Existentialism

by Joshua Potter

• 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 his acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad. (406)
• Whereas most major philosophies or ontological systems in the centuries up to the nineteenth began with the assumption that there was some moral, religious, or otherwise objective meta-structure which defines our existences by predating them, existentialism, taking its measure from Nietszche, Kierkegaard, and Heidegger, declares that there is no “big picture” other than that which comes into being through the act of existing; no God, no Nirvana, no realms of Truth which, before we Are, Were. Our lives are defined instead by how we choose to live them, and in that understanding lays our freedom. Since, however, our existences are carried out in a definitively subjective manner, one of the prime characterizations of existentialism is a focus on the individual; each of our unique experiences gives birth to our understanding of our worlds.

Origins:

• In the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stephen Crowell writes that existentialism was a term adopted by philosopher/novelist Jean Paul Sartre as a self description, and in general refers to a cultural movement that existed in Europe in the 1940’s and 50’s. It found its genesis, however, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
• Hubert L. Dreyfus, Professor of Philosophy at U.C. Berkeley, traces the existentialist growth in several key steps:
• Soren Kierkegaard stresses the absurdity and ambiguity of the human situation, and claims that the only way to face existence is to embrace the individual, subjective aspects of life. Paradoxical perhaps, but since it is all we know, we might as well go with it.
• Friedrich Nietszche attacked the accepted metaphysical and religious paradigms, and, in arguing that the above paradigms were either worthless or nonexistent, made popular the idea that we instead must make our own morality. For Nietszche, Truth is not an objective ideal, but a “sum of human relations which have been subjected to poetic and rhetorical intensification…truths are illusions of which we have forgotten they are illusions (Norton Anthology, 878).
• Martin Heidegger, like Kierkegaard, argued that the world in which we find ourselves is an unknowable one; the only thing to do is choose a path and follow it
• Jean Paul Sartre felt that existence preceded essence; building on the groundwork laid by the above philosophers (and others) he believed that since the world has no set meaning or purpose, humans must choose their own path. As a novelist and dramatist as well as a philosopher, he explored the existentialist philosophy on several fronts.

Characteristics Of and Place in Literature:

• In literature, the existentialist character would seem therefore to be one characterized by a subjective morality, lacking or perhaps even rejecting outright traditional modes of morality and instead subscribing only to what he or she has, through experience and intellectual effort, come to believe.
• There is often a sense of alienation and separation from the world, arising from what Kierkegaard noted as the truths that we know as individuals and the lies or conventions that the crowd blindly accepts. The existentialist character is therefore usually an isolated one, notably cut off from the main in some noteworthy way.
• Often, but not always, a feeling of dread, anxiety, or depression; the lack of “big picture” making one feel alone and/or abandoned.
• Existentialism in all its myriad aspects can be seen in the work of Dostoevsky, Kafka, John Updike, and even Arthur Miller.

Works Cited/Consulted

• Crowell , Stephen. "Existentialism." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2004. The Metaphysics Research Lab. 6 Feb 2008 .
• Dreyfus, Hubert L.. "Existentialism." Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2007. Microsoft Corporation. 6 Feb 2008 .
• “Existentialism.” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 10th Ed. 2001.
• Nietszche, Friedrich. “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Gen. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001.