HCJ4: Existenialism

“The rebel’s weapon is the proof of his humanity. This irrepressible violence is man recreating himself”

No point to life, no god, no order. Life is pointless. Morrisey. Nilhism (Camus)

Existenialism goes further than Nilhism. No one to tell me what to do to, need guidance. Existenialists say there is no guidance/meaning. Can create whole universe yourself, CHOICE (The Stranger). Brave choice to do something that is pointless. Violence is the ultimate choice (Meursault kills Arab).

Existentialism is an agent for political change - Brian. Franz Fanon and Niezsche are key figures in Existenialism - would want us to overthrow power and ‘do something’.

 

Nietzsche

God is dead. No specific god, but it means there is no higher authority/super structure. We are beyond good and evil.

Transvaluation of all values. We have the choice to do whatever we like, no one to tell us what to do.

Human nature is not universal - our natures are different and it therefore follows that different people can find and follow different conceptions of excellence, different moralities. It creates space for ‘Fanon’s violence’.

Ubermensch - over man/super man. Will to power, the ubermensch will define himself and overcome.

Choice is crucial to the existentialist point of view. Only thing in a godless universe is choice. Make choices on own internal morality.

Heidegger

Being and Time - highly influential (Satre’s Being and Nothingness).

The book is about existence. Heidegger was interested in what is means to exist/to be ‘us’.

We must question the nature of the being which causes the question to be asked. That is a creature he calls Dasein.

Descartes’ Cartesian Dualism: mind and body make up the world. If you believe in this, there is no way for philosophy to work as we would never know anything. How can mind and body be different things if my mind controls my body? Why can’t I move a chair with my mind?

Instead of Cartesian Doubt, Heidegger comes up with Dasein. He is looking for the essential structure of Dasein - being in the world.

Being in the world - not as a spatial relationship, but is our interaction with the world. It denotes a certain type of engagement e.g. I’m in Journalism. Doesn’t mean that I’m in a box called Journalism, but in the Journalism industry.

If the world wasn’t there, there wouldn’t be any existence.

Empiricism - physical being

Idealism - ‘soul’

Existentialism - every decision made by a person, but the next decision can’t be seen and this is most important one for Existentialists.

Das man self - inauthentic life because is it simply a social self. Not the one’s own self - Meursault.

Facticity - the events that have brought you to where you are e.g. born, one parent, school, uni etc…

Heidegger said that if you are defined by what has gone before, you are a ‘das man’. ‘Thrown into the world’, blind luck where you were born or the family you were born into. Nationality is following your facticity e.g. proud to be British. Not your choice.

Transcendence - my reaction to my facticity. I am defined by my choices - I re-create myself and not defined by past.  Examples in history: MLK and Suffragette movement.

 

Satre

We create own our purpose. Simone de Beauvoir: “One is not born a woman, but becomes one”. A female is not born with womanly traits, but the way she acts is her choice.

No teleological driving force, stuff happens. Good and bad without reason and so life is in some ways ridiculous and absurd.

Heidegger right wing and Satre left wing. Existentialism is very broad. 

The life of a person is not determined in advance, by God or moral laws said Satre. The only thing we can’t escape is the need to choose. Every decision you make can help to re-create yourself, but people will try to avoid this freedom, aka ‘bad faith’. Satre divided world into being in itself and being for itself. Being in itself is when an object is defined as itself e.g. a table can’t turn into a ball. Being for itself

The alternative is to take responsibility for your actions and be defined by your choices ‘all the barriers are gone’.

Humanity for Satre is: Abandonment - God is dead (Neitzsche), God does not guide our actions, there is no divine set of rules to follow and we are alone and there is nothing to guide us on how to act.

Anguish - Humans are fundamentally free, “condemned to be free”, the responsibility of being free is enormous and we have no excuses and we are responsible for everything we are.

Despair - The realisation of that whatever we do, it could turn out badly.

Example: Satre’s pupil. Choice between looking after his mother to maintain her safety and joining the Free French (the Resistance) in WW2. Abandonment, Anguish and Despair. The choice? “You are free, therefore choose”.

Bad Faith: Most people think that being a soldier, police officer or student confers certain expectations on you e.g students should go to all lectures. Bad faith is not making a decision e.g. woman in café who doesn’t choose between having sex and pulling her hand away. She just leaves it there as an object than has no choice. She has bad faith even if she marries him, she lets herself be defined by the man. She dodged one choice so she might dodge others.

Gay man: A man who has had gay relationships in the past. Does this define who he is? If he has a heterosexual relationship in the future is he still defined by his previous gay relationship?