ExistentialismPreliminary Background Terminology and Themes

Existence vs. Essence

Essence Something that came before Something that defines us A character, purpose, mission, agenda, or calling we are born

with (not chosen)

Existence without essence Human character is not given to us (we create it) Humans constantly becoming A blank slate – we could be or do anything we want May not be right or wrong No a priori foundation to humans; therefore, life is absurd

A prioiri – comes before the senses, before experience, before life A posteriori – what we can know through our senses, life

experience

Humans vs. Non-humans There is a uniqueness to humans

Culture Art Religion Language Philosophy Symbolic capacity Self aware Awareness of Death Anxiety, Neuroses Need for fulfillment other than physical

Is there debate about human/non-human differences?

Is the difference qualitative or quantitative? Can primates, dolphins have primitive languages, religion? Do animals have neuroses? Can dogs and cats see pictures?

Human Emotions

Non-human animals have emotions related to basic, primal or physical needs being satisfied

Happiness, satisfaction to have food and shelter Fear of predators Love?

Humans have emotions on other intangible things as well Guilt, Remorse Fear of the bogeyman Joy in Art, Religion William James: these feelings allow things to be known

Humans will voluntarily endanger their physical well-being or survival for those other things

Free Will vs. Determinism

Determinism Genes, heredity affect our actionsEnvironment, social influences affect our actionsHard determinism – all our actions have been

predetermined by genes and environment. Can there be a morality with hard determinism?

Free WillWe have freedom to make choices about our lifeHeredity and environment may affect us or influence

our decisions, but not completely (or much at all). We can still make our own choices.

Subjectivity vs. Objectivity

SubjectiveThe subject’s (self’s) experience of thingsMay or may not be related to the real world “out

there”The pain in my knee when I hit it on the table

ObjectiveThe external world, realityCan be sensed, verified, provenThe broken blood vessels, swelling, purple skin in

my knee when I hit it on the table

Mind vs. MatterConsciousness vs. Body/Things

Being-for-itself vs. Being-in-itself

Are humans made of mind, matter, or both, and how do these relate to each other?

Idealism (Plato) – Mind Materialism – Matter Dualism (Descartes) – Both, but separate Existentialism, Pragmatism – Both but one

Praxis: “The subjective self being practical and bodily engaged in the real world”

(Logical) Positivism

One form of materialism/physicalism

Abstracts, intangibles either are irrelevant, do not exist, or “we can’t talk about them.”

The only things we can say anything about are: Empirically Verifiable, scientifically testable Logical truths (tautology – A bachelor is an unmarried male)

“Is murder wrong?” and “Does God exist?” or “My knee hurts,” are just silly questions and have no meaning.

Its heyday was 1930s/40s in Vienna; arose in 1800s.

Phenomenology Reaction to materialism and positivism. The positivists denied first-person

subjective experience; phenomenologist affirmed it. Definition:

“The study of structures of experience, or consciousness. Literally, phenomenology is the study of “phenomena”: appearances of things, or things as they appear in our experience, or the ways we experience things, thus the meanings things have in our experience. Phenomenology studies conscious experience as experienced from the subjective or first person point of view…..

“Basically, phenomenology studies the structure of various types of experience ranging from perception, thought, memory, imagination, emotion, desire, and volition to bodily awareness, embodied action, and social activity, including linguistic activity….

“The structure of these forms of experience typically involves what Husserl called “intentionality”, that is, the directedness of experience toward things in the world, the property of consciousness that it is a consciousness of or about something. According to classical Husserlian phenomenology, our experience is directed toward — represents or “intends” — things only through particular concepts, thoughts, ideas, images, etc. These make up the meaning or content of a given experience, and are distinct from the things they present or mean.”

From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Realism vs. Nominalism I

Universals Universals are universal, repeatable and continuing qualities,

characteristics, essences in a category Particulars are objects in the world, the real existing members of the

universal category. If whiteness is a universal, then every white things is an instance of

it. Fluffy is a particular cat in the universal category of cat Two cats are both cats, though different particular cats

What makes them cats? Why do we give them the name cat? What is it about them that causes us to group them together? Why don’t we call one of them a chair? Why are they cats one day and don’t become chairs the next?

Realism vs. Nominalism II

NominalismDoes not hold that universals (or abstract objects)

existOnly particulars.

Realism vs. Nominalism III

Realism There is a real world out there that we can know with our

senses (to a greater or lesser extent) Our language corresponds to that world. When I say I

have a cat, I have a real cat in the external world separate from my conception of it.

Our worldview, our picture and understanding of the world, confirms to a greater or lesser extent to that objective reality

The closer our worldview is to that reality, the more successful we will be.

If I believe I can fly, and jump off a building, I will not be successful if the real world has gravity.

If I call my cat a cat, that cat really does exist in the world and is not just a name in my mind.

Rationalism vs. Mysticism

Mysticism seen as a priori intuition, inspiration, gut feeling, “non-rational.”

Existentalism is not irrational mysticism, does not reject reason

Though it does pay attention to emotions

Rationalism vs. Empiricism

Rationalism here refers to “mind” vs. “senses” (empiricism) Cartesian rationalism: “I think therefore I am” Discovering and experiencing the world through mind, through logical

syllogisms

Empiricism refers to discovering and experiencing the world through senses, though material, physical interaction

Existentialism falls between rationalism and empiricism

Existentialism does not, like Descartes, think these are two separate camps.

The subjective self being practical and bodily engaged in the real (sensual) world

Rationalism vs. Romanticism

Romanticism An intellectual tradition in Europe in late 1700 early

1800 (in literature), in mid-1800s in America Privileges emotion, inspiration, intuition, spirituality, the

individual, nature Hostile to science, institutions, tradition

Western rationalism “A tradition which culminates in the enlightentment and

in the positivist conviction that the true repositories of knowledge are the sciences” (Cooper 15).

NOT existentialism.

A Note on Gabriel Marcel

He hated Descartes:

Descartes “cogito” or pure subjectism is “amont the most serious errors of which any metaphysics has been guilty”

The Cartesian self is “a bloodthirsty idol which devours all one’s projects” and its “subjectivty” is “magical” (qtd. In Cooper 16-17).

“Just as magical thought invest objects with spirits… so philosophers like Descartes have ‘reified’ our mental acts by locationg them in a fictitious ‘subjectivity-object’ that they call ‘self’ or ‘ego’” (Cooper 17).

Some Characteristics of Existentialism

Not entirely subjective, not idealism, not Cartesianism

Mood/emotions can be vehicles of understanding

Not materialist, physicalist, or postivist

Praxis – lived experience in practical reality, the subjective self being practical and bodily engaged in the real world

Grew out of phenomenology which was a reaction to 19th century materialism/positivism

Some Themes

Angst

Absurdity

Meaning

Alienation

Estrangement from self and others

Informative emotions

Realism

Praxis

Freedom

Responsibility

Creating our reality

Authenticity

Connection

Meaning

Atheist Existentialists I (Nihilistic)

We’re all going to die

Nothing’s out there after we die

Intellectual Nihilism/Freedom to do anything

Hedonism

Satiation/Dissatisfaction

Nihilism (nothing matters, nothing suffices)

Destruction

Camus, Nietzsche

Atheist Existentialists II (Creative)

We’re all going to die

Nothing’s out there after we die

Intellectual Nihilism/Freedom to do anything (nothing matters)

Hedonism

Satiation/Dissatisfaction

Nihilism Again (living for self didn’t work)

Freedom/Love (live for others)

Creative Community and Connection out of the Freedom

Sartre

Theist Existentialists I (Protestant)

We’re all going to die There is an afterlife (of some sort) Nihilism (nothing we do in this life matters – it all comes to the

same end)Hedonism (only what self wants matters) Satiation/Dissatisfaction Realization of Responsibility to Others (others matter) Worldly concerns are transient (will die too) Realization of Ultimate Responsibility to God (only God

matters) Abandon responsibilities and investments in “this world” for

commitment to God (Leap of Faith)Kierkegaard

Theist Existentialists II (Catholic)

We’re all going to die There is an afterlife (of some sort) Nihilism (nothing we do in this life matters – it all comes

to the same end)Hedonism (living for pleasure) Social Obligations (living for social/religious expectations)Satiation/Dissatisfaction (“this worldly” rewards are

transient and don’t ultimately fulfill) Realization of Eternal (God/love)Praxis: Responsibilities to God lived out through

responsiblities to/relationship with OthersGabriel Marcel, Walker Percy