the results of our actions beforehand.

Forlornness

"When we speak of 'forlornness,' a term Heidegger was fond of, we mean only that God does not exist and that we have to face all the consequences of this." (Existentialism is a Humanism) The feeling of forlornness stems from an individual's realization that he or she is alone in the world, unable to rely on anything absolutely.

The return of existentialism

In the 1950's and 1960's, existentialism experienced a resurgence of interest in popular artforms. In fiction, Jack Kerouac and the Beat poets adopted existentialist themes. Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, based on an idea in Either/Or, sold well in the west, and "arthouse" films began to quote or allude to existentialist thinkers. At the same time that the students of Paris found in Sartre a hero for the May 1968 demonstrations, others were appropriating the pessimistic themes found in Albert Camus and Kierkegaard. The despair of choice and the despair of the unknowing self featured prominently (often in a pidgin form) in numerous films and novels.

Criticism of Existentialism

The opponents of existentialism assert that it fosters the particularization of human beings, stripping them of a universal sense of identity, which is entirely consistent with the claims of existentialists as the only universal allowed human beings is their fundamental freedom.

Though certainly not the first book to raise such an objection (in fact, Sartre was in some ways writing in response to such statements) Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Of Human Nature argues that of the aspects of an individual's behavior that vary across individuals, 50% is genetically determined, 40-50% is peer group learned, and 0-10% is parental, though what exactly a percentage means when applied to behavior is questionable. This can be read as retort to Sartre's statement that "existence precedes essence", as genetics, in this sense, can be seen as a human essence. Sartre's ready-made reply, present in one form or another in most of his writings, is that the existence of choice means that we can choose to do other than what our biology or environment might lead us to do.

Major thinkers and authors associated with the movement

Novelists and Playwrights

Jean-Paul Sartre, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, John Gardner, Franz Kafka, Henrik Ibsen, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Marquis de Sade, Hermann Hesse, Dingting Wang

Philosophers

Nikolai Berdyaev, Henri Bergson, Karl Jaspers, Soren Kierkegaard, Emmanuel Levinas, Gabriel Marcel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Blaise Pascal, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, Max Stirner, Peter Wessel Zapffe, Martin Heidegger

Psychologists

Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, Viktor Frankl, R. D. Laing, Rollo May, Fritz Perls

See also

Being -- Being in itself -- Free will -- Humanism