The Materialists and Existentialists Russell Casados II, English IV, Feb. 8, 2015

Materialism According to Luke Mastin, author of the article “The Basics of Philosophy” materialism is possibly one of the few philosophies that is structured around the physicality of the world rather than ideas, or spiritual influences. “The only thing that can be truly proven to exist is matter.” This philosophy is built upon the fact that there is nothing to humanity, the world, or even life than just atoms moving and reacting with each other. Materialism is a type of monism, meaning that “all is one” and there is only one “kind of stuff.” In Materialism the monism aspect would be that everything known and even unknown is just matter. Matter of course being atoms, particles, and waves. Materialists believe there is no point to anything, as we are only matter reacting with other matter. (Mastin, 2008)

Karl Marx According to an online biography, Karl Marx was born in Prussia on May 5th 1818-1883. He was a “German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist.” (Biography.com, 2009) According to Luke Mastin, Karl Marx’s materialist ideas were more related concepts to the main branch of Materialism. Marx took the “monism” aspect that “all is one” and applied it to a more politic view. (Mastin 2008) According to Peter J. King, Marx thought that there is “only the physical so all are equal and as such should share communally in society.” This idea then turned into what we know as communism. (One Hundred Philosophers, 2004)

Friedrich Engels Google states that Friedrich Engels was a German philosopher, social scientist and journalist. He was born on November 28th 1820 and died on August 5th, 1895. (Google.com) According to Sam Pawlett, Friedrich Engels view on materialism were parallel to Marx’s Historical Materialism. The two even worked together to develop this related concept. Keep in mind that materialism does not include religion. It was based off of the physical proof that everyone is made of the same particles. With that in mind, it was also Friedrich Engels who took this concept, and applied them to economics and politics. (Pawlett, 2012)

Vladimir Lenin Google states that Vladimir Lenin was a was a “Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist.” He was born on April 22nd 1870 and died on January 24th 1924. (Google.com) According to an online biography, Lenin is labeled as the “greatest revolutionary leader and thinker since Marx.” By incorporating both his own materialistic views (which were entirely similar to Marx’s) he developed “Leninism.” Predecessors of Lenin then developed “Marxism- Leninism,” the direct ideology that created communism. (Biography.com, 2009)

Sigmund Freud According to Google, “Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the father of psychoanalysis.” He was born on May 6th 1856 and died on September 23rd 1939. (Google.com) According to James Holmgren, Freud's “psychoanalysis” which is “is a set of psychological and psychotherapeutic theories and associated techniques.” Mainly for psychologists to understand just what makes humanity the way it is. His materialist views are a bit different to the others. Instead of applying the philosophy to politics. He agrees that the individual is one structure, acting alone against the world. (Holmgren, 2009)

Carl Jung Google states that Carl Jung was “a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology.” He was born on July 26th, 1875 and died on June 6th 1961. (Google.com) Andrew Samuels states that in very similar terms with Freud, Carl Jung believes that the individual is alone and is dependent on what happens to them externally that determines their humanity. (Samuels, 2012)

John Maynard Keynes According to Google, John Maynard Keynes “was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments.” (Google.com) According to “The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica,” Keynes developed strong theories to put an end to unemployment. By using ideas shared by both Marx and Lenin, he wrote The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money that “advocated a remedy for economic recession.” (Encyclopedia Britannca, 2014)

Existentialism According to Luke Mastin, existentialism is the philosophical branch that focuses on the “individual existence.” That there really is no valid explanation for our existence, so everyone is responsible for deciding their own existence. It seems that “the only way to counter this nothingness (and hence to find meaning in life) is by embracing existence.” You are here, for whatever reason you want to believe. (Mastin, 2008)

Soren Kierkegaard Google states that Soren Kierkegaard “was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher.” He was born on May 5th 1813 and died on November 11th 1855. (Google.com) According to Alfred Russel Wallace, Soren believed that there were three “existence spheres.” Aesthetical, Ethical, and Religious. In accordance to the Existential idea, that people make there own existence, he simply believed that no matter the choice of reasoning, a person would either end up living in relation to one of the three existence spheres. (Wallace, “Start of Kierkegarrd”)

Friedrich Nietzsche According to Google Friedrich Nietzsche “was a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history.” He was born on October 15th, 1844 and died on August 25th, 1900. (Google.com) According to the article “Friedrich Nietzsche” Friedrich Nietzsche was the most influential person in the existentialist branch. He firmly believed in the idea of existentialism, and actually created many ideas that accorded to existentialism. To list a few he believed that: Life was too short so everyone had to live “aggressively” as possible, that everyone should strive to be a “superman”, and that belief in self-power was essential to a well- lived life. (allaboutphilosophy.org, 2002)

Edmund Husserl According to Google, Edmund Husserl “was a German philosopher who established the school of phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic based on analyses of intentionality.” He was born on April 8th, 1859 and died on April 27th, 1938. (Google.com) According to Dr. C. George Boeree, Edmund Husserl’s main focus was a research technique called phenomenology that he had a strong impact on during his university years. Phenomenology works by focusing on the internal aspects of a person rather than the external aspects affecting the person. It can be used to study sociological concepts in humans. Phenomenology shares similar ideas to existentialism by focusing on the individual person internal components. (C. George Boeree, 2002)

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger was “was a German philosopher and a seminal thinker in the Continental tradition and philosophical hermeneutics, with a growing influence on Analytic philosophy,” from Google. He was born on September 26th, 1889 and died on may 26th, 1976. (Google.com) According to C. John Holcombe, Heidegger was very “to himself” (in my opinion a great trait to have when discussing existentialism). He would even make is own words, one word that he incorperated into his philosophy, dasein, meant “to be there.” What this meant, according to Heidegger, was that very person has dasein. To have dasein meant that all that mattered was “inner-mental states.” Which is what existentialism is all about. (Holcombe, 2015)

Jean-Paul Sartre Google states that Jean-Paul Sartre “was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, political activist, biographer, and literary critic.” He was born on June 21st, 1905 and died on April 15th 1980. (Google.com) According to Nigel Warburton, although Sartre stated that he doesn’t “even known what Existentialism is,” his views are exactly what existentialism stands for, and his philosophy actually contributed greatly to the structure of existentialism. Sartre believed that for humans “existence comes before essence.” What this means is that we have no “pre-established purpose or nature.” (A guide to Jean-Paul Sartre, 1996)

Albert Camus According to Google, Albert Camus “was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. His views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism.” He was born on November 7th 1903 and died on January 4th, 1960. (Google.com) According to Simon Lea, Albert Camus didn’t want to label himself as a existentialist, sometimes not even as a philosopher. Yet, despite his disagreement, the views he had were exactly that of an existentialist. Focusing on what the individual makes of the world, rather than what the world makes the individual. (Lea, 2005)

Simone de Beauvoir According to Google, Simone de Beauvoir “was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist.” She was born on January 9th 1908 and died on April 14th 1986. (Google.com) According to Laura Maguire, Simone de Beauvoir was most popularly recognized as a writer. Her most popular novel, The Second Sex, captures how the female person is considered second in society, second to men. She felt that women are second because they are taught strictly how to “become a proper women.” Her existentialist ideas come in to play when she believes that women’s true freedom is being held back because of their inferiority to men. After all, existentialism’s concern is for humanity to be free of all restraints and at the time, women weren’t entirely free. (Maguire, 2014)

How They Relate I believe the main concept of Materialism to be within the metaphysics branch. As it revolves around the idea of basic life, that everything is matter, and all are one. Yet, with that being said, the philosophers under Materialism seem to go more with the politics branch. Due to their main concerns being economically. Also taking in the fact that their Materialistic ideas created communism. I believe Existentialism to be under Metaphysics. The main concept of existentialism is to make your own meaning of life. To answer your own questions about the “unknown world” and make it your own.

Works Cited “The Basics of Philosophy” Mastin Luke. 2008. “The Basics of Philosophy: A huge subject broken down into manageable chunks.” http://www.philosophybasics.com/ “This Could be Carl Jung’s Century” Samuels Andrew. 2012. “Psychology Cif Belief” http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/25/carl-jung-century "Dialectical Materialism and Psychoanalysis“ Holmgren Jonas. 2009. https://www.marxists.org/archive/brinton/1972/reich2.htm “Friedrich Nietzsche” 2016. “All About…” http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/friedrich- nietzsche-faq.htm Google. 2016. https://www.google.com “John Maynard Keynes” The Editors of The Encyclopedia Britannica. 2014. “Encyclopedia Britannica” http://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Maynard-Keynes “Phenomenological Existentialism” Dr. C. George Boeree. 2000. “Edmund Husserl” http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/phenandexist.html “Simone de Beauvoir” Maguire Laura. 2014. “Philosophy Talk: Community of Thinkers” http://philosophytalk.org/community/blog/laura-maguire/2015/04/simone-de-beauvoir “Start of Kierkegaard biography philosophy of existentialism” Wallace Alfred Russel. http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/philosophy/kierkegaard.html “Vladimir Lenin Biography” Biography.com Editors. 2016. “Biography.com” http://www.biography.com/people/vladimir-lenin-9379007 “Was Albert Camus an existentialist?” Lea Simon. 2005. “Albert Camus Society” http://www.camus-society.com/albert-camus-existentialism.html “Martin Heidegger” Holcombe C. John. 2015. http://www.textetc.com/theory/heidegger.html