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. The first of the charges is that of quietism. “First, it has been charged with inviting people to remain in a kind of desperate quietism because, since no solutions are possible, we should have to consider action in this world as quite impossible” (341). Historically, quietism was a Christian philosophy that advocated withdrawal from worldly activities for passive and constant contemplation of God. The Roman Catholic Church officially decreed quietism to be heresy. The Christians then raise the objection that existentialism focuses on the hopelessness of the human situation and as a result, the philosophy leaves little ambition for action. The next of these objections is that of “…dwelling on human degradation, with pointing up everywhere the sordid, shady, and slimy, and neglecting the gracious and beautiful, the bright side of human nature…” (341) As Sartre explains, the objection is essentially that existentialisms focuses on the “evil” or dreary side of life. The third charge made against existentialism is that of isolation. “(FINISH QUOTE)…having ignored human solidarity, with considering man as an isolated being.” (341) The objection is that existentialism ignores human solidarity and examines human beings as individuals. The fourth and final charge laid against existentialism is that of arbitrariness. “…we are charged w... ... middle of paper ... ...o pass judgment on others, because there’s no reason to prefer one configuration to another’” (360). “…one can still pass judgment, for, as I have said, one makes a choice in relationship to others. First, one can judge (and this is perhaps not a judgment of value, but logical judgment) that certain choices are based on error and others on truth” (362). The final “sub charge” is that “‘everything is arbitrary in this choosing of yours. You take something from one pocket and pretend you’re putting it into the other.’” (360) Sartre explains, “…if I’ve discarded God the Father, there has to be someone to invent values,” (365) and that “…to say that we invent values means nothing else but this: life has no meaning a priori. Before you come alive, life is nothing; it’s up to you to give it a meaning and value is nothing else but the meaning that you choose” (365).
Schlipp, Paul Arthur ed. The Philosophy Of Jean-Paul Sartre. The Library of Living Philosophers Vol. XVI, La Salle, Ill: Open Court 1981.
In his lecture, Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre discusses common misconceptions people, specifically Communists and Christians, have about existentialism and extentanitalists (18). He wants to explain why these misconceptions are wrong and defend existentialism for what he believes it is. Sartre argues people are free to create themselves through their decisions and actions. This idea is illustrated in the movie 13 Going on Thirty, where one characters’ decision at her thirteenth birthday party and her actions afterwards make her become awful person by the time she turns thirty. She was free to make these decisions but she was also alone. Often the idea of having complete free will at first sounds refreshing, but when people
Many Christians rejected the philosophy of existentialism on the grounds that it denies “the reality and seriousness of human affairs” and that man will “be incapable… of condemning either the point of view or the action of anyone else.” (Sartre 1). Sartre denies this claim later in Existentialism is a Humanism by rejecting the misconception that an existentialist holds no conviction. Rather, he states, existentialists have the most conviction of anyone, because in “choosing for himself he chooses for all men.” (Sartre 4) Sartre claims this to be the “deeper meaning of existentialism.” It is the subjectivity of what is good or evil, the essence that man decides for himself, that has an impact on everyone else; within this subjectivity lies the responsibility for bettering mankind, a responsibility few men would choose to ignore.
The lecture “Existentialism is a humanism” (French: “L’Existentialism est un humanisme”, 1946), first presented in the winter of 1945, represents Sartre’s attempt to defend the existentialist philosophical thought by the attacks of the Communists and Christians, as well as the common understanding of "existentialism". Sartre argues that the notion of “existentialism” has gone beyond the philosophical though and has acquired a pervasive and negative connotation.
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
Guignon, B. C. and Pereboom, D. (eds). (2001). Existentialism: Basic Writings. Indianapolis, IN: Hacket Publishing.
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.
First, it has been charged with inviting people to remain in a kind of desperate quietism because, since no solutions are possible, existentialists should have to consider action in this world as quite impossible. Existentialists should then end up in a philosophy of contemplation; and since contemplation is a luxury, it must evolve into a bourgeois philosophy. The communists in particular have made these charges.
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...
Ross, Kelly L. "Existentialism." The Proceedings of the Friesian School, Fourth Series. Kelly L. Ross, Ph.D., 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
The Merriam – Webster Dictionary defines existentialism 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 (Merriam, 2011). In other words, an existentialist believes that our natures are the natures we make for ourselves, the meaning of our existence is that we just exist and there may or may not be a meaning for the existence, and we have to individually decide what is right or wrong and good or bad for ourselves. No one can answer any of those things for us. A good example of existentialism is Woody Allen’s movie, Deconstructing Harry. A man is haunted by his past and his past has followed him into the present. He is a wreck not because of the things that happened to him, but because of the choices he made. He is consumed by regret and insecurity and he tries to find blame in his situation with someone other than himself, however he cannot (Barnes, 2011). Throughout the rest of this paper I will be discussing two of the most prominent existentialists, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.
Jean Paul Sartre's philosophy is one of the most popular systems of thought in the school called existentialism. Sartre valued human freedom and choice, and held it in the highest regard. To be able to live an authentic existence, one must take responsibility for all the actions that he freely chooses. This total freedom that man faces often throws him into a state of existential anguish, wherein he is burdened by the hardship of having to choose all the time. Thus, there ensues the temptation for man to live a life of inauthenticity, by leaning on preset rules or guidelines, and objective norms. This would consist the idea of bad faith.
The Existential Approach stands for respect for the person, for exploring new aspects of human behavior, and for divergent methods of understanding people (Corey, 2013). Existentialists do not focus on instinctive drives or internalized others but on the person's unavoidable confrontation with the givens of the human condition. Yalom (1980) described those givens as death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. (Bauman, & Waldo, 1998).
My primary problem to existentialism stems from Sartre’s claim “We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards.” (Sartre) He argues that human existence came before all, that we came into being and then gave meaning to everything. This argument appears to oppose biological science, from an evolutionist and creationist standpoint.
(Crowell). Ironically the authors, directors and poets would deny that they are existentialists, because they are existentialists. (Corbett) The authors continued showing features that furthered the belief of their movement. In their eyes, people are free and must take it upon themselves to make rational decisions in a chaotic universe. Existentialists believe that there is nothing more to life since life has no purpose. (Corbett) Life is just where we are right now but we have no real impact to others or this earth. It is all the same if we were dead as if we were alive. This often comes as a realization to existentialist people and often present in existentialist literature about the “reality” of life.The question comes down to, do all human beings believe that they matter in life? This question challenges existentialist belief since life has no purpose. (Corbett) How can we matter in this life if one of the main themes in existentialism is that we have no purpose, it is quite