Existentialism and its Reemergence in Postwar Europe
Existentialism is a philosophical movement rooted in the work of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who lived in the mid-1800s. The movement gained popularity in the mid-1900s thanks to the work of the French intellectuals Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus, including Sartre’s Being and Nothingness (1943). According to existentialists, life has no purpose, the universe is indifferent to human beings, and humans must look to their own actions to create meaning, if it is possible to create meaning at all. Existentialists consider questions of personal freedom and responsibility.Existentialism, better classified as a movement rather than a doctrine of philosophy, emerged in the mid to
…show more content…
Either/Or, published in 1843, was Kierkegaard’s first publication.The book, written under the pseudonym of Victor Eremita (Latin for "victorious hermit"), has two parts: the first deals with the aesthetic, a word that Kierkegaard uses to denote personal, sensory experiences. The second part of Either/Or deals with ethics. Kierkegaard's work outlines a theory of human development in which consciousness progresses from an essentially self-indulgent, aesthetic mode to one characterized by ethical imperatives arising from the maturing of human conscience. (Kierkegaard) A common interpretation of Either/Or presents the reader with a choice between two approaches to life. There are no standards or guidelines which indicate how to choose. The reasons for choosing an ethical way of life over the aesthetic only make sense if one is already committed to an ethical way of life. Suggesting the aesthetic approach as evil implies one has already accepted the idea that there is a good/evil distinction to be made. Thus, existentialists see Kierkegaard as presenting a radical choice in which no pre-ordained value can be discerned. One must choose, and through one's choices, one creates what they
Existentialism as a distinct philosophical and literary movement belongs to the 19th and 20th centuries. Although existentialism is impossible to define, some of its common themes can be identified. One of the major theme is the stress on concrete individual existence and, consequently, on subjectivity, individual freedom, and choice. 19th century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, was the first writer to call himself existential. He wrote in his journal, "I must find a truth that is true for me . . . the idea for which I can live or die.
Existentialism Is a Humanism is philosophical writing by Jean-Paul Sartre and its goal is to defend his philosophical theory of existentialism against many reproaches put forward by many different critics. Sartre is a firm believer that we have no greater purpose, no pre-determined plans, no ultimate meaning. We have, in Sartre’s words, no human nature, since there is nothing outside of us in which would conceive of it for us. We are simply here, and it is up to us to define ourselves. As Sartre states, “Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.”
Existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining his or her own development through acts of the will. To Sartre, saying that som...
Kierkegaard argued that religious faith and objective reasoning are incompatible. Faith is higher than reason and is the highest human virtue and thus is necessary for fulfillment. He defines faith as “contradiction between the infinite passion of the individual’s inwardness and the objective uncertainty” (206). He claimed that faith should not be based on objective evidence since they are both different processes and that faith requires passion rather than reflection. Also, faith is due to human striving and thus it should be result of subjective experience. God can only be known through subjective and personal experience and never objectively.
In his 1946 essay Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre undertakes the task of defending existentialism against what he defines as “charges” (341) brought against it. Sartre begins to outline the “charges” brought against existentialism and further, existentialists. Following the medieval quaestio-form, Sartre begins with the statement of the objection, a short discussion, and then his reply to each.
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
Existentialism is a philosophy, which revolves around the beliefs humans create themselves. Every person has his own view on existentialism and displays it differently. An existentialist in search of his meaning of life to end meaningless existence. Jean-Paul Sartre in his story The Wall attempts to demonstrate the conditions due to which a protagonist loses himself and becomes an existential after a deposited psychological trauma, but afterwards finds his new meaning. In comparison with Sartre, Jules Feiffer in the movie Little Murders shows Alfred a complete existentialist that looks hopeless. However, as a protagonist with the help of Patsy he decides to change and tries to believe in a society. Both Pablo
Discuss the idea(s) developed by the text creator about the human need to make a commitment or renounce a course of action.
Existentialist discuss these ideas of Nothingness, Indifference, Absurdity, and Ambiguity in all forms of Art - Visual, Musical, and Written. Existentialist portray the small importance of humans; even to critique the attitude of men towards women as a way to feel better, or the questing for God and hope. It is this frightful awareness that gives Mankind the harsh reality: life, our importance and decisions, are in the end utterly meaningless. Through Sartre’s belief that existence precedes essence, many of the things held dear, and valuable, by society suddenly become worthless; Beauvoir restates Sartre’s ideas of Nothingness and Being, and proposes the cause for the historical inferiorization of women. The two go hand in hand with one arguing for the lack of an essence, and the other arguing for the desperate pursuit of an essence, or a way to feel meaningful and not indifferent to the world. Camus then adds with the philosophy of the Absurd, and how the guilt of humanity outweighs the mirth they attain when the murky truths are masked. To him, all are guilty and the condition of a concrete human existence is clear: there is little humans offer to the world, and each other, but each one wants everything all the same. Together with the modern day ideas in Music, and the eyebrow-raising paintings of Post-War Artists, Existentialism defines what is a concrete human existence. Shield away in a shell of things that seem valuable, and live happily in ignorance; however, only when the weight of the emptiness of the world envelops you, and you accept is, only then can you truly be
I have always been an existentialist and always have loved a multitude of options in my life. I believe that there is no greater being that controls my life rather I control my life; however, others might disagree with this idea. One knows one's duty and purpose in life and ,therefore, must execute it. From the moment of birth, one’s life has already been decided. In essence, what should I do, follow my heart and take responsibility for it, or follow what others have set for me already? This explains the conflicts of existentialism and determinism. These two ways of thinking clash with one another. They have two separate ideas of how humans should live. Even though they clash, I think in some cases; these two philosophies go very well with one another.What it boils down to is will my choices make me ultimately happy? If not, then how am I supposed to live? Do we choose our own destiny, existentialism, or does fate choose it for us, determinism?
Jaspers, Karl. “On the Origin of My Philosophy,” “Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, “The Encompassing.” Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre. Ed. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Plume, 2004. p.158-232.
Existentialism is defined as a philosophical movement that human beings are completely free and responsible for their own actions. Existentialists will try not to cause waves and remain completely uninvolved with anyone because they do not want to hurt anybody. There is absolutely no such thing as an existentialist because he would have to be so uninvolved to the point where he would not be able to live at all. Although the two stories: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and The Stranger by Albert Camus are very different in approach, their endings are similar in that they both support the basics of existentialism.
To doubt the idea that existentialism has affected the way society thinks, the way people perceive others, and, most importantly, the way people define their own beings is absurd. It is quite evident that this philosophy has shaped the world, and in turn, transformed the climate into an introspective one. According to Merriam Webster’s (2011) dictionary, existentialism is defined as "a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad." Basic definition, however, will not suffice the task of truly understanding this movement and, therefore, an analysis of existentialism will help to reveal the different aspects of this noted literary movement.
Like "rationalism" and "empiricism," "existentialism" is a term that belongs to intellectual history. Its definition is thus to some extent one of historical convenience. The term was explicitly adopted as a self-description by Jean-Paul Sartre, and through the wide dissemination of the postwar literary and philosophical output of Sartre and his associates — notably Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Albert Camus — existentialism became identified with a cultural movement that flourished in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s. Among the major philosophers identified as existentialists (many of whom — for instance Camus and Heidegger — repudiated the label) were Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, and Martin Buber in Germany, Jean Wahl and Gabriel Marcel in France, the Spaniards José Ortega y Gasset and Miguel de Unamuno, and the Russians Nicholai Berdyaev and Lev Shestov. The nineteenth century philosophers, Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, came to be seen as precursors of the movement. Existentialism was as much a literary phenomenon as a philosophical one. Sartre's own ideas were and are better known through his fictional works (such as Nausea and No Exit) than through his more purely philosophical ones (such as Being and Nothingness and Critique of Dialectical Reason), and the postwar years found a very diverse coterie of writers and artists linked under the term: retrospectively, Dostoevsky, Ibsen, and Kafka were conscripted; in Paris there were Jean Genet, André Gide, André Malraux, and the expatriate Samuel Beckett; the Norwegian Knut Hamsen and the Romanian Eugene Ionesco belong to the club; artists such as Alberto Giacommeti and even Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, and Willem de Kooning, and filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard and Ingmar Bergman were understood in existential terms. By the mid 1970s the cultural image of existentialism had become a cliché, parodized in countless books and films by Woody Allen.
best that we are capable of being. How peculiar this is; we aim for similar