Existentialism
First developed in early nineteenth-hundreds in France, from the work of Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialism it has since grown to become one of the most prominent philosophical movements. Owing much to the philosophies of Descartes and Edmund Husserl, existentialism centers on three key concepts: anguish, abandonment, and despair. To date, both religious and non-religious variants of existentialism have been defended.
The Primacy of Self-Consciousness
According to existentialism, a central metaphysical distinction is that between beings that are capable and those that are not capable of grasping their own existence. Self-consciousness, in other words, is that trait which sets apart beings like us.
While beings that lack self-consciousness can be defined on scientific grounds – e.g. by means of a chemical formula or a law of nature characterizing their behavior (think of an electron or a quark) – self-conscious beings experience themselves as essentially free: no one can really define who you are, as first and foremost you experience your freedom. A person – it seems – can always opt out of a given situation: humans can commit suicide, rebel, and do otherwise than requested or expected; this is due to the fact that humans are capable of planning their own actions, thus defeating any prevision. This is, of course, in stark contrast with many religious and philosophical theories, including those of materialists such as Karl Marx and John Calvin.
Condemned to Be Free
Humans are thus condemned to be free by their very own nature: I cannot but experience myself as a free agent because of my capacity to conceive of my own existence and all of its possible alternatives. With existentialism, possibility becomes a central chapter of ethics too. (It shall be reminded, however, that also for philosophers such as Leibniz, possibility occupied an important role in the explanation of responsibility and the justification of the existence of evil.) The very intuition of being alive grounds my capacity of conceiving of myself as eating or not eating an apple, as reading or not reading those words, as studying or not studying philosophy, and so on.
Anguish
Sartre qualified life (as seen by existentialists) with three words: anguish, abandonment, and despair. We are condemned to live in anguish because we cannot but realize the weight of our own choices over our own lives and the lives of others. Our actions take place in a sphere of agents that recognize each other’s existence. Those who occupy positions of responsibility especially feel the burden; but, really, each of us can understand that her action affect the lives of those surrounding them, for good or bad, better or worse. When the matter is fully considered, anyone, when acting, does so on behalf of the whole humanity. Hitler’s deeds are the deeds of the whole human kind, they show what humans are capable of: for this reason, in a sense, we are all touched by it.
Abandonment
Since there is no definition of a human being, accordingly there is no definition of what is best for humans to do. Each human is left alone to choose how to act: no matter how many consultations and obligations may push you to act in a certain way, nothing can necessitate your choice. This is why humans are – in a sense – abandoned in their own agency.
Despair
Human agency is marked by probabilities rather than necessary laws: no one can necessarily predict how an agent is going to behave. This condition is referred to as "despair" precisely because of the uncertainty that marks it.
Further Online Sources
The Primacy of Self-Consciousness
According to existentialism, a central metaphysical distinction is that between beings that are capable and those that are not capable of grasping their own existence. Self-consciousness, in other words, is that trait which sets apart beings like us.
While beings that lack self-consciousness can be defined on scientific grounds – e.g. by means of a chemical formula or a law of nature characterizing their behavior (think of an electron or a quark) – self-conscious beings experience themselves as essentially free: no one can really define who you are, as first and foremost you experience your freedom. A person – it seems – can always opt out of a given situation: humans can commit suicide, rebel, and do otherwise than requested or expected; this is due to the fact that humans are capable of planning their own actions, thus defeating any prevision. This is, of course, in stark contrast with many religious and philosophical theories, including those of materialists such as Karl Marx and John Calvin.
Condemned to Be Free
Humans are thus condemned to be free by their very own nature: I cannot but experience myself as a free agent because of my capacity to conceive of my own existence and all of its possible alternatives. With existentialism, possibility becomes a central chapter of ethics too. (It shall be reminded, however, that also for philosophers such as Leibniz, possibility occupied an important role in the explanation of responsibility and the justification of the existence of evil.) The very intuition of being alive grounds my capacity of conceiving of myself as eating or not eating an apple, as reading or not reading those words, as studying or not studying philosophy, and so on.
Anguish
Sartre qualified life (as seen by existentialists) with three words: anguish, abandonment, and despair. We are condemned to live in anguish because we cannot but realize the weight of our own choices over our own lives and the lives of others. Our actions take place in a sphere of agents that recognize each other’s existence. Those who occupy positions of responsibility especially feel the burden; but, really, each of us can understand that her action affect the lives of those surrounding them, for good or bad, better or worse. When the matter is fully considered, anyone, when acting, does so on behalf of the whole humanity. Hitler’s deeds are the deeds of the whole human kind, they show what humans are capable of: for this reason, in a sense, we are all touched by it.
Abandonment
Since there is no definition of a human being, accordingly there is no definition of what is best for humans to do. Each human is left alone to choose how to act: no matter how many consultations and obligations may push you to act in a certain way, nothing can necessitate your choice. This is why humans are – in a sense – abandoned in their own agency.
Despair
Human agency is marked by probabilities rather than necessary laws: no one can necessarily predict how an agent is going to behave. This condition is referred to as "despair" precisely because of the uncertainty that marks it.
Further Online Sources
- The entry on Existentialism at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- A 2001 podcast of BBC’s In Our Time devoted to Existentialism.
- A Useful list of sources on existentialism.