• Not every philosopher or artist was a willing
member of this new “existentialist” group.
Many were lumped into the movement
against their protests (Albert Camus and
Martin Heidegger, for example), while others
were simply swept along by the timing and
similarity of their works (Kafka, Ibsen, Beckett,
and Dostoevsky)
In classical philosophical discussions, all
attempts to define what it means to be a human
being was defined by our means of interacting
with the world around us, which we can do in
two ways:
1) our behavior through the laws of nature
(physically)
2) through the laws of ethics and morals
(morally).
In either case, we are defined based on our
INTERACTIONS.
• The existentialist position is that neither of those
modes of thinking are sufficient to “fully capture
what makes me, myself, my “ownmost” self.
Without denying the validity of scientific
categories (governed by the norm of truth) or
moral categories (governed by norms of the good
and the right), “existentialism” may be defined as
the philosophical theory which holds that a
further set of categories, governed by the norm
of authenticity, is necessary to grasp human
existence.”
SDP, “Existentialism”
• To understand what it means to be human is
more than understanding the scientific and
moral laws of humanity.
It requires understanding the essential youness
of being you, that element that cannot be
captured in objective science but must be
sought through SUBJECTIVE, PASSIONATE
examination.
We cannot say what it means to be human,
because we create that meaning by the way we
live as humans.
In other words, we do not have a “standard”
existence, but one that varies wildly according
to the conditions affecting it.
• "What is meant here by saying that existence precedes
essence? It means that, first of all, the human
individual exists, turns up, appears in the world, and,
only afterwards, defines himself. If the human
individual, as the existentialist thinks of him, is
indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only
afterward will he be something, and he himself will
have made what he will be. Thus, there is no human
nature, since there is no God to conceive of it. Not only
is the human individual what he conceives himself to
be, but he is also only what he wills himself to be after
this thrust toward existence." (Sartre, Existentialism,
481-2)
• There is no one, specific authentic path for a
human being – nothing that can be thought of
as a norm or standard.
• Authenticity considers the question of
whether I am, in pursuing a project, doing so
in a committed manner (making it “my own”)
or as merely a placeholder who is doing “what
one does” to fit in.
Humans are not like objects—we are free to
choose our paths and are “self-creating” (in
that we pick how we behave once we begin to
exist), and thus, unlike objects,
we are responsible for our own actions and
choices.
Since we are thus responsible for our choices as
individuals, we also must recognize that our
individual choices have global impact – the
choices each of us make affect everyone else,
and therefore we are each responsible both for
ourselves and for all of humanity.
• Since I am responsible for both myself and the
rest of the world, and since I have no one to
turn to for help or instructions (since there is
no divine force giving us moral or physical
guidance in this paradigm), I am therefore
doomed to live a life of
The feeling that one is responsible for the
entirety of the world, and that one’s choices
are thus of overwhelming importance. We
cannot escape our responsibilities, which
loom over everything we do and color us with
endless feelings of doubt and question.
A reaction to the absence of a god-figure in our
world. We are ultimately alone in the
universe with nothing but ourselves for
guidance. This, given the people around us, is
a scary, lonely thought.
Implications of the nonexistence
of God:
No foundation for objective & absolute
values.
All values are human creations.
Man is “condemned to be free.”
We are alone, with no justifications & no
excuses.
slide courtesy of
gcronk@bergen.edu
Dostoevsky: "If God does not exist, then
everything is permitted."
Since we must rely on others, and since others
are essentially out of our control, yet we still
are by definition responsible for ourselves and
for everyone else, this creates a situation
where we cannot possibly see how we can
meet our responsibilities adequately, and thus
we feel a sense of hopelessness and futility.
(bummer.)
Existentialism in Art
Blue (Moby Dick) – Jackson Pollock, 1943
Existentialism in Art
Willem de Kooning – Woman and
Bicycle (1953)
Existentialist-influenced music and film
• Jim Morrison, The Doors
• Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails
• Fight Club (and pretty much everything by
Chuck Palahniuk)
MAJOR THEME: THE STRUGGLE OF THE
INDIVIDUAL TO FIT IN IN A WORLD OF
HOPELESSNESS AND ABSURDITY