Introduction to Existentialism

Existentialism As the name suggests, its subject matter is the existing individual Therefore, as far as it is possible we want to focus on lived experience, connections to our world, as opposed to using theories to speculate about detached objects Involves making decisions and being responsible for them Not just discovering facts, but how we relate to them

Tradition vs. Existentialism Traditional Philosophy Existentialism What is real? What is knowledge? (What can be known?) Is there a God? What is right? What is wrong? How do I relate to what I believe to be real? How does reality matter to me? How do I use what I know? What should I do in the face of uncertainty? What is my relationship with God? What should I do?

Traditional Philosophers Critiqued by Existentialists Rene Descartes (1596-1650) Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) G.W. F. Hegel (1770-1831)

Existentialists Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) Albert Camus (1913-1960)

Traditional Views: Descartes Cogito ergo sum—I think therefore I am Dualist—immaterial soul, material body Subject—The mind’s “I” Object—material makes up individual discrete outside objects

Critique of Descartes Subject/object distinction is “false” insofar as it does not reflect my lived experience Rationalist approach suggesting there is one truth based on “clear and distinct” ideas is unrealistic Real experience of the world is in it as a part of it, and is pre-theoretical Heidegger—Dasein (being there); Sartre– non-positional consciousness (for- itself)

Traditional Views: Kant Admits limits of human reason to matters of a priori and physical surroundings (not God, for instance) In showing that experience is confined to categories of human thinking, combines rationalism and empiricism Argues that ethics is based in the laws of reason

Critique of Kant Kierkegaard: sometimes “necessary” actions go beyond the laws of the reason Faith demands believing in a paradox Sartre: any “transcendental unity of apperception” is after the fact

Hegel World is a rational system, or dialectic “The actual is rational, the rational is actual.” Closed system that ends in absolute knowing (God is absolute knowing knowing itself) Whole of relationship of human to world is through objective reflection

Hegel’s Dialectic

Hegel’s System

Critique of Hegel Kierke: Existential system is impossible because it is always on-going and incomplete Objective reflection leads me away from deciding what to do in my life Contrast to Socrates risking whole life on argument of immortality of soul (faith; paradox)

Kierkegaard: three movements of faith Embracing Paradox Kierkegaard: three movements of faith Wish Infinite resignation Believes against all odds in impossible Nietzsche: eternal recurrence Heidegger: hermeneutic circle Sartre: consciousness as absolute and free Camus: the absurd De Beauvoir: Ambiguity

Against Fatalism and Determinism Fatalism– the belief that logic can prove that no person has free will Law of excluded middle—every statement must be true or false Therefore even statements about future (“I will go to the grocery store”) are true or false Determinism—the belief that physical or psychological forces determine our behavior Cf. with Sartre’s account of action