Martha Nussbaum makes an important point when she suggests that literature is useful when it comes to understanding philosophy and philosophical concepts. In particular, Simone de Beauvoir’s All Men Are Mortal is useful in the way that Nussbaum describes because the treatment of existential concepts in the book allow the reader to gain insight into the life of a committed existentialist and into the desirability of this type of life. The book does so by being more accessible to readers and reaches a wider audience since it is not written using jargon like many dense philosophic writings. Also, the literary treatment of existentialism is insightful because the universal human desires and dilemmas that are explored inclines the reader to imagine …show more content…
The immortal Raymond Fosca allows people to understand human existence from a vastly different perspective. For Beauvoir, she chooses to use a character that cannot die to help understand the perspective of an atheistic existentialist even if the reader is personally identifies with neither of these concepts. This aspect of the book inspires people to move beyond thinking about an individual short life of one individual and consider the perspective of a person who is living forever. This encourages a person to use their imagination. There is no afterlife for Raymond Fosca and so everything he does takes place in the human world. It makes a person think about the limitations and constraints present in the human realm. Would the reader choose to live life in a different manner if the only thing that occurred in their life took place in the realm they currently occupy? The fictional scenario acts as a thought experiment for readers to ponder which helps them grasp what existentialism …show more content…
The four core concepts of existentialism, i.e. situatedness, despair, limitations, human agency and freedom, as well as concepts specifically designated in Sartre’s “The Humanism of Existentialism” can be found ‘in action’ within Beauvoir’s book. The situatedness of human life is explored in the way that Fosca is always set in a certain time and place that he cannot free himself from despite his immortality (215, 267). Anxiety and despair are found in many characters like Regina and Carlier when they come to realize that they will eventually perish and all they had was this one life (13, 229). Limitations are explored in many instances including Fosca’s inability to control the world in the way he wants in regards to his sons and failure to understand the world from a perspective beyond the human kind (100, 122; 276). Human agency and freedom are represented in Fosca’s ability to choose how he wants to live and interpret the life he continuously must live. In terms of bad faith, a concept described by Sartre, characters are shown as liars to themselves both in sticking too much with the facticity of their existence as well as believing that they can completely transcend the reality of their situations (167; 45). The inclusion of these multiple perspectives in the literature is beneficial beyond philosophic texts because the reader is given
At the end of Being and Nothingness,Jean-Paul Sartre concedes that he has not overcome one of the key objections to existentialism viz., an outline of ethics, and states that he will do so later. Although Sartre attempted the project of an existential ethics, it was never quite completed. Enter Simone De Beauvoir. In this book, De Beauvoir picks up where Sartre has left us, refusing to answer the question of ethics. For De Beauvoir, human nature involves and ontological ambiguity whose finitude is bound in a duality. This duality of body and consciousness is the ambiguity which remakes nature the way we want it to be as a facticity of transcendence. It is within this understanding that the project of ethics must begin in ambiguity. However,
Addressing the critics of Existentialism was a necessity for both Sartre and de Beauvoir, as it was initially dismissed by many critics, such as the Communists and the Christians, as nihilistic or overly pessimistic. While understandable at a superficial level, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged these critics to rethink their idea of existentialism and foster a deeper meaning of the philosophy of existentialism.
But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.” This build on the essential idea of existentialism being in “a world that is stripped of all comforting illusions, explanations, and guidelines, and an existence that is essentially solitary and personally challenging. The absurdity arises in the paradoxical confrontation between the human hunger and yearning for meaning, purpose, and explanation and an awareness of the meaninglessness or the meaning-neutrality of a universe that cannot provide a grand design or a set of directions for living.” Albert Camus, defends his theory and writings by accepting the fact that many of existentialism questions are unable to be answered due to the nature of the philosophy understanding that it’s not comprehendible through reason. He even argues towards other existentialist who seek to answer the questions proposed by using transcendence through God as a cure for
Milan Kundera contends, “A novel that does not discover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral” (3). In this it is seen that the primary utility of the novel lies in its ability to explore an array of possible existences. For these possible existences to tell us something of our actual existence, they need to be populated by living beings that are both as whole, and as flawed, as those in the real world. To achieve this the author must become the object he writes of. J.M. Coetzee states, “there is no limit to the extent to which we can think ourselves into the being of another. There are no bounds to the sympathetic imagination” (35). Through this sympathetic faculty, a writer is able to give flesh, authenticity and a genuine perspective to the imagined. It is only in this manner that the goal of creating living beings may be realized. Anything short of this becomes an exercise in image and in Kundera’s words, produces an immoral novel (3).
classicmoviescripts/script/seventhseal.txt. Internet. 4 May 2004. Blackham, H. J. Six Existentialist Thinkers. New York: Harper, 1952. Choron, Jacques. Death and Western Thought. New York: Collier Books, 1963.
Simone de Beauvoir was an existential philosopher primarily focused on issues concerning the oppression and embodiment of women. Although she did not consider herself a philosopher, Beauvoir had significantly influenced both feminist existentialism and feminist theory; her place in philosophical thought can be considered in relation to major concepts such as existentialism, phenomenology, social philosophy, and feminist theory.
Sartre’s theory of existentialism and de Beauvoir’s existentialist feminism theory are similar on some points. Sartre’s theory of existentia...
In the experimental novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, he explores the concept of existentialism and the idea that humans are born into nothing and descend into nothingness after death. The novel takes place in the French colony of Algiers where the French-Algerians working-class colonists live in an urban setting where simple life pleasures are of the upmost importance in the lives of working class people like the protagonist of the novel Meursault. What is fascinating about this novel is that it opens up with a scene of perpetual misfortune for him through the death of his mother although he seems to express otherwise. The reader perceives this nonchalance as a lack of care. Maman’s death and its impact on Meursault appear in both the very beginning and very end of the two-part novel, suggesting a cyclical pattern in the structure. This cyclical pattern suggests not a change in the moral beliefs of Meursault but rather his registering society’s systems and beliefs and craft meaning in his own life despite the fact that he meets his demise in the end. Camus uses Maman’s funeral to characterise both Meursault and the society and customs created by the society Meursault lives in in order to contrast the two while at the same time reveal how while society changes, Meursault does not. Rather, Maman’s funeral becomes of unprecedented importance in Meursault’s life and allows him to find that nothing means anything in his meaningless world at the time of his death. He finds peace in that.
Existentialism is a term that was coined specifically by Jean-Paul Sartre in regards to his own life. Sartre had adopted the Atheistic approach to life and its meaning, and while he was not the first or only one to do so, was the first and only one to come up with a way to describe it. Under Existentialism, man lives without higher power or guidance and must rely solely on himself and what he is aiming to do in order to lead a fulfilling life. This can be anything. Critics of Sartre propose that, because such a vast array of options exists within the meaningfulness of life, this philosophy is obsolete and trivial in nature. This is not true, as it is seen in everyday examples – celebrities, namely – that a thirst
In Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger, the protagonist Meursault is a character who has definite values and opinions concerning the society in which he lives. His self-inflicted alienation from society and all its habits and customs is clear throughout the book. The novel itself is an exercise in absurdity that challenges the reader to face the nagging questions concerning the meaning of human existence. Meursault is an existentialist character who views his life in an unemotional and noncommittal manner, which enhances his obvious opinion that in the end life is utterly meaningless.
Meursault, an unemotional, a moral, sensory-orientated character at the beginning of the book, turns into an emotional, happy man who understands the "meaninglessness" and absurdity of life by the end of the book. Meursault realizes that the universe is indifferent to man's life and this realization makes him happy. He realizes that there is no God and that the old codes of religious authoritarianism are not enough to suffice man's spiritual needs. One has to create one's won meaning in an absurd, meaningless world.
Through Jean-Paul Sartre’s plays, “No Exit”, “The Flies”, and “The Respectful Prostitute” I have come to the conclusion that Existentialism focuses mainly on a single person taking liability for their own actions, and those actions should be without the influence of society. This includes the idea that Sartre makes present in these plays; there are no easy answers, people must live by their own standards without searching for validation. While this idea seems rational in theory, I think the way Sartre presents it dismisses other people’s views and judges believers for them.
Existentialism is a term associated with intellectual history. Through propagation of postwar literary concepts and philosophical works, existentialism became part of a cultural drift that prospered in the 1940’s and 50’s, especially in Europe. This concept points out unique groups of philosophical quandaries and now identifies with distinct twentieth and twenty-first century inquiries. It is not so much concerned with “existence” indefinitely, but more precisely the assertion that human existence requires new classifications that are not found in the theoretical range of neither ancient or modern thought. Human beings as a whole can be established neither as beings with set attributes, nor as beings interacting with an abundance of objects.
Jean-Paul Sartre was a notable French philosopher and writer of the 20th century whose literary works have strongly influenced the world of academia and spurred intellectual contest in the Modern era. In Sartre’s 1945 publication, “Existentialism and Humanism,” Sartre had argued extensively about the notion of abandonment – the notion that we live freely in this world without purpose, and his stance on atheistic existentialism. His main argument was that existence precedes essence so humans acquire meaning through lived experiences since humans are free to choose and decide for themselves. From this, he concludes that there exists no such thing as ‘a priori’ morality and that “God is a useless and costly hypothesis” (28). In this paper, I will be rebutting Sartre’s moral nihilism argument since it lacks apparent linkage between the notion of freedom of choice and the idea that ‘a priori’ morality does not exist.
In Gattaca, the metaphysical reality of human free will is articulated through Vincent’s unpredicted achievement. Modern idealists, such as Berkley, believe that reality consists of ideas rather than physical objects (Velasquez 190). Jerome reveals his own idealistic mindset through an intimate conversation with Vincent, in which he lessens the significance of his physical contribution to their mutually dependant relationship and proclaims the necessary role of Vincent’s nonphysical one. Jerome says, ‘I only lent you my body. You lent me your dream’. Sartre, an existentialist philosopher, believed that every individual is responsible for determining his or her individual purpose (Velasquez 96). Although authorities at Gattaca possess a rigidly materialistic outlook (displayed through their unquestioning reliance on genetic analysis as a means of determining competenc...