The origins of Existentialism Kierkegaard and Sartre
Soren Kierkegaard was the first philosopher to actually
consider that he wrote about Existentialism. Since his time
existential approaches to philosophy about life have grown very
greatly in influence and also appeared in several forms
influenced by numerous writers and thinkers. In retrospect
several writers who lived before Kierkegaard are seen as having
been concerned with the same subject matter. All these earlier
and later writers works have influenced the modern world - and
perhaps by more than we can know.
After the Second World War was there was a most notable
upsurgence of enthusuiasm amongst substantial sections of the
rising generation and the intelligentsia for philosophic ideas
concerned with existential approaches to life. The writer
principally looked to during this phase of the popularisation of
an atheistic and humanistic approach to Existentialist philosophy
was Jean Paul Sartre.
Well, what is Existentialism?
Existentialism is philosophical and literary tendency that
typically displays a dismissal of abstract theories that seek to
disguise the untidiness of actual human lives and emphasizes the
subjective realities of individual existence, individual freedom,
and individual choice. It is virtually impossible to define
absolutely as it is now so broad in its approaches but some of
its major strands can be outlined.
There is an emphasis on each person finding their own way
in life, on making choices, (including, in particular, all
serious and momentous life-choices), for oneself as one sees fit
without reliance on external standards or practice. This tendency
to effectively deny that there is an acceptable basis for moral
decision making diverges markedly from an earlier, and often
largely unquestioned faith-related, emphasis that there could be,
and indeed were, moral standards to which all might beneficially
conform.
Whereas an acceptance of moral standards could provide an
objective basis for making choices Existentialism's denial of the
existence of moral standards means that the primary basis for the
making of choices has to be subjective. Persons actively engaged
in situations may well make choices that are subjectively valid
in terms of themselves, there and then, but which might seem
questionable to a dispassionate observer.
There is a full acceptance that individuals are free to choose
their own path and an associated declaration that individuals
must accept the risk and responsibility of following their
commitment wherever it leads. Choices made tend to establish the
subsequent pattern of individuals lives and also profoundly
influence the ensuing nature and aspect of the person who makes
them. Even choosing not to make a choice is a form of choice
bringing with it consequences. People are inevitably faced with
choice in very many contexts.
One of the life choices Kierkegaard thought that people
could make, and the one that he chose for himself, was a life
fully aligned with faith.
In contrast to this Nietzsche, who was himself descended
from a recent background of Lutheran, clerical, ancestry
proclaimed that "God is dead" and went on to endorse an, heroic,
pagan ideal.
The respective approaches of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and
Sartre are considered in more detail on some of our other
pages.
The fashion for Existentialism after the Second World War
saw its influence pervading widely and deeply into journalism,
poetry, the playhouse, and the cinema. The outlook of the modern
world has been formed, perhaps more than we readily appreciate,
by Existentialist philosophy as advertised and sponsored from
many sides.
Existentialist philosophy has developed two main aspects
i.e. "Christian" and "Humanist".
Apart from Kierkegaard's initial impetus the "Christian"
aspect has had such main contributors as the German Protestant
theologians Paul Tillich and Rudolf Bultmann, the French Roman
Catholic theologian Gabriel Marcel, the Russian Orthodox
philosopher Nikolay Berdyayev, and the German Jewish philosopher
Martin Buber.
Apart from Nietzsche and Sartre the "Humanist" aspect can
claim to find representation in the works of European based
writers such as Jaspers, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Malraux, Camus and
Beckett and also such American based writers as Mailer and
Miller.
Explore Inner Space!!!
It is widely known that Plato, pupil of and close friend to Socrates, accepted that Human
Beings have a " Tripartite Soul " where the individual Human Psyche is composed of three aspects -
Wisdom-Rationality, Spirited-Will and Appetite-Desire.
What is less widely appreciated is that such major World Faiths as Christianity, Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism see "Spirituality" as being relative to "Desire" and to "Wrath".
Human Beings are "social beings" and, that being the case, it seems possible that individual Human-innate "bundles of relations and knots of roots" tend to contribute towards giving rise to the "World" of Human Societies!!!
This view suggests that Societies themselves!!!
can often have a "Tripartite" character.
Although this may well depend on such things as:-
How "socio-politically doctrinaire" an individual society might be.
(Societies committed to Marxist ideology, for example, may not be particularly "Tripartite").