The Humanism of Existentialism

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The Humanism of Existentialism

• Philosophy 1
• Spring, 2002
• G. J. Mattey

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Jean-Paul Sartre

• Born 1905
• From France
• Worked with the French Resistance in World War II
• Wrote novels, short stories, and plays
• Became a Marxist
• Turned down Nobel Prize (1964)
• Died 1980

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Sartres Contributions

• Popularized existentialism
• Reformulated Descartess dualism a contemporary
  framework
• Argued for absolute freedom and responsibility
  for human beings
• Author of many memorable quotations and examples
• Man is a useless passion
• Hell is other people

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Existentialism

• Existentialism is a philosophy of human existence
• The existence of a human being is prior to that
  humans essence
• What I am now is a matter of the free choices I
  have made
• Subjectivity must be the starting point

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Marxist Criticisms

• Marxists emphasized human solidarity and
  materialist determinism
• They accused existentialism of despairing of
  solutions to societal problems
• This leads to contemplation, not action, so
  existentialism is a bourgeois philosophy
• Since it begins with the subjectivity of the I
  think, they accuse it of precluding solidarity
  with other people

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Christian Criticisms

• Existentialism neglects the gracious and
  beautiful in favor of the sordid, shady, and
  slimy
• By denying that there are divine commands, it
  makes all human action arbitrary
• It is impossible to criticize the actions of
  another, since it is due entirely to the others
  choice, which is not based on principle

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Optimism and Pessimism

• Those who criticize existentialism for being too
  gloomy are themselves very pessimistic
• Bad actions are considered human nature
• They encourage us to submit to authority
• They tell us that rebellion is romantic fantasy
• These people may be afraid of existentialism
  because of its optimism, since humans retain the
  possibility of choice

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What Existentialism Is

• The label existentialist is attached to all
  kinds of things, even the work of a musician or
  painter
• But existentialism is a technical philosophical
  doctrine
• The existentialist camp is split
• Christians (Jaspers, Marcel)
• Atheists (Heidegger, French existentialists,
  Sartre)
• They agree on the doctrine that existence
  precedes essence

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Essence As Preceding Existence

• In the case of an artifact (e.g., a
  paper-cutter), production of an existing thing
  follows a prior concept
• Gods creation of the world would work in the
  same way human beings would be made in accord
  with a concept of them
• Enlightenment philosophers (e.g., Kant) made
  human nature the essence the precedes existence

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Atheist Existentialism

• A more coherent account of human beings denies
  the existence of God
• If there is no God, there is at least one kind of
  creature, the human being, in whom existence
  precedes essence
• Man turns up on the scene and then defines
  himself as man
• So, he must have begun as nothing
• There is no human nature, because there is no God
  to conceive of it man is only what he wills
  himself to be

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Subjectivity

• The starting point for humans is subjective
  because humans make themselves what they are
• Subjectivity is a dignity, not a drawback
• Only humans are possessed of subjectivity
• Making ourselves what we are leaves us
  responsible for our own actions
• Humans are responsible not only for themselves,
  but for all humanity, since we create an image
  of man as we think he ought to be
• We always choose the good, which is good for all

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Anguish

• Existentialists say that the human being is
  anguish
• Someone who chooses for himself and for all of
  mankind realizes his deep responsibility
• To deny this is an act of universal lying
• Anguish is evident when we lack a proof that what
  we have chosen to do is right (what Kierkegaard
  called the anguish of Abraham)
• It is the basis for action, because it
  acknowledges various open possibilities

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Forlornness

• Heidegger described humans as forlorn because we
  must face the consequences of the non-existence
  of God
• This is opposed to the view that nothing would
  change if God does not exist
• It is distressing because there is no ultimate
  source of values if God does not exist
• Dostoyevsky If God does not exist, everything is
  permitted

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Freedom

• The human being is freedom, with no justification
  or excuses
• We are condemned to be free insofar as we find
  ourselves thrown into the world as free beings
• We are even responsible for our own passions

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The Choice

• A student has good reasons to remain with his
  mother or to leave her to try to fight the Nazis
• It is a certainty that staying will help her, and
  an ethics of sympathy dictates it
• It is not certain that he would help against the
  occupier, but a broader ethics dictate it
• There is no means, Christian or Kantian, to force
  a choice in either direction
• He remained with his mother, deciding in terms of
  feeling the choice made the feeling right

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Despair

• Despair means that we can only reckon from
  probabilities
• The possibilities from which probabilities are
  drawn cannot be adapted to the will
• We might count on people we know well, but this
  is just like counting on the trolleys not
  jumping the tracks
• On the other hand, we can strive to make the
  future different from what it would be without
  our actions

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Reality Alone Counts

• An person is of a certain kind (e.g., writer)
  only insofar as he engages in that activity
• What a person hopes or wishes to be does not
  matter only the produced realities do
• In assessing a person, we must take all his
  activities into account
• For man is the sum of his undertakings

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Optimistic Toughness

• Existentialist write of people with character
  flaws
• They do not attribute these to circumstances or
  heredity, but to free choices
• There is no such thing, e.g., as a cowardly
  constitution, as there is a nervous one
• But people would like these traits to be
  deterministic
• The existentialist keeps open the possibility of
  change in anyone in any circumstance

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Subjectivity Again

• The human starting-point must be subjective
• The only firm beginning is I think therefore, I
  exist
• Everything else is mere probability
• This prevents man from being reduced to an object
• It also acknowledges that the other is
  indispensable to my own existence (e.g., as witty)

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Universality

• There is a universal human condition mortal
  being in the world
• This is objective, and the situation of any human
  can be understood
• But it is subjective, as the human condition is
  always being built through individual human
  choices

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The Consequences of Subjectivity

• The subjectivity of existentialism is said to
  have bad consequences
• No one must act on principle, leading to anarchy
• No one may pass judgments on another
• Choice is arbitrary
• The first objection is not serious
• One may not choose not to choose
• The choices are made in a way that involves all
  of mankind

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Art and Ethics

• We do not criticize painters for not having a
  pre-conceived notion from which they work
• The values appear in the painting itself
• Ethical decisions are like artistic creations
• In choosing our ethics, we make ourselves
• It is therefore absurd to charge us with
  arbitrariness of choice

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Relativity

• In a sense we cannot pass judgment on others
• People are what their choices, made in a
  situation, make them
• There is no progress in the sense of betterment
• One can still pass judgment, however
• We can condemn those who take refuge in the
  excuse that the passions dictated his actions
• Dishonesty is an error choosing dishonesty is
  less coherent than choosing honesty

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Moral Judgment

• Upon becoming forlorn, a person can only wish for
  freedom
• When we are engaged in activity, our freedom
  depends on the freedom of others
• Cowards hide freedom from themselves with
  deterministic excuses
• Stinkers try to show that their existence is
  necessary

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Abstract Morality

• Kantian morality correctly recognizes the central
  role of freedom
• But it is too abstract to provide real moral
  guidance
• The concrete case of the student cannot be
  decided on Kantian grounds there is always
  invention

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Seriousness

• Inventing values is a serious business
• It would be nice if another being were a source
  of values, but there is none
• When we come into the world, we have to provide
  values for ourselves
• This provides the possibility for creating a
  human community

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Humanism

• One meaning of humanism has been rejected in
  Sartres Nausea
• Taking individual credit as a human for the deeds
  of others
• Another is implicit in existentialism
• Man transcends his individuality
• The only universe is a human one, and the only
  lawmakers individual human beings
• It would not matter even if God did exist