Summary
Existentialism is a philosophy of living that places an
individual’s existence, subjectivity, and choices at the
center of the human experience. This highly personalized
philosophy, which uses introspection as the primary means of
inquiry, allows each of us to participate in the discussion
of what it means to be in the world.
Although few philosophers have
called themselves Existentialists—Sartre being the
exception, a number of writers have been categorized
in this way, including Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche,
Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus. While
these writers are both religious and non-religious,
the common thread is the importance of subjective
truth and subjective experience.
The Individual
The belief that each of us has the opportunity to create
a unique life comes to fullness in the Renaissance with the
humanist belief that we can be the authors of our lives.
However, by the nineteenth-century science began to
challenge this individual autonomy by arguing that humans
are part of the natural world and since every action has a
rational cause, our choices, far from being free, are
determined by events of the past. We are not ‘prime movers
unmoved’ who can alter the causal nature of the world by
thought alone, but rather machines that are predictable and
determined. Deeply troubled by this attack against free
will, Dostoyevsky in Notes from Underground writes about a
hyperconscious person struggling to demonstrate his freedom
and autonomy by acting irrationally in order to defy causal,
scientific explanation.
Philosophers from Aristotle to Kant tried to describe
the basic elements of human nature the way one might
describe the nature of a particular animal.
Existentialists, however, argued that a person’s nature
or essence, the who-we-are-in-the-world, is something
chosen not something science can discover. There is no
necessity to be and to act in any particular manner.
There are no uniquely human behaviors. We can live as a
nomad in the desert or a bon vivant in Paris. We can
seek money and power or God and solitude. The meaning of
an individual’s life does not come from finding an
objective truth in the world but from our subjective
choices and experience. Sartre sums this up by saying
that for human beings existence precedes essence.
Although Existentialism is primarily a philosophy of
the past and lacks scientific support, it remains
compelling. In our daily lives we are confronted with at
least the appearance that we need to make choices and be
responsible. As long as we live in a society that
focuses on the importance of the individual experience,
Existentialism will remain a useful way of exploring our
subjective lives.
Concerns of Existentialism
Death Although the concept of death is known to
everyone, often we only live as though this is an
intellectual abstraction that does not affect us. But we are
often deceived. When confronted with death our lives are
often radically changed. When we confront our mortality,
Heidegger says our attitude toward the world changes, we
become a-being-toward-death able to fully embrace and care
for our world. Sartre would say this frame of mind is one of
the differences between making an authentic and inauthentic
choice.
Freedom
In a world devoid of meaning, we are
not rationally or normatively compelled to choose any
particular path. Within the constraints of the time and
place of our birth, every possibility is open to us. We
must take on the responsibility to create who we will
become. This radical subjective freedom, a freedom
vastly greater than that offered through any objective
political structure, can be terrifying and cause us to
make no choice at all.
See comments on free-will and existentialism.
Subjective Meaning There is neither an objective
method for finding meaning nor a logical or rational
choice that will lead to an understanding of the
world. We become responsible for the meaning of our
lives. If the world is no more than what we create,
life may seem absurd and capricious.
Despair and Care
Realizing our vast freedom and responsibility to create
meaning from a meaningless world, we may fall into a state
of anxiety, hopelessness, and alienation; we may despair
when confronted with the blank canvas of our lives.
Alternatively, however, we may choose to accept
responsibility for ourselves, care for others, and dwell in
the world.
Selected Primary Figures
Dostoyevsky (Russian writer and journalist) 1821
– 1881. "One can say many things about the history of the world—except that it
is rational. Give man every earthly blessing, satisfy his every desire, quench
his slightest thirst, and he would still destroy what he has—just to prove his
freedom." Notes from Underground
Kierkegaard (Danish philosopher) 1813 – 1855.
"How dreadful boredom is … I lie prostrate, inert; the only thing I see is
emptiness. If I were offered all the glories of the world or all the torments of
the world, one would move me no more than the other; I would not turn over to
attain or avoid" Either/Or • "What I seek is a truth for which I can live and
die." Journals
Heidegger (German philosopher) 1889 – 1976.
"Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one" • "If I take death into
my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the
anxiety of death and the pettiness of life–and only then will I be free to
become myself."
Camus (French–Algerian writer) 1913 – 1960. "If
something worth living for is worth dying for, what about something not worth
dying for?" Myth of Sisyphus
Buber (Jewish writer and philosopher) 1878 –
1965. "When one says You, the I of the world pair I-You is said too. When one
says It, the I of the world pair I-it is said, too." I and Thou
Sartre (French philosopher) 1905 – 1980. "I await
myself in the future. Anguish is the fear of not finding myself there."
