Existentialism: An Introduction

Existentialism
A brief introduction
Contents
1 Existentialism 1
1.1 Denitional issues and background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.1 Existence precedes essence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.2 The Absurd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.3 Facticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.4 Authenticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.5 The Other and the Look . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.6 Angst and dread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.7 Despair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Opposition to positivism and rationalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 Nihilism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.6 Etymology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.7 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.7.1 19th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.7.2 Early 20th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.7.3 After the Second World War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.8 Inuence outside philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.8.1 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.8.2 Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.9 Criticisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.9.1 General criticisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.9.2 Sartre's philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.10 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.11 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.11.1 Specic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.11.2 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.11.3 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
i
ii CONTENTS
1.12 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.12.1 Journals and articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2 Existence precedes essence 17

2.1 Sartre's view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.5 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 Absurdism 19
3.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2 Relationship to existentialism and nihilism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3 Sren Kierkegaard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.4 Albert Camus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.5 The meaning of life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5.1 Elusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5.2 God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5.3 Personal meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5.4 Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.5.5 Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.5.6 Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.6 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.8 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4 Facticity 25
4.1 Early usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 Heidegger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3 Sartre and de Beauvoir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.4 Recent usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.5 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.7 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5 Authenticity (philosophy) 27
5.1 Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.1.1 Existentialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.1.2 Erich Fromm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
CONTENTS iii
5.1.3 Other perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5.2 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.3 Cultural activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.3.1 In music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.4 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.5 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.6 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
6 Other 32
6.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.1.1 Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.1.2 Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.1.3 Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.1.4 Critical theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.2 Imperialism and colonialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.2.1 Orientalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.2.2 Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.2.3 The subaltern native . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.3 Sex and gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.4 Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.4.1 Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.4.2 The Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.4.3 Practical perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.5 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.7 Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.8 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7 Angst 41
7.1 Existentialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.2 Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.5 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
8 Philosophy of Sren Kierkegaard 43

8.1 Note on pseudonyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8.2 Themes in his philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
iv CONTENTS
8.2.1 Alienation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8.2.2 Abstraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
8.2.3 Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
8.2.4 Dread or anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
8.2.5 Despair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
8.2.6 Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
8.2.7 Individuality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
8.2.8 Pathos (passion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8.2.9 Subjectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.2.10 Three stages of life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.3 Kierkegaard's thoughts on other philosophers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
8.3.1 Kierkegaard and Fichte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
8.3.2 Kierkegaard and Hegel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
8.3.3 Kierkegaard and Schelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
8.3.4 Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
8.4 Kierkegaard and Eastern philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
8.5 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
8.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
8.7 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
8.8 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
9 Existential nihilism 74
9.1 Meaning of life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
9.2 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
9.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
9.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
9.5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
9.5.1 Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
9.5.2 Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
9.5.3 Content license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Chapter 1
Existentialism
Existentialredirects here. For the logical sense of the tentialist, the individual's starting point is characterized by
term, see Existential quantication. For other uses, see what has been called the existential attitude, or a sense
Existence (disambiguation). of disorientation, confusion, or dread in the face of an ap-
Not to be confused with Essentialism. parently meaningless or absurd world.* [7] Many existential-
Existentialism (/zstnlzm/)* [1] is a term ap- ists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic
philosophies, in both style and content, as too abstract and
remote from concrete human experience.* [8]* [9]
Sren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the
rst existentialist philosopher,* [2]* [10]* [11] though he did
not use the term existentialism.* [12] He proposed that each
individual not society or religion is solely responsible
for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sin-
cerely, or authentically.* [13]* [14] Existentialism be-
came popular in the years following World War II, and
strongly inuenced many disciplines besides philosophy,
including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychol-
ogy.* [15]
1.1 Denitional issues and back-

ground
The term is often seen as a historical convenience as it
was rst applied to many philosophers in hindsight, long
after they had died. In fact, while existentialism is gen-
erally considered to have originated with Kierkegaard, the
rst prominent existentialist philosopher to adopt the term
as a self-description was Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre posits
the idea that what all existentialists have in common is
Clockwise from top left: Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, Sartre,
the fundamental doctrine that existence precedes essence",
Nietzsche
as scholar Frederick Copleston explains.* [16] According
plied to the work of certain late-19th- and 20th-century to philosopher Steven Crowell, dening existentialism has
European philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal been relatively dicult, and he argues that it is better
dierences,* [2]* [3]* [4] shared the belief that philosophi- understood as a general approach used to reject certain sys-
cal thinking begins with the human subject not merely tematic philosophies rather than as a systematic philosophy
the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human itself.* [2] Sartre himself, in a lecture delivered in 1945, de-
individual.* [5] While the predominant value of existential- scribed existentialism as the attempt to draw all the con-
ist thought is commonly acknowledged to be freedom, its sequences from a position of consistent atheism.* [17]
primary virtue is authenticity.* [6] In the view of the exis- Although many outside Scandinavia consider the term exis-
1
2 CHAPTER 1. EXISTENTIALISM
tentialism to have originated from Kierkegaard himself, it is stract form that also must inevitably run into trou-
more likely that Kierkegaard adopted this term (or at least ble whenever it is to be applied to the concrete.
the term existentialas a description of his philosophy) To the same degree as the subjective thinker is
from the Norwegian poet and literary critic Johan Sebastian concrete, to the same degree his form must also
Cammermeyer Welhaven.* [18] This assertion comes from be concretely dialectical. But just as he himself
two sources. The Norwegian philosopher Erik Lundestad is not a poet, not an ethicist, not a dialectician, so
refers to the Danish philosopher Fredrik Christian Sibbern. also his form is none of these directly. His form
Sibbern is supposed to have had two conversations in 1841, must rst and last be related to existence, and in
the rst with Welhaven and the second with Kierkegaard. It this regard he must have at his disposal the poetic,
is in the rst conversation that it is believed that Welhaven the ethical, the dialectical, the religious. Subor-
came up witha word that he said covered a certain think- dinate character, setting, etc., which belong to
ing, which had a close and positive attitude to life, a rela- the well balanced character of the esthetic pro-
tionship he described as existential.* [19] This was then duction, are in themselves breadth; the subjec-
brought to Kierkegaard by Sibbern. tive thinker has only one settingexistenceand
has nothing to do with localities and such things.
The second claim comes from the Norwegian historian
Rune Slagstad, who claims to prove that Kierkegaard him- The setting is not the fairyland of the imagina-
self said the termexistentialwas borrowed from the poet. tion, where poetry produces consummation, nor
He strongly believes that it was Kierkegaard himself who is the setting laid in England, and historical accu-
said that "Hegelians do not study philosophy 'existentially'; racy is not a concern. The setting is inwardness
to use a phrase by Welhaven from one time when I spoke in existing as a human being; the concretion is
with him about philosophy.* [20] On the other hand, the the relation of the existence-categories to one an-
Norwegian historian Anne-Lise Seip is critical of Slagstad, other. Historical accuracy and historical actual-
and believes the statement in fact stems from the Norwegian ity are breadth.Sren Kierkegaard (Concluding
literary historian Cathrinus Bang.* [21] Postscript, Hong pp. 35758)
1.2 Concepts Some interpret the imperative to dene oneself as meaning

that anyone can wish to be anything. However, an exis-
tentialist philosopher would say such a wish constitutes an
1.2.1 Existence precedes essence inauthentic existence - what Sartre would call 'bad faith'. In-
stead, the phrase should be taken to say that people are (1)
Main article: Existence precedes essence dened only insofar as they act and (2) that they are respon-
sible for their actions. For example, someone who acts cru-
Sartre claimed that a central proposition of Existentialism elly towards other people is, by that act, dened as a cruel
is that existence precedes essence, which means that the most person. Furthermore, by this action of cruelty, such persons
important consideration for individuals is that they are in- are themselves responsible for their new identity (cruel per-
dividualsindependently acting and responsible, conscious sons). This is as opposed to their genes, or human nature,
beings existence
( )rather than what labels, roles, stereo- bearing the blame.
types, denitions, or other preconceived categories the in- As Sartre writes in his work Existentialism is a Humanism:
dividuals t (essence). The actual life of the individuals "... man rst of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in
is what constitutes what could be called theirtrue essence the worldand denes himself afterwards. Of course, the
instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence oth- more positive, therapeutic aspect of this is also implied: A
ers use to dene them. Thus, human beings, through their person can choose to act in a dierent way, and to be a good
own consciousness, create their own values and determine person instead of a cruel person. Here it is also clear that
a meaning to their life.* [22] Although it was Sartre who ex- since humans can choose to be either cruel or good, they
plicitly coined the phrase, similar notions can be found in are, in fact, neither of these things essentially.* [23]
the thought of existentialist philosophers such as Heidegger,
Sartre's denition of existentialism was based on Heideg-
and Kierkegaard:
ger's magnum opus Being and Time. In a set of let-
ters, Heidegger implies that Sartre misunderstood him for
The subjective thinkers form, the form of his own purposes of subjectivism, and that he did not mean
his communication, is his style. His form must be that actions take precedence over being so long as those ac-
just as manifold as are the opposites that he holds tions were not reected upon. This way of living, Heidegger
together. The systematic eins, zwei, drei is an ab- called average everydayness.
1.2. CONCEPTS 3
1.2.2 The Absurd self now. A denial of one's own concrete past constitutes an
inauthentic lifestyle, and the same goes for all other kinds
Main article: Absurdism of facticity (having a human bodye.g. one that doesn't al-
low a person to run faster than the speed of soundidentity,
*
The notion of the Absurd contains the idea that there is no values, etc.). [31]
meaning in the world beyond what meaning we give it. This Facticity is both a limitation and a condition of freedom. It
meaninglessness also encompasses the amorality or un- is a limitation in that a large part of one's facticity consists
fairnessof the world. This contrasts with the notion that of things one couldn't have chosen (birthplace, etc.), but
bad things don't happen to good people"; to the world, a condition of freedom in the sense that one's values most
metaphorically speaking, there is no such thing as a good likely depend on it. However, even though one's facticity is
person or a bad person; what happens happens, and it may set in stone(as being past, for instance), it cannot deter-
just as well happen to agoodperson as to abadper- mine a person: The value ascribed to one's facticity is still
son.* [24] ascribed to it freely by that person. As an example, consider
Because of the world's absurdity, at any point in time, any- two men, one of whom has no memory of his past and the
thing can happen to anyone, and a tragic event could plum- other who remembers everything. They both have commit-
met someone into direct confrontation with the Absurd. ted many crimes, but the rst man, knowing nothing about
The notion of the Absurd has been prominent in litera- this, leads a rather normal life while the second man, feeling
ture throughout history. Many of the literary works of trapped by his own past, continues a life of crime, blaming
Sren Kierkegaard, Samuel Beckett, Franz Kafka, Fyodor his own past fortrappinghim in this life. There is noth-
Dostoyevsky, Eugne Ionesco, Miguel de Unamuno, Luigi ing essential about his committing crimes, but he ascribes
Pirandello,* [25]* [26]* [27]* [28] Jean-Paul Sartre, Joseph this meaning to his past.
Heller and Albert Camus contain descriptions of people However, to disregard one's facticity when, in the continual
who encounter the absurdity of the world. process of self-making, one projects oneself into the future,
It is in relation to the concept of the devastating awareness that would be to put oneself in denial of oneself, and thus
of meaninglessness that Albert Camus claimed thatthere would be inauthentic. In other words, the origin of one's
is only one truly serious philosophical problem, and that projection must still be one's facticity, though in the mode of
is suicidein his The Myth of Sisyphus. Although pre- not being it (essentially). Another aspect of facticity is that
scriptionsagainst the possibly deleterious consequences it entails angst, both in the sense that freedom produces
of these kinds of encounters vary, from Kierkegaard's reli- angst when limited by facticity, and in the sense that the
giousstageto Camus' insistence on persevering in spite of lack of the possibility of having facticity to step infor
absurdity, the concern with helping people avoid living their one to take responsibility for something one has done, also
lives in ways that put them in the perpetual danger of having produces angst.
everything meaningful break down is common to most exis- Another aspect of existential freedom is that one can change
tentialist philosophers. The possibility of having everything one's values. Thus, one is responsible for one's values, re-
meaningful break down poses a threat of quietism, which is gardless of society's values. The focus on freedom in ex-
inherently against the existentialist philosophy.* [29] It has istentialism is related to the limits of the responsibility one
been said that the possibility of suicide makes all humans bears, as a result of one's freedom: the relationship between
existentialists.* [30] freedom and responsibility is one of interdependency, and
a clarication of freedom also claries that for which one is
responsible.* [32]* [33]
1.2.3 Facticity
Main article: Facticity
1.2.4 Authenticity
Facticity is a concept dened by Sartre in Being and Noth-
ingness as the in-itself, which delineates for humans the Main article: Authenticity
modalities of being and not being. This can be more eas-
ily understood when considering facticity in relation to the Many noted existentialist writers consider the theme of au-
temporal dimension of our past: one's past is what one is, in thentic existence important. Authentic existence involves
the sense that it co-constitutes oneself. However, to say that the idea that one has to create oneselfand then live in
one is only one's past would be to ignore a signicant part of accordance with this self. What is meant by authenticity is
reality (the present and the future), while saying that one's that in acting, one should act as oneself, not asone's acts
past is only what one was, would entirely detach it from one- or asone's genesor any other essence requires. The au-
thentic act is one that is in accordance with one's freedom. This is because the Look tends to objectify what it sees. As
Of course, as a condition of freedom is facticity, this in- such, when one experiences oneself in the Look, one doesn't
cludes one's facticity, but not to the degree that this facticity
experience oneself as nothing (no thing), but as something.
can in any way determine one's choices (in the sense that oneSartre's own example of a man peeping at someone through
could then blame one's background for making the choice a keyhole can help clarify this: at rst, this man is entirely
one made). The role of facticity in relation to authentic- caught up in the situation he is in; he is in a pre-reexive
ity involves letting one's actual values come into play when state where his entire consciousness is directed at what goes
one makes a choice (instead of, like Kierkegaard's Aesthete, on in the room. Suddenly, he hears a creaking oorboard
choosingrandomly), so that one also takes responsibility behind him, and he becomes aware of himself as seen by the
for the act instead of choosing either-or without allowing Other. He is thus lled with shame for he perceives him-
the options to have dierent values.* [34] self as he would perceive someone else doing what he was
In contrast to this, the inauthentic is the denial to live doing, as a Peeping Tom. The Look is then co-constitutive
of one's facticity.
in accordance with one's freedom. This can take many
forms, from pretending choices are meaningless or random, Another characteristic feature of the Look is that no Other
through convincing oneself that some form of determinism really needs to have been there: It is quite possible that the
is true, to a sort of mimicrywhere one acts as one creaking oorboard was nothing but the movement of an
should.How one shouldact is often determined by an old house; the Look isn't some kind of mystical telepathic
image one has of how one such as oneself (say, a bank man- experience of the actual way the other sees one (there may
ager, lion tamer, prostitute, etc.) acts. This image usually also have been someone there, but he could have not noticed
corresponds to some sort of social norm, but this does not that the person was there). It is only one's perception of the
mean that all acting in accordance with social norms is in- way another might perceive him.
authentic: The main point is the attitude one takes to one's
own freedom and responsibility, and the extent to which one
acts in accordance with this freedom. 1.2.6 Angst and dread
Main article: Angst

1.2.5 The Other and the Look See also: Living educational theory
Main article: Other Existential angst", sometimes called existential dread, anx-
iety, or anguish, is a term that is common to many existen-
The Other (when written with a capital O) is a con- tialist thinkers. It is generally held to be a negative feeling
cept more properly belonging to phenomenology and its ac- arising from the experience of human freedom and respon-
count of intersubjectivity. However, the concept has seen sibility. The archetypical example is the experience one has
widespread use in existentialist writings, and the conclu- when standing on a cli where one not only fears falling o
sions drawn from it dier slightly from the phenomenologi- it, but also dreads the possibility of throwing oneself o. In
cal accounts. The experience of the Other is the experience this experience that nothing is holding me back, one
of another free subject who inhabits the same world as a senses the lack of anything that predetermines one to either
person does. In its most basic form, it is this experience of throw oneself o or to stand still, and one experiences one's
the Other that constitutes intersubjectivity and objectivity. own freedom.* [24]
To clarify, when one experiences someone else, and this It can also be seen in relation to the previous point how
Other person experiences the world (the same world that a angst is before nothing, and this is what sets it apart from
person experiences)only from over therethe world fear that has an object. While in the case of fear, one can
itself is constituted as objective in that it is something that take denitive measures to remove the object of fear, in the
isthereas identical for both of the subjects; a person ex- case of angst, no such constructivemeasures are possi-
periences the other person as experiencing the same things. ble. The use of the word nothingin this context relates
This experience of the Other's look is what is termed the both to the inherent insecurity about the consequences of
Look (sometimes the Gaze).* [35] one's actions, and to the fact that, in experiencing freedom
While this experience, in its basic phenomenological sense, as angst, one also realizes that one is fully responsible for
constitutes the world as objective, and oneself as objec- these consequences. There is nothing in people (genetically,
tively existing subjectivity (one experiences oneself as seen for instance) that acts in their steadthat they can blame
in the Other's Look in precisely the same way that one ex- if something goes wrong. Therefore, not every choice is
periences the Other as seen by him, as subjectivity), in ex- perceived as having dreadful possible consequences (and, it
istentialism, it also acts as a kind of limitation of freedom. can be claimed, human lives would be unbearable if every
1.3. OPPOSITION TO POSITIVISM AND RATIONALISM 5
choice facilitated dread). However, this doesn't change the 1.3 Opposition to positivism and ra-
fact that freedom remains a condition of every action.
tionalism
See also: Positivism and Rationalism

1.2.7 Despair
Existentialists oppose denitions of human beings as pri-
marily rational, and, therefore, oppose positivism and
Main article: Despair rationalism. Existentialism asserts that people actually
See also: Existential crisis make decisions based on subjective meaning rather than
pure rationality. The rejection of reason as the source of
Despair, in existentialism, is generally dened as a loss of meaning is a common theme of existentialist thought, as is
hope.* [36] More specically, it is a loss of hope in reac- the focus on the feelings of anxiety and dread that we feel in
tion to a breakdown in one or more of the dening qualities the face of our own radical freedom and our awareness of
of one's self or identity. If a person is invested in being a death. Kierkegaard advocated rationality as means to inter-
particular thing, such as a bus driver or an upstanding citi- act with the objective world (e.g. in the natural sciences),
zen, and then nds his being-thing compromised, he would but when it comes to existential problems, reason is insuf-
normally be found in state of despaira hopeless state. For cient: Human reason has boundaries.* [38]
example, a singer who loses the ability to sing may despair Like Kierkegaard, Sartre saw problems with rationality,
if she has nothing else to fall back onnothing to rely on calling it a form of bad faith, an attempt by the self to
for her identity. She nds herself unable to be what dened impose structure on a world of phenomena"the Other
her being. that is fundamentally irrational and random. According to
What sets the existentialist notion of despair apart from the Sartre, rationality and other forms of bad faith hinder peo-
conventional denition is that existentialist despair is a state ple from nding meaning in freedom. To try to suppress
one is in even when he isn't overtly in despair. So long as a their feelings of anxiety and dread, people conne them-
person's identity depends on qualities that can crumble, he selves within everyday experience, Sartre asserts, thereby
is in perpetual despairand as there is, in Sartrean terms, relinquishing their freedom and acquiescing to being pos-
no human essence found in conventional reality on which sessed in one form or another bythe Lookofthe Other
to constitute the individual's sense of identity, despair is a (i.e., possessed by another personor at least one's idea of
universal human condition. As Kierkegaard denes it in that other person).
Either/Or: Let each one learn what he can; both of us can
learn that a persons unhappiness never lies in his lack of
control over external conditions, since this would only make
him completely unhappy.* [37] In Works of Love, he said:
1.4 Religion
When the God-forsaken worldliness of
earthly life shuts itself in complacency, the See also: Atheistic existentialism, Christian existentialism,
conned air develops poison, the moment gets and Jewish existentialism
stuck and stands still, the prospect is lost, a
need is felt for a refreshing, enlivening breeze to An existentialist reading of the Bible would demand that
cleanse the air and dispel the poisonous vapors the reader recognize that he is an existing subject study-
lest we suocate in worldliness. ... Lovingly to ing the words more as a recollection of events. This is in
hope all things is the opposite of despairingly contrast to looking at a collection of truthsthat are out-
to hope nothing at all. Love hopes all things side and unrelated to the reader, but may develop a sense
yet is never put to shame. To relate oneself of reality/God. Such a reader is not obligated to follow the
expectantly to the possibility of the good is commandments as if an external agent is forcing them upon
to hope. To relate oneself expectantly to the him, but as though they are inside him and guiding him from
possibility of evil is to fear. By the decision to inside. This is the task Kierkegaard takes up when he asks:
choose hope one decides innitely more than Who has the more dicult task: the teacher who lectures
it seems, because it is an eternal decision. pp. on earnest things a meteor's distance from everyday life - or
24650 the learner who should put it to use?"* [39]
1.5 Nihilism 1.7 History
See also: Existential nihilism 1.7.1 19th century

Kierkegaard and Nietzsche
Although nihilism and existentialism are distinct philoso-
phies, they are often confused with one another. A primary Main article: Sren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche
cause of confusion is that Friedrich Nietzsche is an impor-
tant philosopher in both elds, but also the existentialist in-
sistence on the inherent meaninglessness of the world. Exis- Sren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche were two of the
tentialist philosophers often stress the importance of Angst rst philosophers considered fundamental to the existential-
as signifying the absolute lack of any objective ground ist movement, though neither used the term existential-
for action, a move that is often reduced to a moral or an ismand it is unclear whether they would have supported
existential nihilism. A pervasive theme in the works of exis- the existentialism of the 20th century. They focused on sub-
tentialist philosophy, however, is to persist through encoun- jective human experience rather than the objective truths
ters with the absurd, as seen in Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus of mathematics and science, which they believed were too
(One must imagine Sisyphus happy),* [40] and it is only detached or observational to truly get at the human expe-
very rarely that existentialist philosophers dismiss morality rience. Like Pascal, they were interested in people's quiet
or one's self-created meaning: Kierkegaard regained a sort struggle with the apparent meaninglessness of life and the
of morality in the religious (although he wouldn't himself use of diversion to escape from boredom. Unlike Pascal,
agree that it was ethical; the religious suspends the ethical), Kierkegaard and Nietzsche also considered the role of mak-
and Sartre's nal words in Being and Nothingness are All ing free choices, particularly regarding fundamental values
these questions, which refer us to a pure and not an acces- and beliefs, and how such choices change the nature and
sory (or impure) reection, can nd their reply only on the identity of the chooser.* [48] Kierkegaard's knight of faith
ethical plane. We shall devote to them a future work.* [41] and Nietzsche's bermensch are representative of people
who exhibit Freedom, in that they dene the nature of their
own existence. Nietzsche's idealized individual invents his
own values and creates the very terms they excel under. By
contrast, Kierkegaard, opposed to the level of abstraction
in Hegel, and not nearly as hostile (actually welcoming)
1.6 Etymology to Christianity as Nietzsche, argues through a pseudonym
that the objective certainty of religious truths (specically
Christian) is not only impossible, but even founded on logi-
The term existentialismwas coined by the French cal paradoxes. Yet he continues to imply that a leap of faith
Catholic philosopher Gabriel Marcel in the mid- is a possible means for an individual to reach a higher stage
1940s.* [42]* [43]* [44] At rst, when Marcel applied of existence that transcends and contains both an aesthetic
the term to him at a colloquium in 1945, Jean-Paul Sartre and ethical value of life. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were
rejected it.* [45] Sartre subsequently changed his mind and, also precursors to other intellectual movements, including
on October 29, 1945, publicly adopted the existentialist postmodernism, and various strands of psychology. How-
label in a lecture to the Club Maintenant in Paris. The ever, Kierkegaard believed that individuals should live in
lecture was published as L'existentialisme est un humanisme accordance with their thinking.
(Existentialism is a Humanism), a short book that did
much to popularize existentialist thought.* [46] Marcel
Dostoyevsky
later came to reject the label himself in favour of the term
Neo-Socratic, in honor of Kierkegaard's essay On The The rst important literary author also important to exis-
Concept of Irony. tentialism was the Russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky.* [49] Dos-
Some scholars argue that the term should be used only toyevsky's Notes from Underground portrays a man unable
to refer to the cultural movement in Europe in the 1940s to t into society and unhappy with the identities he cre-
and 1950s associated with the works of the philosophers ates for himself. Jean-Paul Sartre, in his book on existen-
Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau- tialism Existentialism is a Humanism, quoted Dostoyevsky's
Ponty, and Albert Camus.* [2] Other scholars extend the The Brothers Karamazov as an example of existential cri-
term to Kierkegaard, and yet others extend it as far back sis. Sartre attributes Ivan Karamazov's claim, If God did
as Socrates.* [47] However, the term is often identied with not exist, everything would be permitted* [50] to Dos-
the philosophical views of Jean-Paul Sartre.* [2] toyevsky himself, though this quote does not appear in the
1.7. HISTORY 7
novel.* [51] However, a similar sentiment is explicitly stated post-Revolutionary exiles in Paris. Shestov, born into a
when Alyosha visits Dimitri in prison. Dimitri mentions his Ukrainian-Jewish family in Kiev, had launched an attack
conversations with Rakitin in which the idea thatThen, if on rationalism and systematization in philosophy as early
He doesn't exist, man is king of the earth, of the universe as 1905 in his book of aphorisms All Things Are Possible.
allowing the inference contained in Sartre's attribution to Berdyaev, also from Kiev but with a background in the East-
remain a valid idea contested within the novel.* [52] Other ern Orthodox Church, drew a radical distinction between
Dostoyevsky novels covered issues raised in existentialist the world of spirit and the everyday world of objects. Hu-
philosophy while presenting story lines divergent from sec- man freedom, for Berdyaev, is rooted in the realm of spirit,
ular existentialism: for example, in Crime and Punishment,
a realm independent of scientic notions of causation. To
the protagonist Raskolnikov experiences an existential cri- the extent the individual human being lives in the objec-
sis and then moves toward a Christian Orthodox worldview
tive world, he is estranged from authentic spiritual freedom.
similar to that advocated by Dostoyevsky himself. Manis not to be interpreted naturalistically, but as a be-
ing created in God's image, an originator of free, creative
acts.* [54] He published a major work on these themes, The
1.7.2 Early 20th century Destiny of Man, in 1931.
See also: Martin Heidegger Gabriel Marcel, long before coining the term existen-
tialism, introduced important existentialist themes to a
French audience in his early essay Existence and Objec-
In the rst decades of the 20th century, a number of tivity(1925) and in his Metaphysical Journal (1927).* [55]
philosophers and writers explored existentialist ideas. The A dramatist as well as a philosopher, Marcel found his
Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo, in his philosophical starting point in a condition of metaphysical
1913 book The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations, alienation: the human individual searching for harmony in
emphasized the life ofesh and boneas opposed to that of a transient life. Harmony, for Marcel, was to be sought
abstract rationalism. Unamuno rejected systematic philos- through secondary reection, a dialogicalrather
ophy in favor of the individual's quest for faith. He retained thandialecticalapproach to the world, characterized by
a sense of the tragic, even absurd nature of the quest, sym- wonder and astonishmentand open to the presence
bolized by his enduring interest in Cervantes' ctional char- of other people and of God rather than merely to infor-
acter Don Quixote. A novelist, poet and dramatist as well as mationabout them. For Marcel, such presence implied
philosophy professor at the University of Salamanca, Una- more than simply being there (as one thing might be in the
muno wrote a short story about a priest's crisis of faith, Saintpresence of another thing); it connotedextravagantavail-
Manuel the Good, Martyr, which has been collected in an- ability, and the willingness to put oneself at the disposal of
thologies of existentialist ction. Another Spanish thinker, the other.* [56]
Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1914, held that human existence
must always be dened as the individual person combined Marcel contrasted secondary reection with abstract,
with the concrete circumstances of his life: "Yo soy yo y scientic-technical primary reection, which he associated
mi circunstancia" (I am myself and my circumstances with the activity of the abstract Cartesian ego. For Marcel,
). Sartre likewise believed that human existence is not an philosophy was a concrete activity undertaken by a sens-
abstract matter, but is always situated ("en situation"). ing, feeling human being incarnateembodiedin a con-
crete world.* [55]* [57] Although Jean-Paul Sartre adopted
Although Martin Buber wrote his major philosophical the term existentialismfor his own philosophy in the
works in German, and studied and taught at the Universi- 1940s, Marcel's thought has been described asalmost di-
ties of Berlin and Frankfurt, he stands apart from the main- ametrically opposedto that of Sartre.* [55] Unlike Sartre,
stream of German philosophy. Born into a Jewish family Marcel was a Christian, and became a Catholic convert in
in Vienna in 1878, he was also a scholar of Jewish culture 1929.
and involved at various times in Zionism and Hasidism. In
1938, he moved permanently to Jerusalem. His best-known In Germany, the psychologist and philosopher Karl Jaspers
philosophical work was the short book I and Thou, pub- who later described existentialism as a phantomcre-
lished in 1922. For Buber, the fundamental fact of human ated by the public* [58]called his own thought, heavily
existence, too readily overlooked by scientic rationalism inuenced by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, Existenzphiloso-
and abstract philosophical thought, is man with man, phie. For Jaspers, "Existenz-philosophy is the way of
a dialogue that takes place in the so-called sphere of be- thought by means of which man seeks to become him-
tween(das Zwischenmenschliche).* [53] self...This way of thought does not cognize objects, but elu-
cidates and makes actual the being of the thinker.* [59]
Two Russian thinkers, Lev Shestov and Nikolai Berdyaev,
became well known as existentialist thinkers during their Jaspers, a professor at the University of Heidelberg, was
acquainted with Martin Heidegger, who held a profes-

sorship at Marburg before acceding to Husserl's chair at
Freiburg in 1928. They held many philosophical discus-
sions, but later became estranged over Heidegger's support
of National Socialism (Nazism). They shared an admiration
for Kierkegaard,* [60] and in the 1930s, Heidegger lectured
extensively on Nietzsche. Nevertheless, the extent to which
Heidegger should be considered an existentialist is debat-
able. In Being and Time he presented a method of rooting
philosophical explanations in human existence (Dasein) to
be analysed in terms of existential categories (existentiale);
and this has led many commentators to treat him as an im-
portant gure in the existentialist movement.
1.7.3 After the Second World War
Following the Second World War, existentialism became

a well-known and signicant philosophical and cultural
movement, mainly through the public prominence of two
French writers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, who
wrote best-selling novels, plays and widely read journalism
as well as theoretical texts.* [61] These years also saw the
growing reputation of Heidegger's book Being and Time
outside Germany.
Sartre dealt with existentialist themes in his 1938 novel
Nausea and the short stories in his 1939 collection The Wall,
and had published his treatise on existentialism, Being and
Nothingness, in 1943, but it was in the two years following
the liberation of Paris from the German occupying forces French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir
that he and his close associatesCamus, Simone de Beau-
voir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and othersbecame interna- phenomenology of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heideg-
tionally famous as the leading gures of a movement known
ger,* [66] and he included critical comments on their work
as existentialism.* [62] In a very short period of time, Ca- in his major treatise Being and Nothingness. Heidegger's
mus and Sartre in particular became the leading public in-
thought had also become known in French philosophical
tellectuals of post-war France, achieving by the end of 1945 circles through its use by Alexandre Kojve in explicat-
a fame that reached across all audiences.* [63] Camus
ing Hegel in a series of lectures given in Paris in the
was an editor of the most popular leftist (former French 1930s.* [67] The lectures were highly inuential; members
Resistance) newspaper Combat; Sartre launched his jour- of the audience included not only Sartre and Merleau-
nal of leftist thought, Les Temps Modernes, and two weeks Ponty, but Raymond Queneau, Georges Bataille, Louis Al-
later gave the widely reported lecture on existentialism and thusser, Andr Breton, and Jacques Lacan.* [68] A selection
secular humanism to a packed meeting of the Club Main- from Heidegger's Being and Time was published in French
tenant. Beauvoir wrote that not a week passed without in 1938, and his essays began to appear in French philoso-
the newspapers discussing us";* [64] existentialism became phy journals.
the rst media craze of the postwar era.* [65]
Heidegger read Sartre's work and was initially impressed,
By the end of 1947, Camus' earlier ction and plays had
commenting: Here for the rst time I encountered an
been reprinted, his new play Caligula had been performed
independent thinker who, from the foundations up, has
and his novel The Plague published; the rst two novels of
experienced the area out of which I think. Your work
Sartre's The Roads to Freedom trilogy had appeared, as had
shows such an immediate comprehension of my philos-
Beauvoir's novel The Blood of Others. Works by Camusophy as I have never before encountered.* [69] Later,
and Sartre were already appearing in foreign editions. The
however, in response to a question posed by his French
Paris-based existentialists had become famous.* [62]follower Jean Beaufret,* [70] Heidegger distanced himself
Sartre had traveled to Germany in 1930 to study the from Sartre's position and existentialism in general in his
1.8. INFLUENCE OUTSIDE PHILOSOPHY 9
ond Sex and The Ethics of Ambiguity. Although often over-

looked due to her relationship with Sartre,* [73] de Beauvoir
integrated existentialism with other forms of thinking such
as feminism, unheard of at the time, resulting in alienation
from fellow writers such as Camus.
Paul Tillich, an important existentialist theologian following
Kierkegaard and Karl Barth, applied existentialist concepts
to Christian theology, and helped introduce existential the-
ology to the general public. His seminal work The Courage
to Be follows Kierkegaard's analysis of anxiety and life's
absurdity, but puts forward the thesis that modern humans
must, via God, achieve selfhood in spite of life's absurdity.
Rudolf Bultmann used Kierkegaard's and Heidegger's phi-
losophy of existence to demythologize Christianity by inter-
preting Christian mythical concepts into existentialist con-
cepts.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, an existential phenomenologist,
was for a time a companion of Sartre. Merleau-Ponty's
Phenomenology of Perception (1945) was recognized as
a major statement of French existentialism.* [74] It has
been said that Merleau-Ponty's work Humanism and Ter-
ror greatly inuenced Sartre. However, in later years they
French-Algerian philosopher, novelist, and playwright Albert Ca- were to disagree irreparably, dividing many existentialists
mus such as de Beauvoir, who sided with Sartre.
Colin Wilson, an English writer, published his study The
*
Letter on Humanism. [71] Heidegger's reputation contin- Outsider in 1956, initially to critical acclaim. In this book
ued to grow in France during the 1950s and 1960s. In and others (e.g. Introduction to the New Existentialism), he
the 1960s, Sartre attempted to reconcile existentialism and attempted to reinvigorate what he perceived as a pessimistic
Marxism in his work Critique of Dialectical Reason. A ma- philosophy and bring it to a wider audience. He was not,
jor theme throughout his writings was freedom and respon- however, academically trained, and his work was attacked
sibility. by professional philosophers for lack of rigor and critical
standards.* [75]
Camus was a friend of Sartre, until their falling-out, and
wrote several works with existential themes including The
Rebel, Summer in Algiers, The Myth of Sisyphus, and The
Stranger, the latter being considered to what would 1.8 Inuence outside philosophy
have been Camus's irritationthe exemplary existentialist
novel.* [72] Camus, like many others, rejected the existen- 1.8.1 Art
tialist label, and considered his works concerned with facing
the absurd. In the titular book, Camus uses the analogy of Film and television
the Greek myth of Sisyphus to demonstrate the futility of
existence. In the myth, Sisyphus is condemned for eternity Stanley Kubrick's 1957 anti-war lm Paths of Glory il-
to roll a rock up a hill, but when he reaches the summit, lustrates, and even illuminates...existentialismby exam-
the rock will roll to the bottom again. Camus believes thatining the necessary absurdity of the human condition"
this existence is pointless but that Sisyphus ultimately nds
and the horror of war.* [76] The lm tells the story
meaning and purpose in his task, simply by continually ap- of a ctional World War I French army regiment ordered
plying himself to it. The rst half of the book contains anto attack an impregnable German stronghold; when the
extended rebuttal of what Camus took to be existentialist attack fails, three soldiers are chosen at random, court-
philosophy in the works of Kierkegaard, Shestov, Heideg- martialed by a "kangaroo court", and executed by ring
ger, and Jaspers. squad. The lm examines existentialist ethics, such as the
Simone de Beauvoir, an important existentialist who spent issue of whether objectivity is possible and the problem
much of her life as Sartre's partner, wrote about feminist of authenticity".* [76] Orson Welles' 1962 lm The Trial,
and existentialist ethics in her works, including The Sec- based upon Franz Kafka's book of the same name (Der Pro-
cess), is characteristic of both existentialist and absurdist and 1960, other authors such as Albert Camus, Franz
themes in its depiction of a man (Joseph K.) arrested for a Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke, T.S. Eliot, Herman Hesse,
crime for which the charges are neither revealed to him nor Luigi Pirandello,* [25]* [26]* [28]* [84]* [85]* [86] Ralph El-
to the reader. lison,* [87]* [88]* [89]* [90] and Jack Kerouac, composed
Neon Genesis Evangelion is a Japanese science ction ani- literature or poetry that contained, to varying degrees, el-
mation series created by the anime studio Gainax and was ements of existential or proto-existential thought. The phi-
both directed and written by Hideaki Anno. Existential losophy's inuence even reached pulp literature shortly after
themes of individuality, consciousness, freedom, choice, the turn of the 20th century, as seen in the existential dispar-
ity witnessed in Man's lack of control of his fate in the works
and responsibility are heavily relied upon throughout the
entire series, particularly through the philosophies of Jean- of H.P. Lovecraft.* [91] Since the late 1960s, a great deal of
cultural activity in literature contains postmodernist as well
Paul Sartre and Sren Kierkegaard. Episode 16's title,The
Sickness Unto Death, And" ( Shi ni as existential elements. Books such as Do Androids Dream
of Electric Sheep? (1968) (now republished as Blade Run-
itaru yamai, soshite) is a reference to Kierkegaard's book,
The Sickness Unto Death. Some contemporary lms dealing ner) by Philip K. Dick, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Von-
with existentialist issues include Fight Club, I Huckabees, negut, and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk all distort the
Waking Life, The Matrix, Ordinary People, and Life in a line between reality and appearance while simultaneously
Day.* [77] Likewise, lms throughout the 20th century such espousing existential themes.
as The Seventh Seal, Ikiru, Taxi Driver, the Toy Story lms,
The Great Silence, Ghost in the Shell, Harold and Maude,
High Noon, Easy Rider, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Theatre
A Clockwork Orange, Groundhog Day, Apocalypse Now,
Badlands, and Blade Runner also have existentialist qual-
Jean-Paul Sartre wrote No Exit in 1944, an existentialist
ities.* [78]
play originally published in French as Huis Clos (meaning
Notable directors known for their existentialist lms include In Camera orbehind closed doors), which is the source
Ingmar Bergman, Franois Truaut, Jean-Luc Godard, of the popular quote, Hell is other people.(In French,
Michelangelo Antonioni, Akira Kurosawa, Terrence Mal- L'enfer, c'est les autres). The play begins with a Valet
ick, Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky, Hideaki Anno, leading a man into a room that the audience soon realizes is
Wes Anderson, Woody Allen, and Christopher Nolan.* [79] in hell. Eventually he is joined by two women. After their
Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York focuses on the entry, the Valet leaves and the door is shut and locked. All
protagonist's desire to nd existential meaning.* [80] Sim- three expect to be tortured, but no torturer arrives. Instead,
ilarly, in Kurosawa's Red Beard, the protagonist's experi- they realize they are there to torture each other, which they
ences as an intern in a rural health clinic in Japan lead him to do eectively by probing each other's sins, desires, and un-
an existential crisis whereby he questions his reason for be- pleasant memories.
ing. This, in turn, leads him to a better understanding of hu-
Existentialist themes are displayed in the Theatre of the
manity. The French lm, Mood Indigo (directed by Michel
Absurd, notably in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, in
Gondry) embraced various elements of existentialism. The
which two men divert themselves while they wait expec-
lm The Shawshank Redemption, released in 1994, depicts
tantly for someone (or something) named Godot who never
life in a prison in Maine, United States to explore several
* arrives. They claim Godot is an acquaintance, but in fact,
existentialist concepts. [81]
hardly know him, admitting they would not recognize him
if they saw him. Samuel Beckett, once asked who or what
Godot is, replied, If I knew, I would have said so in the
Literature play.To occupy themselves, the men eat, sleep, talk, ar-
gue, sing, play games, exercise, swap hats, and contemplate
Existential perspectives are also found in modern lit- suicideanythingto hold the terrible silence at bay.* [92]
erature to varying degrees, especially since the 1920s. The playexploits several archetypal forms and situations,
Louis-Ferdinand Cline's Journey to the End of the Night all of which lend themselves to both comedy and pathos.
(Voyage au bout de la nuit, 1932) celebrated by both * [93] The play also illustrates an attitude toward human ex-
Sartre and Beauvoir, contained many of the themes that perience on earth: the poignancy, oppression, camaraderie,
would be found in later existential literature, and is hope, corruption, and bewilderment of human experience
in some ways, the proto-existential novel. Jean-Paul that can be reconciled only in the mind and art of the ab-
Sartre's 1938 novel Nausea* [82] was steeped in Ex- surdist. The play examines questions such as death, the
istential ideas, and is considered an accessible way meaning of human existence and the place of God in hu-
of grasping his philosophical stance.* [83] Between 1900 man existence.
1.8. INFLUENCE OUTSIDE PHILOSOPHY 11
Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is an 1.8.2 Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
absurdist tragicomedy rst staged at the Edinburgh Festival
Fringe in 1966.* [94] The play expands upon the exploits Main article: Existential therapy
of two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Com-
parisons have also been drawn to Samuel Beckett's Waiting A major oshoot of existentialism as a philosophy is exis-
For Godot, for the presence of two central characters who tentialist psychology and psychoanalysis, which rst crys-
appear almost as two halves of a single character. Many tallized in the work of Otto Rank, Freud's closest asso-
plot features are similar as well: the characters pass time ciate for 20 years. Without awareness of the writings
by playing Questions, impersonating other characters, and of Rank, Ludwig Binswanger was inuenced by Freud,
interrupting each other or remaining silent for long periods Edmund Husserl, Heidegger, and Sartre. A later gure was
of time. The two characters are portrayed as two clowns Viktor Frankl, who briey met Freud and studied with Jung
or fools in a world beyond their understanding. They stum- as a young man.* [97] His logotherapy can be regarded as a
ble through philosophical arguments while not realizing the form of existentialist therapy. The existentialists would also
implications, and muse on the irrationality and randomness inuence social psychology, antipositivist micro-sociology,
of the world. symbolic interactionism, and post-structuralism, with the
Jean Anouilh's Antigone also presents arguments founded work of thinkers such as Georg Simmel* [98] and Michel
on existentialist ideas.* [95] It is a tragedy inspired by Greek Foucault. Foucault was a great reader of Kierkegaard even
mythology and the play of the same name (Antigone, by though he almost never refers this author, who nonetheless
Sophocles) from the 5th century BC. In English, it is often had for him an importance as secret as it was decisive.* [99]
distinguished from its antecedent by being pronounced in An early contributor to existentialist psychology in the
its original French form, approximatelyAnte-GN.The United States was Rollo May, who was strongly inuenced
play was rst performed in Paris on 6 February 1944, dur- by Kierkegaard and Otto Rank. One of the most prolic
ing the Nazi occupation of France. Produced under Nazi writers on techniques and theory of existentialist psychol-
censorship, the play is purposefully ambiguous with regards ogy in the USA is Irvin D. Yalom. Yalom states that
to the rejection of authority (represented by Antigone) and
the acceptance of it (represented by Creon). The parallels
Aside from their reaction against Freud's
to the French Resistance and the Nazi occupation have been
mechanistic, deterministic model of the mind
drawn. Antigone rejects life as desperately meaningless but
and their assumption of a phenomenological ap-
without armatively choosing a noble death. The crux of
proach in therapy, the existentialist analysts have
the play is the lengthy dialogue concerning the nature of
little in common and have never been regarded as
power, fate, and choice, during which Antigone says that
a cohesive ideological school. These thinkers
she is, "... disgusted with [the]...promise of a humdrum
who include Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss,
happiness.She states that she would rather die than live a
Eugne Minkowski, V.E. Gebsattel, Roland
mediocre existence.
Kuhn, G. Caruso, F.T. Buytendijk, G. Bally and
Critic Martin Esslin in his book Theatre of the Ab- Victor Franklwere almost entirely unknown to
surd pointed out how many contemporary playwrights the American psychotherapeutic community un-
such as Samuel Beckett, Eugne Ionesco, Jean Genet, til Rollo May's highly inuential 1985 book Ex-
and Arthur Adamov wove into their plays the existen- istenceand especially his introductory essay
tialist belief that we are absurd beings loose in a uni- introduced their work into this country.* [100]
verse empty of real meaning. Esslin noted that many
of these playwrights demonstrated the philosophy better A more recent contributor to the development of a Euro-
than did the plays by Sartre and Camus. Though most of pean version of existentialist psychotherapy is the British-
such playwrights, subsequently labeledAbsurdist(based based Emmy van Deurzen.
on Esslin's book), denied aliations with existentialism
Anxiety's importance in existentialism makes it a popular
and were often staunchly anti-philosophical (for example
topic in psychotherapy. Therapists often oer existentialist
Ionesco often claimed he identied more with 'Pataphysics
philosophy as an explanation for anxiety. The assertion is
or with Surrealism than with existentialism), the play-
that anxiety is manifested of an individual's complete free-
wrights are often linked to existentialism based on Esslin's
dom to decide, and complete responsibility for the outcome
observation.* [96]
of such decisions. Psychotherapists using an existentialist
approach believe that a patient can harness his anxiety and
use it constructively. Instead of suppressing anxiety, pa-
tients are advised to use it as grounds for change. By em-
bracing anxiety as inevitable, a person can use it to achieve
his full potential in life. Humanistic psychology also had Existentialism says existence precedes
major impetus from existentialist psychology and shares essence. In this statement he is taking existentia
many of the fundamental tenets. Terror management the- and essentia according to their metaphysical
ory, based on the writings of Ernest Becker and Otto Rank, meaning, which, from Plato's time on, has said
is a developing area of study within the academic study of that essentia precedes existentia. Sartre reverses
psychology. It looks at what researchers claim are implicit this statement. But the reversal of a metaphysical
emotional reactions of people confronted with the knowl- statement remains a metaphysical statement.
edge that they will eventually die. With it, he stays with metaphysics, in oblivion of
the truth of Being.* [105]
Also, Gerd B. Achenbach has refreshed the socratic tradi-
tion with his own blend of philosophical counseling. So did
Michel Weber with his Chromatiques Center in Belgium.
1.10 See also
1.9 Criticisms Abandonment (existentialism)
Disenchantment
1.9.1 General criticisms
Existential phenomenology
Walter Kaufmann criticized 'the profoundly unsound meth-
Existentiell
ods and the dangerous contempt for reason that have been
*
so prominent in existentialism.' [101] Logical positivist List of existentialists
philosophers, such as Rudolf Carnap and A. J. Ayer, assert
that existentialists are often confused about the verbto be Meaning (existential)
in their analyses ofbeing.* [102] Specically, they argue
Meaning-making
that the verb is transitive and pre-xed to a predicate (e.g.,
an apple is red) (without a predicate, the word is meaning-
less), and that existentialists frequently misuse the term in
this manner. Colin Wilson has stated in his book The Angry 1.11 References
Years that existentialism has created many of its own di-
culties: we can see how this question of freedom of the 1.11.1 Specic
will has been vitiated by post-romantic philosophy, with its
inbuilt tendency to laziness and boredom, we can also see [1] Oxford University Press, Oxford Dictionary: 'existential-
how it came about that existentialism found itself in a hole ism'", Oxford English Dictionary, Retrieved 22 August 2014.
of its own digging, and how the philosophical developments
since then have amounted to walking in circles round that [2] Crowell, Steven (October 2010).Existentialism. Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
hole.* [103]
[3] John Macquarrie, Existentialism, New York (1972), pp. 18
21.
1.9.2 Sartre's philosophy
[4] Oxford Companion to Philosophy, ed. Ted Honderich, New
Many critics argue Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophy is contra- York (1995), p. 259.
dictory. Specically, they argue that Sartre makes meta-
[5] John Macquarrie, Existentialism, New York (1972), pp. 14
physical arguments despite his claiming that his philosoph- 15.
ical views ignore metaphysics. Herbert Marcuse criticized
Sartre's 1943 Being and Nothingness for projecting anxi- [6] Flynn, Thomas (2006). Existentialism - A Very Short Intro-
ety and meaninglessness onto the nature of existence it- duction. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. p. xi.
self: Insofar as Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine, ISBN 0-19-280428-6.
it remains an idealistic doctrine: it hypostatizes specic his-
[7] Robert C. Solomon, Existentialism (McGraw-Hill, 1974, pp.
torical conditions of human existence into ontological and 12).
metaphysical characteristics. Existentialism thus becomes
part of the very ideology which it attacks, and its radicalism [8] Ernst Breisach, Introduction to Modern Existentialism, New
is illusory.* [104] York (1962), p. 5.
In Letter on Humanism, Heidegger criticized Sartre's exis- [9] Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism: From Dostoyevesky to
tentialism: Sartre, New York (1956) p. 12.
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Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, (Subtitle) A Mimical-
[32] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Existentialism, 3.
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Freedom and Value
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[13] Watts, Michael. Kierkegaard (Oneworld, 2003, pp. 46).
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(Princeton, 1969, pp. 3740).
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[42] D.E. Cooper Existentialism: A Reconstruction (Basil Black-
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[51] Zizek, Slavoj. If there is a God, then everything is permit- [70] Rdiger Safranski, Martin Heidegger Between Good and
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[57] John Macquarrie, Existentialism (Pelican, 1973, p. 96) [75] K. Gunnar Bergstrm, An Odyssey to Freedom University of
Uppsala, 1983, p. 92. Colin Stanley, Colin Wilson, a Cele-
[58] Karl Jaspers,Philosophical Autobiographyin Paul Arthur bration: Essays and Recollections Cecil Woolf, 1988, p. 43)
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Living Philosophers IX (Tudor Publishing Company, 1957, p. [76] Holt, Jason. Existential Ethics: Where do the Paths of
75/11) Glory Lead?". In The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. By
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[59] Karl Jaspers,Philosophical Autobiographyin Paul Arthur tucky. SBN 0-8131-2445-X
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Living Philosophers IX (Tudor Publishing Company, 1957, p. [77] Existential & Psychological Movie Recommendations.
40) Existential-therapy.com. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
[60] Karl Jaspers,Philosophical Autobiographyin Paul Arthur [78] Existentialism in Film. Uhaweb.hartford.edu. Retrieved
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Living Philosophers IX (Tudor Publishing Company, 1957, p.
75/2 and following) [79] Existentialist Adaptations Harvard Film Archive.
Hcl.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
[61] Patrick Baert, The Existentialist Moment; The Rise of Sartre
as a Public Intellectual (Polity Press, 2015) [80] Chocano, Carina (2008-10-24). Review: 'Synecdoche,
New York'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
[62] Ronald Aronson, Camus and Sartre (University of Chicago
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lm, see Philosophy Now, issue 102, accessible here (link),
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[82] Sartre, Jean-Paul (2000) [1938]. Nausea. Translated by
[64] Simone de Beauvoir, Force of Circumstance, quoted in
Baldick, Robert. London: Penguin.
Ronald Aronson, Camus and Sartre (University of Chicago
Press, 2004, p. 48) [83] Earnshaw, Steven (2006). Existentialism: A Guide for the
[65] Ronald Aronson, Camus and Sartre (University of Chicago Perplexed. London: Continuum. p. 75. ISBN 0-8264-
Press, 2004, p. 48) 8530-8.
[66] Rdiger Safranski, Martin Heidgger Between Good and [84] Cincotta, Madeleine Strong (1989). Luigi Pirandello: The
Evil (Harvard University Press, 1998, p. 343 Humorous Existentialist. University of Wollongong Press.
Retrieved 26 March 2015.
[67] Entry on Kojve in Martin Cohen (editor), The Essentials of
Philosophy and Ethics(Hodder Arnold, 2006, p. 158); see [85] Bassanese, Fiora A. (Jan 1, 1997). Understanding Luigi Pi-
also Alexandre Kojve, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: randello. University of South Carolina Press. Retrieved 26
Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit (Cornell University March 2015.
Press, 1980)
[86] DiGaetani, John Louis (Jan 25, 2008). Stages of Struggle:
[68] Entry on Kojve in Martin Cohen (editor), The Essentials of Modern Playwrights and Their Psychological Inspirations.
Philosophy and Ethics(Hodder Arnold, 2006, p. 158) McFarland. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
[69] Martin Hediegger, letter, quoted in Rdiger Safranski, Mar- [87] Graham, Maryemma; Singh, Amritjit (1995). Conversations
tin Heidgger Between Good and Evil (Harvard University with Ralph Ellison. University of Mississippi Press. Re-
Press, 1998, p. 349) trieved 26 March 2015.
1.11. REFERENCES 15
[88] Cotkin, George (2005). Existential American. JHU Press. 1.11.2 Bibliography
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Razavi, Mehdi Amin (1997). Suhrawardi and the
[89] Thomas, Paul Lee (2008). Reading, Learning, Teach Ralph
School of Illumination. Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-
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0412-4.
[90] Jackson, Lawrence Patrick (2007). Ralph Ellison: Emer-
gence of Genius. University of Georgia Press. Retrieved 26 Albert Camus Lyrical and Critical essays. Edited by
March 2015. Philip Thody (interviev with Jeanie Delpech, in Les
Nouvelles littraires, November 15, 1945). p. 345
[91] Gurnow, Michael (2008-10-15).Zarathustra . . . Cthulhu .
Meursault: Existential Futility in H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Call
of Cthulhu'". The Horror Review. Archived from the origi-
nal on October 6, 2014. Retrieved 2015-02-17.
1.11.3 Further reading
[92] The Times, 31 December 1964. Quoted in Knowlson, J., Appignanesi, Richard; Oscar Zarate (2001). Introduc-
Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett (London: ing Existentialism. Cambridge, UK: Icon. ISBN 1-
Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 57 84046-266-3.
[93] Cronin, A., Samuel Beckett The Last Modernist (London: Appignanesi, Richard (2006). Introducing Existen-
Flamingo, 1997), p. 391 tialism (3rd ed.). Thriplow, Cambridge: Icon Books
[94] Michael H. Hutchins (14 August 2006). A Tom Stoppard (UK), Totem Books (USA). ISBN 1-84046-717-7.
Bibliography: Chronology. The Stephen Sondheim Refer-
ence Guide. Retrieved 2008-06-23. Cooper, David E. (1999). Existentialism: A Recon-
struction (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. ISBN 0-
[95] Wren, Celia (12 December 2007). From Forum, an 631-21322-8.
Earnest and Painstaking 'Antigone'". Washington Post. Re-
trieved 2008-04-07. Deurzen, Emmy van (2010). Everyday Mysteries:
a Handbook of Existential Psychotherapy (2nd ed.).
[96] Kernan, Alvin B. The Modern American Theater: A Col-
London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-37643-3.
lection of Critical Essays. Englewood Clis, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, 1967.
Fallico, Arthuro B. (1962). Art & Existentialism. En-
[97] Logotherapie-international.eu glewood Clis, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
[98] Stewart, Jon. Kierkegaard and Existentialism. p. 38 Kierkegaard, Sren (1855). Attack Upon Christendom.
[99] Flynn, Thomas R. Sartre, Foucault, and Historical Reason, Kierkegaard, Sren (1843). The Concept of Anxiety.
p. 323.
Kierkegaard, Sren (1846). Concluding Unscientic
[100] Yalom, Irvin D. (1980). Existential Psychotherapy. New
York: BasicBooks (Subsidiary of Perseus Books, L.L.C. p.
Postscript.
17. ISBN 0-465-02147-6. Note: The copyright year has not
Kierkegaard, Sren (1843). Either/Or.
changed, but the book remains in print.
[101] Kaufmann, Walter Arnold, From Shakespeare To Existen- Kierkegaard, Sren (1843). Fear and Trembling.
tialism (Princeton University Press 1979), p. xvi
Kierkegaard, Sren (1849). The Sickness Unto Death.
[102] Carnap, Rudolf, Uberwindung der Metaphysik durch logis-
che Analyse der Sprache [Overcoming Metaphysics by the Kierkegaard, Sren (1847). Works of Love.
Logical Analysis of Speech], Erkenntnis (1932), pp. 21941.
Carnap's critique of Heidegger's What is Metaphysics. Luper, Steven (ed.) (2000). Existing: An Introduc-
tion to Existential Thought. Mountain View, Califor-
[103] Colin, Wilson, The Angry Years (2007), p. 214 nia: Mayeld. ISBN 0-7674-0587-0.
[104] Marcuse, Herbert. Sartre's Existentialism. Printed in
Marino, Gordon (ed.) (2004). Basic Writings of Exis-
Studies in Critical Philosophy. Translated by Joris De Bres.
tentialism. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 0-375-
London: NLB, 1972. p. 161
75989-1.
[105] Martin Heidegger, Letter on Humanism, in Basic Writ-
ings: Nine Key Essays, plus the Introduction to Being and Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of Per-
Time , trans. David Farrell Krell (London, Routledge; ception [Colin Smith]. New York: Routledge and
1978), p. 208. Google Books Kegan Paul.
Rose, Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) (1994). Nihilism: The

Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age. Saint Her-
man Press (1 September 1994). ISBN 0-938635-15-
8.
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1943). Being and Nothingness.
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1945). Existentialism and Human-

ism.
Stewart, Jon (ed.) (2011). Kierkegaard and Existen-

tialism. Farnham, England: Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-
4094-2641-7.
Solomon, Robert C. (ed.) (2005). Existentialism (2nd
ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-
19-517463-1.
Wartenberg, Thomas E. Existentialism: A Beginner's
Guide.
1.12 External links

Existentialism at DMOZ
Existentialism. Internet Encyclopedia of Philoso-

phy.

Existentialism on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)
Friesian interpretation of Existentialism

Crowell, Steven. Existentialism. Stanford Ency-
clopedia of Philosophy.
Existentialism is a Humanism, a lecture given by
Jean-Paul Sartre
The Existential Primer
Buddhists, Existentialists and Situationists: Waking

up in Waking Life
1.12.1 Journals and articles

Stirrings Still: The International Journal of Existential
Literature
Existential Analysis published by The Society for Ex-

istential Analysis
Chapter 2
Existence precedes essence
This article is about the existentialist phrase coined by those who feel oppressed the situation becomes intolerable.
Jean-Paul Sartre. For the transcendent theosophy founder, So by projecting my intentions onto my present condition,
see Mulla Sadra. It is I who freely transform it into action. When he said
thatthe world is a mirror of my freedom, he meant that
The proposition that existence precedes essence (French: the world obliged me to react, to overtake myself. It is this
overtaking of a present constraining situation by a project to
l'existence prcde l'essence) is a central claim of
existentialism, which reverses the traditional philo- come that Sartre names transcendence. He added thatwe
are condemned to be free.* [7]
sophical view that the essence (the nature) of a thing is
more fundamental and immutable than its existence (the When it is said that man denes himself, it is often per-
mere fact of its being).* [1] To existentialists, human beings ceived as stating that man can wishto be something -
through their consciousness create their own values anything, a bird, for instance - and then be it. According to
and determine a meaning for their life because the human Sartre's account, however, this would be a kind of bad faith.
being does not possess any inherent identity or value. That What is meant by the statement is that man is (1) dened
identity or value must be created by the individual. By only insofar as he acts and (2) that he is responsible for his
posing the acts that constitute him or her, they make their actions. To clarify, it can be said that a man who acts cru-
existence more signicant.* [2]* [3] elly towards other people is, by that act, dened as a cruel
The idea can be found in the works of philosopher Sren man and in that same instance, he (as opposed to his genes,
Kierkegaard in the 19th century,* [4] but was explicitly for- for instance) is dened as being responsible for being this
mulated by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in the 20th cen- cruel man. Of course, the more positive therapeutic aspect
tury. The three-word formula originated in his 1946 lecture of this is also implied: You can choose to act in a dierent
"Existentialism Is a Humanism",* [5] though antecedent no- way, and to be a good person instead of a cruel person. Here
tions can be found in Heidegger's Being and Time.* [6] it is also clear that since man can choose to be either cruel
or good, he is, in fact, neither of these things essentially.* [8]
To claim that existence precedes essence is to assert that
there is no such predetermined essence to be found in hu-
2.1 Sartre's view mans, and that an individual's essence is dened by him or
her through how he or she creates and lives his or her life.
The Sartrean claim is best understood in contrast to an es- As Sartre puts it in his Existentialism is a Humanism:man
tablished principle of metaphysics that essence precedes ex- rst of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world
istence, i.e. a typical claim for this traditional thesis would and denes himself afterwards.* [9]
be that man is essentially selsh, or that he is a rational be-
ing. Existentialism tends to focus on the question of human ex-
istence and the conditions of this existence. What is meant
To Sartre, existence precedes essencemeans that a by existence is the concrete life of each individual, and their
personality is not built over a previously designed model concrete ways of being in the world. Even though this con-
or a precise purpose, because it is the human being who crete individual existence must be the primary source of
chooses to engage in such enterprise. While not denying information in the study of people, certain conditions are
the constraining conditions of human existence, he answers commonly held to beendemicto human existence. These
to Spinoza who armed that man is determined by what conditions are usually in some way related to the inherent
surrounds him. Therefore, to Sartre an oppressive situa- meaninglessness or absurdity of the earth and its apparent
tion is not intolerable in itself, but once regarded as such by
17
18 CHAPTER 2. EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE
contrast with our pre-reexive lived lives which normally [7] (French) Philagora.net -Notions de philosophie,
present themselves to us as meaningful. A central theme is L'existencialisme: Jean-Paul Sartre (Notions of Phi-
that since the worldin-itselfis absurd, that is, notfair losophy, Existentialism)
, then a meaningful life can at any point suddenly lose all its [8] Catalano p. 81
meaning. The reasons why this happens are many, ranging
from a tragedy thattears a person's world apart,to the re- [9] Sartre, Existentialism is a humanism
sults of an honest inquiry into one's own existence. Such an
[10] Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
encounter can make a person mentally unstable, and avoid-
ing such instability by making people aware of their condi-
tion and ready to handle it is one of the central themes of ex-
istentialism. Albert Camus, for instance, famously claimed 2.4 References
in Le Mythe de Sisyphe thatthere is only one truly serious
philosophical problem, and that is suicide.* [10] Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 1948.
Aside from thesepsychologicalissues, it is also claimed Corbin, Henry (1993 (original French 1964)). History
that these encounters with the absurd are where we are of Islamic Philosophy, Translated by Liadain Sherrard,
most in touch with our condition as humans. Such an en- Philip Sherrard. London; Kegan Paul International in
counter cannot be without philosophical signicance, and association with Islamic Publications for The Institute
existentialist philosophers derive many metaphysical theo- of Ismaili Studies. ISBN 0-7103-0416-1. Check date
ries from these encounters. These are often related to the values in: |date= (help)
self, consciousness and freedom as well as the nature of
meaning. Joseph S. Catalano, A Commentary on Jean-Paul
Sartre's Being and Nothingness, University of Chicago
Press 1985.
2.2 See also Leaman, Oliver; Peter S. Gro (2007). Islamic Philos-
ophy A-Z. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-
Metousiosis 2089-3.
Social constructionism Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism
Tabula rasa (L'existentialisme est un humanisme) 1946 Lec-
ture
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, article

2.3 Notes Existentialism
[1] Plato, Timaeus; Aristotle, Metaphysics; St Thomas Aquinas, Razavi, Mehdi Amin (1997). Suhrawardi and the
Summa contra Gentiles, Pars 3:1, Summa Theologiae, Pars School of Illumination. Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-
1:1, etc. Analysis ofexistence before essencein Etienne 0412-4.
Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas,
Introduction. Wilhelmsen, Frederick (1970). The Paradoxical
Structure of Existence. Irving, Tex.; University of Dal-
[2] (French) (Dictionary)L'existencialisme- seel'identit
las Press.
de la personne
[3] (French) Encyclopdie de la jeunesse, 1979, p.567
[4] Kierkegaard, Sren. Philosophical Fragments, 1844. 2.5 External links
[5] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article http://
[6] Sartre, in Being and Nothingness (1943), credits a slightly plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/#ExiPreEss
longer version of the claim to Heidegger: Now freedom
has no essence. It is not subject to any logical necessity; we
must say of it what Heidegger said of the Dasein in general:
'In it existence precedes and commands essence.'" However,
Sartre gives no page reference for this citation. In Being and
Time, Heidegger writes:The 'essence' of human-being lies
in its existence.(Das 'Wesen' des Daseins liegt in seiner
Existenz, Sein und Zeit, p. 42.)
Chapter 3
Absurdism
This article is about the philosophy. For an extremely un- cause the sheer amount of information as well as the vast
reasonable, silly, or foolish thing, see Absurdity. For absur- realm of the unknown make total certainty impossible. As
dist humour, see surreal humour. For the literary genre, see a philosophy, absurdism furthermore explores the funda-
Absurdist ction. mental nature of the Absurd and how individuals, once be-
In philosophy, "the Absurd" refers to the conict between coming conscious of the Absurd, should respond to it. The
absurdist philosopher Albert Camus stated that individuals
should embrace the absurd condition of human existence
while also deantly continuing to explore and search for
meaning.* [2]
Absurdism shares some concepts, and a common theoret-
ical template, with existentialism and nihilism. It has its
origins in the work of the 19th-century Danish philoso-
pher Sren Kierkegaard, who chose to confront the crisis
that humans face with the Absurd by developing his own
existentialist philosophy.* [3] Absurdism as a belief system
was born of the European existentialist movement that en-
sued, specically when Camus rejected certain aspects of
that philosophical line of thought* [4] and published his es-
say The Myth of Sisyphus. The aftermath of World War II
provided the social environment that stimulated absurdist
views and allowed for their popular development, especially
in the devastated country of France.
3.1 Overview
"... in spite of or in deance of the whole of existence he
Sisyphus the symbol of the absurdity of existence by Franz
Stuck.
wills to be himself with it, to take it along, almost defying his
torment. For to hope in the possibility of help, not to speak
the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in of help by virtue of the absurd, that for God all things are
life and the human inability to nd any. In this context ab- possible no, that he will not do. And as for seeking help
surd does not meanlogically impossible, but ratherhu- from any other no, that he will not do for all the world;
manly impossible.* [1] The universe and the human mind rather than seek help he would prefer to be himself with
do not each separately cause the Absurd, but rather, the Ab- all the tortures of hell, if so it must be."
surd arises by the contradictory nature of the two existing Sren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death* [5]
simultaneously. In absurdist philosophy, the Absurd arises out of the fun-
Accordingly, absurdism is a philosophical school of damental disharmony between the individual's search for
thought stating that the eorts of humanity to nd inher- meaning and the meaninglessness of the universe. As be-
ent meaning will ultimately fail (and hence are absurd) beings looking for meaning in a meaningless world, humans
19
20 CHAPTER 3. ABSURDISM
have three ways of resolving the dilemma. Kierkegaard and none can be found.* [8] Absurdists, following Camus's for-
Camus describe the solutions in their works, The Sickness mulation, hesitantly allow the possibility for some meaning
Unto Death (1849) and The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), re- or value in life, but are neither as certain as existentialists
spectively: are about the value of one's own constructed meaning nor
as nihilists are about the total inability to create meaning.
Suicide (or,escaping existence): a solution in which Absurdists following Camus also devalue or outright reject
a person ends one's own life. Both Kierkegaard and free will, encouraging merely that the individual live de-
Camus dismiss the viability of this option. Camus antly and authentically in spite of the psychological tension
states that it does not counter the Absurd. Rather, the of the Absurd.* [9]
act of ending one's existence only becomes more ab- Camus himself passionately worked to counter nihilism, as
surd. he explained in his essay "The Rebel,while he also cate-
Religious, spiritual, or abstract belief in a transcendent gorically rejected the label of existentialistin his es-
realm, being, or idea: a solution in which one believes say Enigmaand in the compilation The Lyrical and
in the existence of a reality that is beyond the Ab- Critical Essays of Albert Camus, though he was, and still
surd, and, as such, has meaning. Kierkegaard stated is, often broadly characterized by others as an existential-
*
that a belief in anything beyond the Absurd requires ist. [10] Both existentialism and absurdism entail consider-
an irrational but perhaps necessary religious accep- ation of the practical applications of becoming conscious
tance in such an intangible and empirically unprovable of the truth of existential nihilism: i.e., how a driven seeker
thing (now commonly referred to as a "leap of faith"). of meaning should act when suddenly confronted with the
However, Camus regarded this solution, and others, as seeming concealment, or downright absence, of meaning
philosophical suicide. in the universe. Camus's own understanding of the world
(e.g.,a benign indierence, in The Stranger), and every
Acceptance of the Absurd: a solution in which one vision he had for its progress, however, sets him apart from
accepts the Absurd and continues to live in spite of the general existentialist trend.
it. Camus endorsed this solution, believing that by ac-
cepting the Absurd, one can achieve the greatest extent
of their freedom, and that by recognizing no religious 3.3 Sren Kierkegaard
or other moral constraints and by revolting against the
Absurd while simultaneously accepting it as unstop-
Main article: Philosophy of Sren Kierkegaard
pable, one could possibly be content from the personal
A century before Camus, the 19th century Danish philoso-
meaning constructed in the process. Kierkegaard, on
pher Sren Kierkegaard wrote extensively about the absur-
the other hand, regarded this solution as demoniac
dity of the world. In his journals, Kierkegaard writes about
madness": "He rages most of all at the thought that eter-
the absurd:
nity might get it into its head to take his misery from
him!"* [6]
What is the Absurd? It is, as may quite easily
be seen, that I, a rational being, must act in a
case where my reason, my powers of reection,
3.2 Relationship to existentialism tell me: you can just as well do the one thing
and nihilism as the other, that is to say where my reason and
reection say: you cannot act and yet here is
Absurdism originated from (as well as alongside) the 20th- where I have to act... The Absurd, or to act by
century strains of existentialism and nihilism, and so it virtue of the absurd, is to act upon faith ... I must
shares some prominent starting points with, though also en- act, but reection has closed the road so I take
tails conclusions that are uniquely distinct from, these other one of the possibilities and say: This is what I
schools of thought. All three arose from the human expe- do, I cannot do otherwise because I am brought
rience of anguish and confusion stemming from the Ab- to a standstill by my powers of reection.* [13]
surd: the apparent meaninglessness in a world in which Kierkegaard, Sren, Journals, 1849
humans, nevertheless, are so compelled to nd or create
meaning.* [7] The three schools of thought diverge from
there. Existentialists have generally advocated the individ- Here is another example of the Absurd from his writings:
ual's construction of his or her own meaning in life as well
as the free will of the individual. Nihilists, on the contrary, What, then, is the absurd? The absurd is
contend thatit is futile to seek or to arm meaning where that the eternal truth has come into existence
3.4. ALBERT CAMUS 21
a category, the negative criterion, of the divine

or of the relationship to the divine. When the
believer has faith, the absurd is not the absurd
faith transforms it, but in every weak moment it is
again more or less absurd to him. The passion of
faith is the only thing which masters the absurd
if not, then faith is not faith in the strictest sense,
but a kind of knowledge. The absurd terminates
negatively before the sphere of faith, which is a
sphere by itself. To a third person the believer
relates himself by virtue of the absurd; so must
a third person judge, for a third person does not
have the passion of faith. Johannes de Silentio
has never claimed to be a believer; just the oppo-
site, he has explained that he is not a believer
in order to illuminate faith negatively.
Journals of Sren Kierkegaard X6B 79* [14]
Kierkegaard provides an example in one of his works, Fear

and Trembling. In the story of Abraham in the Book of
Genesis, Abraham is told by God to kill his son Isaac. Just
as Abraham is about to kill Isaac, an angel stops Abraham
from doing so. Kierkegaard believes that through virtue of
the absurd, Abraham, defying all reason and ethical duties
(you cannot act), got back his son and rearmed his
faith (where I have to act).* [15] However, it should be
noted that in this particular case, the work was signed with
the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio.
Kierkegaard designed the relationship framework based (in part)
on how a person reacts to despair. Absurdist philosophy ts into Another instance of absurdist themes in Kierkegaard's work
the 'despair of deance' rubric.* [12] appears in The Sickness Unto Death, which Kierkegaard
signed with pseudonym Anti-Climacus. Exploring the forms
of despair, Kierkegaard examines the type of despair known
in time, that God has come into existence, has as deance.* [16] In the opening quotation reproduced at the
been born, has grown up. etc., has come into beginning of the article, Kierkegaard describes how such a
existence exactly as an individual human being, man would endure such a deance and identies the three
indistinguishable from any other human being, major traits of the Absurd Man, later discussed by Albert
inasmuch as all immediate recognizability is Camus: a rejection of escaping existence (suicide), a re-
pre-Socratic paganism and from the Jewish point jection of help from a higher power and acceptance of his
of view is idolatry. absurd (and despairing) condition.
Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientic
Postscript, 1846, Hong 1992, p. 210 According to Kierkegaard in his autobiography The Point of
View of My Work as an Author, most of his pseudonymous
How can this absurdity be held or believed? Kierkegaard writings are not necessarily reective of his own opinions.
says: Nevertheless, his work anticipated many absurdist themes
and provided its theoretical background.
I gladly undertake, by way of brief repetition,
to emphasize what other pseudonyms have em-
phasized. The absurd is not the absurd or ab- 3.4 Albert Camus
surdities without any distinction (wherefore Jo-
hannes de Silentio: How many of our age un- Though the notion of the 'absurd' pervades all Albert Ca-
derstand what the absurd is?"). The absurd is a mus's writing, The Myth of Sisyphus is his chief work on the
category, and the most developed thought is re- subject. In it, Camus considers absurdity as a confrontation,
quired to dene the Christian absurd accurately an opposition, a conict or a divorcebetween two ide-
and with conceptual correctness. The absurd is als. Specically, he denes the human condition as absurd,
as the confrontation between man's desire for signicance, the lack of imprisonment by religious devotion or others'
meaning and clarity on the one hand and the silent, cold moral codes; Passionrefers to the most wholehearted
universe on the other. He continues that there are specic experiencing of life, since hope has been rejected, and so
human experiences evoking notions of absurdity. Such a he concludes that every moment must be lived fully.
realization or encounter with the absurd leaves the individ-
ual with a choice: suicide, a leap of faith, or recognition. He
concludes that recognition is the only defensible option.* [2] 3.5 The meaning of life
For Camus, suicide is a confessionthat life is not worth
living; it is a choice that implicitly declares that life istoo
According to absurdism, humans historically attempt to nd
much.Suicide oers the most basicway outof absurdity: meaning in their lives. Traditionally, this search results in
the immediate termination of the self and its place in the one of two conclusions: either that life is meaningless, or
universe. life contains within it a purpose set forth by a higher power
The absurd encounter can also arouse a leap of faith,a a belief in God, or adherence to some religion or other
term derived from one of Kierkegaard's early pseudonyms, abstract concept.
Johannes de Silentio (although the term was not used by
Kierkegaard himself),* [17] where one believes that there is
more than the rational life (aesthetic or ethical). To take a 3.5.1 Elusion
leap of faith,one must act with thevirtue of the absurd
(as Johannes de Silentio put it), where a suspension of the Camus perceives lling the void with some invented belief
ethical may need to exist. This faith has no expectations, but or meaning as a mereact of eludingthat is, avoiding or
is a exible power initiated by a recognition of the absurd. escaping rather than acknowledging and embracing the Ab-
(Although at some point, one recognizes or encounters the surd. To Camus, elusion is a fundamental aw in religion,
existence of the Absurd and, in response, actively ignores existentialism, and various other schools of thought. If the
it.) However, Camus states that because the leap of faith individual eludes the Absurd, then he or she can never con-
escapes rationality and defers to abstraction over personal front it. Camus also concedes that elusion is the most com-
experience, the leap of faith is not absurd. Camus considers mon.
the leap of faith as philosophical suicide,rejecting both
this and physical suicide.* [17]* [18]
3.5.2 God
Lastly, a person can choose to embrace their own absurd
condition. According to Camus, one's freedom and the Even with a spiritual power as the answer to meaning,
opportunity to give life meaning lies in the recognition of another question arises: What is the purpose of a belief
absurdity. If the absurd experience is truly the realization in God? Kierkegaard believed that there is no human-
that the universe is fundamentally devoid of absolutes, then comprehensible purpose of God, making faith in God ab-
we as individuals are truly free. To live without appeal, surd itself. Camus on the other hand states that to believe
*
[19] as he puts it, is a philosophical move to dene ab- in God is to deny one of the terms of the contradiction
solutes and universals subjectively, rather than objectively. between humanity and the universe (and is therefore not ab-
The freedom of humans is thus established in a human's surd but what he callsphilosophical suicide). Camus (as
natural ability and opportunity to create their own meaning well as Kierkegaard), though, suggests that while absurdity
and purpose; to decide (or think) for him- or herself. The does not lead to belief in God, neither does it lead to the
individual becomes the most precious unit of existence, rep- denial of God. Camus notes,I did not say 'excludes God',
resenting a set of unique ideals that can be characterized as which would still amount to asserting.* [21]
an entire universe in its own right. In acknowledging the
absurdity of seeking any inherent meaning, but continuing
this search regardless, one can be happy, gradually devel- 3.5.3 Personal meaning
oping meaning from the search alone.
Camus states in The Myth of Sisyphus: Thus I draw from For Camus, the beauty people encounter in life makes it
the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my worth living. People may create meaning in their own lives,
freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of con- which may not be the objective meaning of life (if there is
sciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invi- one), but can still provide something to strive for. How-
tation to death, and I refuse suicide.* [20] Revolthere ever, he insisted that one must always maintain an ironic
refers to the refusal of suicide and search for meaning de- distance between this invented meaning and the knowledge
spite the revelation of the Absurd; Freedomrefers to of the absurd, lest the ctitious meaning take the place of
the absurd.
3.7. REFERENCES 23
3.5.4 Freedom Non sequitur (literary device)
Freedom cannot be achieved beyond what the absurdity of 'Pataphysics

existence permits; however, the closest one can come to be- Peter Wessel Zape
ing absolutely free is through acceptance of the Absurd. Ca-
mus introduced the idea of acceptance without resigna- The Stranger (novel)
tionas a way of dealing with the recognition of absurdity, Theatre of the Absurd
asking whether or not man canlive without appeal, while
dening a conscious revoltagainst the avoidance of ab- Absurdistan
surdity of the world. In a world devoid of higher meaning
Church of the SubGenius
or judicial afterlife, the human nature becomes as close to
absolutely free as is humanly possible. Usemention distinction
3.5.5 Hope 3.7 References

The rejection of hope, in absurdism, denotes the refusal to
[1] Silentio, Johannes de, Fear and Trembling, Penguin Classics,
believe in anything more than what this absurd life provides. p. 17
Hope, Camus emphasizes, however, has nothing to do with
despair (meaning that the two terms are not opposites). One [2] Camus, Albert (1991). Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays.
can still live fully while rejecting hope, and, in fact, can only Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-73373-6.
do so without hope. Hope is perceived by the absurdist [3] Stewart, Jon (2011). Kierkegaard and Existentialism. Farn-
as another fraudulent method of evading the Absurd, and ham, England: Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-4094-2641-7. pp.
by not having hope, one is motivated to live every eeting 7678.
moment to the fullest. In the words of Nikos Kazantzakis'
epitaph: I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. [4] Solomon, Robert C. (2001). From Rationalism to Existential-
ism: The Existentialists and Their Nineteenth Century Back-
grounds. Rowman and Littleeld. p. 245. ISBN 0-7425-
1241-X.
3.5.6 Integrity
[5] Kierkegaard, Sren (1941). The Sickness Unto Death.
The absurdist is not guided by morality, but rather, by their Princeton University Press.
own integrity. The absurdist is, in fact, amoral (though not
[6] Kierkegaard, Sren (1941). The Sickness Unto Death.
necessarily immoral). The Absurdist's view of morality im- Princeton University Press. Part I, Ch. 3.
plies an unwavering sense of denite right and wrong at all
times, while integrity implies honesty with one's self and [7] Alan Pratt (April 23, 2001). Nihilism. Internet Encyclo-
consistency in the motivations of one's actions and deci- pedia of Philosophy. Embry-Riddle University. Retrieved
sions. February 4, 2012.
[8] Donald A. Crosby (July 1, 1988). The Specter of the Absurd:

Sources and Criticisms of Modern Nihilism. State University
3.6 See also of New York Press. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
[9] Albert Camus. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Absurdist ction What is the Camusean alternative to suicide or hope? The
answer is to live without escape and with integrity, in re-
Credo quia absurdum voltand deance, maintaining the tension intrinsic to hu-
man life
Discordianism
[10] Solomon, Robert C. (2001). From Rationalism to Existential-
Existential nihilism ism: The Existentialists and Their Nineteenth Century Back-
grounds. Rowman and Littleeld. p. 245. ISBN 0-7425-
Existentialism 1241-X.
Irrationality [11] Albert Camus. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

What is the Camusean alternative to suicide or hope? The
Lottery of birth answer is to live without escape and with integrity, in re-
voltand deance, maintaining the tension intrinsic to hu-
Nihilism man life
[12] Kierkegaard, Sren. The Sickness Unto Death. Kierkegaard

wrote about all four viewpoints in his works at one time or
another, but the majority of his work leaned towards what
would later become absurdist and theistic existentialist views.
[13] Dru, Alexander. The Journals of Sren Kierkegaard, Oxford

University Press, 1938.
[14] Sren Kierkegaard. Naturalthinker.com. Retrieved 2016-

02-26.
[15] Silentio, Johannes de. Fear and Trembling, Denmark, 1843
[16] Sickness Unto Death, Ch.3, part B, sec. 2
[17]The Kierkegaardian Leapin The Cambridge Companion

to Kierkegaard.
[18] Camus, Myth of Sisyphus, p. 41
[21] Camus, Myth of Sisyphus, p. 40, note 7
3.8 Further reading

OBERIU, edited by Eugene Ostashevsky.
Northwestern University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-
8101-2293-6
Thomas Nagel: Mortal Questions, 1991. ISBN 0-521-

40676-5
3.9 External links

Fiction of the Absurd
Absurdist Monthly Review Magazine

The Absurdist (Literary Journal)
Chapter 4
Facticity
In philosophy, facticity (French: facticit, German: Fakti- 4.3 Sartre and de Beauvoir
zitt * [1]) has a multiplicity of meanings from factuality
and contingencyto the intractable conditions of human
In the mid-20th Century works of French existentialists
existence.* [2]
Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, facticity signies
all of the concrete details against the background of which
human freedom exists and is limited. For example, these
may include the time and place of birth, a language, an en-
vironment, an individual's previous choices, as well as the
4.1 Early usage inevitable prospect of their death. For example: currently,
the situation of a person who is born without legs precludes
their freedom to walk on the beach; if future medicine were
The term is rst used by German philosopher Johann Got- to develop a method of growing new legs for that person,
tlieb Fichte (1762-1814) and has a variety of meanings. It their facticity might no longer exclude this activity.
can refer to facts and factuality, as in nineteenth-century
positivism, but comes to mean that which resists expla-
nation and interpretation in Wilhelm Dilthey and Neo-
Kantianism. The Neo-Kantians contrasted facticity with
ideality, as does Jrgen Habermas in Between Facts and 4.4 Recent usage
Norms (Faktizitt und Geltung).
It is a term that takes on a more specialized mean-
ing in 20th century continental philosophy, especially
in phenomenology and existentialism, including Edmund
Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice
Merleau-Ponty and Theodor Adorno. Recent philosophers
4.2 Heidegger such as Giorgio Agamben, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Franois
Raoul have taken up the notion of facticity in new ways.
German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) dis- Facticity plays a key part in Quentin Meillassoux's philo-
cussesfacticity* [1] as the "thrownness" (Geworfenheit) sophical project to challenge the thought-world relationship
of individual existence, which is to say we arethrown into of correlationism. It is dened by him as the absence of
the world.By this, he is not only referring to a brute fact, or reason for any reality; in other words, the impossibility of
the factuality of a concrete historical situation, e.g., born providing an ultimate ground for the existence of any be-
in the '80s.Facticity is something that already informs and ing.* [3]
has been taken up in existence, even if it is unnoticed or left
unattended. As such, facticity is not something we come
across and directly behold. In moods, for example, facticity
has an enigmatic appearance, which involves both turning
toward and away from it. For Heidegger, moods are condi- 4.5 See also
tions of thinking and willing to which they must in some way
respond. The thrownness of human existence (or Dasein) is
accordingly disclosed through moods. Being for itself
25
26 CHAPTER 4. FACTICITY
4.6 References
[1] Dahlstrom, Daniel O. (2013). The Heidegger Dictionary.
London: A & C Black. pp. 712. ISBN 978-1-847-06514-
8. ISBN 1-84706514-7.
[2] Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness.
[3] Meillassoux, Quentin (8 May 2008). Time Without Be-

coming (PDF). Retrieved 29 December 2016.
4.7 Further reading

J. Van Buren (Trans.), Martin Heidegger. Ontology--
The Hermeneutics of Facticity.
Heidegger, Martin. Being And Time.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Essays in Existentialism.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism Is A Humanism.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness.

Raoul, Franois and Eric Sean Nelson (eds.). Re-
thinking Facticity.
Meillassoux, Quentin. After Finitude: An Essay on the
Necessity of Contingency.
Chapter 5
Authenticity (philosophy)
Views of authenticity in cultural activities vary widely. For

instance, the philosophers Jean Paul Sartre and Theodor
Adorno had opposing views regarding jazz, with Sartre con-
sidering it authentic and Adorno inauthentic. The con-
cept of authenticity is often aired in musical subcultures,
such as punk rock and heavy metal, where a purported
lack of authenticity is commonly labeled with the epithet
"poseur".* [3] There is also a focus on authenticity in music
genres such as "...house, grunge, garage, hip-hop, techno,
and showtunes".* [4]
5.1 Theories
5.1.1 Existentialism
One of the greatest problems facing such abstract ap-
proaches is that the drives people call the needs of one's
inner beingare diuse, subjective and often culture bound.
For this reason among others, authenticity is often at the
limitsof language; it is described as the negative space
around inauthenticity, with reference to examples of inau-
thentic living.* [5] Sartre's novels are perhaps the easiest ac-
cess to this mode of describing authenticity: they often con-
tain characters and antiheroes who base their actions on ex-
ternal pressuresthe pressure to appear to be a certain kind
Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre viewed jazz as a representation of of person, the pressure to adopt a particular mode of living,
freedom and authenticity. (Pictured is Johnny Hodges.)* [1] the pressure to ignore one's own moral and aesthetic objec-
tions in order to have a more comfortable existence. His
work also includes characters who do not understand their
Authenticity is a technical term used in psychology as well own reasons for acting, or who ignore crucial facts about
as existentialist philosophy and aesthetics (in regard to vari- their own lives in order to avoid uncomfortable truths; this
ous arts and musical genres). In existentialism, authenticity connects his work with the philosophical tradition.
is the degree to which one is true to one's own personality, Sartre is concerned also with the "vertiginous" experience
spirit, or character, despite external pressures; the conscious of absolute freedom. In Sartre's view, this experience, nec-
self is seen as coming to terms with being in a material essary for the state of authenticity, can be so unpleasant that
world and with encountering external forces, pressures, and it leads people to inauthentic ways of living. Typically, au-
inuences which are very dierent from, and other than, it- thenticity is seen as a very general concept, not attached to
self. A lack of authenticity is considered in existentialism any particular political or aesthetic ideology. This is a nec-
to be bad faith.* [2] essary aspect of authenticity: because it concerns a person's
27
28 CHAPTER 5. AUTHENTICITY (PHILOSOPHY)
relation with the world, it cannot be arrived at by simply re- ate opposite estimates of value, to transvaluate and invert
peating a set of actions or taking up a set of positions. In eternal valuations.* [8] One must be a free thinker and
this manner, authenticity is connected with creativity: the theorize views outside of their predilections. The common-
impetus to action must arise from the person in question, ality of Kierkegaard and Nietzsches existential philoso-
and not be externally imposed. Heidegger takes this notion phies is the responsibilities they place on the individual
to the extreme, by speaking in very abstract terms about to take active part in the shaping of ones beliefs and then
modes of living (his terminology was adopted and simpli- to be willing to act on that belief.* [7] For Nietzsche, the
ed by Sartre in his philosophical works). Kierkegaard's secular mentality is a form of weakness and, for authentic-
work (e.g. Panegyric Upon Abrahamfrom Fear and ity to be achieved, one must truly transcend conventional
Trembling) often focuses on biblical stories which are not morality.
directly imitable. Sartre, as has been noted above, focused
on inauthentic existence as a way to avoid the paradoxical
problem of appearing to provide prescriptions for a mode
of living that rejects external dictation.* [6] Existential journalism
Authenticity, according to Kierkegaard, is reliant on an in-
dividual nding authentic faith and becoming true to one- Existential philosophers like Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and
self. Kierkegaard develops the idea that news media and the Heidegger investigate the existential-ontological signi-
bourgeois church-Christianity present challenges for an in- cance of societally constructed norms to decipher authen-
dividual in society trying to live authentically. Kierkegaard ticity. For an existential journalist, this aversion to, and
thus sees both the media and the church as intervening turning away from, an unquestioning acceptance of norms
agencies, blocking peoples way to true experiences, au- contributes to the production of an authentic work. Merrill
thenticity, and God. * [7] His conviction lies with the idea believes that authentic journalism can exist if the journalist
that mass-culture creates a loss of individual signicance, is true to ones self and rejects conformism. There are
which he refers to aslevelling.Kierkegaard views the me- traditions that exist in media and news outlets that prevent
dia as supporting a society that does not form its own opin- journalists from achieving authenticity. Like Kierkegaard
ions but utilizes the opinions constructed by the news. Sim- s view of media and church, Merrill believes that journal-
ilarly, he interprets religion as a tradition that is passively ists are gladly sacricing individual authenticity to adapt
accepted by individuals, without the inclusion of authentic nicely to the highly regimented, depersonalized corporate
thought. Kierkegaard believes that authentic faith can be structure.* [9] Journalists are restricted by institutional
achieved byfacing reality, making a choice and then pas- red tapeand, thus, cannot achieve authenticity. It is ben-
sionately sticking with it.* [7] The goal of Kierkegaards ecial for a journalist to adhere to the red tapebecause
existentialist philosophy is to show that, in order to achieve his work will be published.
authenticity, one must face reality and form his own opin-
Actively shaping ones own belief and then acting upon
ions of existence. So as not to be discouraged by levelling,
that belief is a laborious task. A journalist that hesitates in
Kierkegaard suggests,One must make an active choice to
writing a story because it is not within the norm is unable
surrender to something that goes beyond comprehension, a
to achieve authenticity because of the notion that following
leap of faith into the religious.* [7] Even if one does not
the norm is more valuable than being authentic. The con-
want to put forth the eort of developing his own views, he
tention is, however, that individual freedom and courage
must do so in the quest for authentic faith.
to act is more valuable than collective adherence to journal-
Nietzsches view of authenticity is an atheist interpreta- istic codes of conduct.* [7] As journalists make conscious
tion of Kierkegaard. He rejects the role of religion in nd- decisions to write authentically, they are able to contribute
ing authenticity because he believes in nding truth with- more value in their work. The consequence of authentic
out the use of virtues. Nietzsche believes of the authen- writing is positive and ensures that the journalist, according
tic man as the following: Someone who elevates himself to Merrill, grows, matures, creates himself, and projects
over others in order to transcend the limits of conventional himself into the future.* [9]
morality in an attempt to decide for oneself about good and
evil, without regard for the virtues on account of which
we hold our grandfathers in esteem.* [8] Nietzsche rejects
the idea of religious virtues due to the lack of questioning Criticisms
by the individual. One must avoid what he calls herd-
ing animal morality,* [8] if he is to nd authenticity. To
Philosopher Jacob Golomb argues that the existentialist no-
stand aloneand avoid religiously constructed principles,
tion of authenticity is incompatible with a morality that val-
it is essential to be strong and original enough to initi-
ues all persons.* [10]
5.3. CULTURAL ACTIVITIES 29
5.1.2 Erich Fromm faithful to the artist's self, rather than conforming to exter-
nal values such as historical tradition, or commercial worth.
A very dierent denition of authenticity was proposed by A common denition ofauthenticityin psychology refers
Erich Fromm* [11] in the mid-1900s. He considered be- to the attempt to live one's life according to the needs of
havior of any kind, even that wholly in accord with soci- one's inner being, rather than the demands of society or
etal mores, to be authentic if it results from personal under- one's early conditioning.* [14]* [15]* [16]
standing and approval of its drives and origins, rather than In the twentieth century, Anglo-American discussions of
merely from conformity with the received wisdom of the authenticity often center around the writings of a few key
society. Thus a Frommean authentic may behave consis- gures associated with existentialist philosophy, where the
tently in a manner that accords with cultural norms, for the term originated; because most of these writers wrote in lan-
reason that those norms appear on consideration to be ap- guages other than English, the process of translating and an-
propriate, rather than simply in the interest of conforming thologizing has had a strong impact on the debate. Walter
with current norms. Fromm thus considers authenticity to Kaufmann might be credited with creating acanonof ex-
be a positive outcome of enlightened and informed moti- istentialist writers which include Sren Kierkegaard, Martin
vation rather than a negative outcome of rejection of the Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre. For these writers, the
expectations of others. He described the latter condition conscious self is seen as coming to terms with being in a
the drive primarily to escape external restraints typied by material world and with encountering external forces and
the absolute freedomof Sartre as the illusion of in- inuences which are very dierent from itself; authenticity
dividuality,* [12] as opposed to the genuine individuality is one way in which the self acts and changes in response to
that results from authentic living. these pressures.
5.1.3 Other perspectives

5.3 Cultural activities
Those who advocate social reform value the study of au-
thenticity since it can provide a radical manifesto and an Due to dierent groups' and individual's dierent expe-
overview of the shortcomings of social structures. Michael riences, views of authenticity regarding cultural activities
Kernis and Brian Goldman dened authenticity as the vary widely and often dier between groups and individ-
unimpeded operation of one's true or core self in one's daily uals.* [17] For Sartre, jazz music was a representation of
enterprise.* [13] freedom; this may have been in part because jazz was as-
sociated with African American culture, and was thus in
While authenticity may be a goal intrinsic to the good opposition to Western culture generally, which Sartre con-
life,it is often a dicult state to actually achieve, due in sidered hopelessly inauthentic. Theodor Adorno, however,
part to social pressures to live inauthentically and in part to another writer and philosopher concerned with the notion of
a person's own character. It is also described as a revelatory authenticity, despised jazz music because he saw it as a false
state, where one perceives oneself, other people, and some- representation that could give the appearance of authentic-
times even things, in a radically new way. Some writers ar- ity but that was as much bound up in concerns with appear-
gue that authenticity also requires self-knowledge, and that ance and audience as many other forms of art. Heidegger in
it alters a person's relationships with other people. Authen- his later life associated authenticity with non-technological
ticity also carries with it its own set of moral obligations, modes of existence, seeing technology as distorting a more
which often exist regardless of race, gender and class. The authenticrelationship with the natural world.
notion of authenticity also ts into utopian ideology, which
requires authenticity among its citizens to exist, or which Some writers on authenticity in the twentieth century con-
claims that such a condition would remove physical and eco- sidered the predominant cultural norms to be inauthentic;
nomic barriers to pursuing authenticity. not only because they were seen as forced on people, but
also because, in themselves, they required people to be-
have inauthentically towards their own desires, obscuring
true reasons for acting. Advertising, in as much as it at-
5.2 History tempted to give people a reason for doing something that
they did not already possess, was a textbookexample
Secular and religious notions of authenticity have coexisted of how Western culture distorted the individual for external
for centuries under dierent guises; perhaps the earliest ac- reasons. Race relations are seen as another limit on authen-
count of authenticity that remains popular is Socrates' ad- ticity, as they demand that the self engage with others on the
monition thatthe unexamined life is not worth living. In basis of external attributes. An early example of the con-
aesthetics, "authenticity" describes the perception of art as nection between inauthenticity and capitalism was made by
30 CHAPTER 5. AUTHENTICITY (PHILOSOPHY)
Karl Marx, whose notion of "alienation" can be linked to 5.3.1 In music

the later discourse on the nature of inauthenticity.
See also: Rockism and Punk ideologies
The concept of authenticity is often raised in the punk rock

and heavy metal musical subcultures, in which people or
bands are criticized for their purported lack of authenticity
by being labeled with the epithet "poseur".* [3] Poseur
is used to refer to a person (or band) who copies the dress,
speech, and/or mannerisms of a group or subculture, gen-
erally for attaining acceptability within the group, yet who
is deemed not to share or understand the values or philos-
ophy of the subculture. The code of authenticity, which
is central to the heavy metal subculture, is demonstrated
in many ways, such as through clothing, the use of an
emotional singing voice and having serious themes in the
songs.* [18] In metal, one study of how fans sought out au-
thenticity within the metal scene noted three elements to
authenticity: long-term dedication to the scene; knowing
key events of metal culture; and making the right choices
based on one's authentic inner voice.* [19] In Black metal,
an extreme metal genre, sincerity, authenticity and extrem-
ity are valued above all else.* [20] In the metal and hard-
core punk subcultures, a band that began from a working
class milieu that later signs to a major record label for a lu-
crative recording contract may be deemed to have "sold out"
and lost their authenticity. In addition to the focus on au-
thenticity in "...punk, house, grunge, garage, and hip-hop,
ideas of authenticity have seeped into even such transpar-
ently inauthentic genres as...techno (Moby) and show-
tunes (Rent).* [4]
5.4 See also

The punk subculture classies members as poseursif they are Akrasia
deemed to not understand or respect the subculture's values.
Alessandro Ferrara
Individuals concerned with living authentically have often Authentic self

led unusual lives that opposed cultural norms; the rise of Individuation
the counter-culture in the 1960s in Europe and America
was seen by many as a new opportunity to live an authen- Invented tradition
tic existence. Many, however, have pointed out that anti-
authoritarianism and eccentricity does not necessarily con- Integrity
stitute an authentic state of being. The connection of the vi- Persona (psychology)
olation of cultural norms to authenticity, however, is strong
and real, and continues today: among artists who explic-
itly violate the conventions of their profession, for exam-
ple. The connection of inauthenticity to capitalism is con-
5.5 References
tained in the notion of "selling out,used to describe an
[1] Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Music That Lives It:
artist whose work has become inauthentic after achieving
The Doors, Pink Floyd and...Drake? : Buzz : Music Times
commercial success and thus becoming to an extent inte-
grated into an inauthentic system. [2] Authenticity (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
5.6. FURTHER READING 31
[3] Homeward Bound. Towards a Post-Gendered Pop Music: 5.6 Further reading
Television Personalities' My Dark Places. Archived from
the original on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2012-07-30. My Erich Fromm. Escape from Freedom; Routledge &
Dark Places April 10th, 2006 by Godfre Leung (Domino,
Kegan Paul 1942
2006).
Lionel Trilling. Sincerity and Authenticity; ISBN 0-19-
[4] Barker, Hugh and Taylor, Yuval. Faking it: the Quest for
281166-5; Harvard UP 1974
Authenticity in Popular Music. W.W.Norton and Co., New
York, 2007. Charles Taylor. The Ethics of Authenticity; ISBN 0-
674-26863-6; Harvard UP 1992
[5] Golomb, Jacob (1995). In Search of Authenticity. London
and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-11946-4. Alessandro Ferrara. Reective Authenticity; ISBN 0-
415-13062-X; Routledge 1998
[6] Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to
Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice James Leonard Park. Becoming More Authentic: The
Hall. ISBN 0-13-158591-6.
Positive Side of Existentialism; ISBN 978-0-89231-
[7] Kristoer Holt, Authentic Journalism? A Critical Dis- 105-7; Existential Books 20075th edition
cussion about Existential Authenticity in Journalism Ethics,
Achim Saupe. Authenticity, Version: 3, in: Docupedia
Journal of Mass Media Ethics 27 (2012)
Zeitgeschichte, 12. April 2016; DOI
[8] Nietzsche, F.W., & Zimmern, H. (1997). Beyond good and
evil: Prelude to a philosophy of the future. Mineola, NY:
Dover.
[9] Merril, J.C. (1995). Existential Journalism (rev. ed.) Ames,

IA: Iowa State University Press.
[10] Golomb, Jacob (1995). In Search of Authenticity: From

Kierkegaard to Camus. London: Routledge.
[11] Fromm. E., Escape from Freedom, Farrar & Rinehart 1941
(also published asFear of FreedomRoutledge UK 1942)
[12] Fromm E., Fear of Freedom, ch. 7
[13] Wright, Karen (May 01, 2008). Dare to be yourself.

Psychology Today.
[14] Wood, A. M., Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Baliousis, M.,

Joseph, S. (2008) The authentic personality: A theoretical
and empirical conceptualization, and the development of the
Authenticity Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology 55
(3): 385399. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.55.3.385
[15] Authentic life. Psychology Centre Athabasca University.
[16] Existential Psychology. Eastern Illinois University.

Archived June 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
[17] AJ Giannini (2010). Semiotic and semantic implications

ofauthenticity"". Psychological Reports 106 (2): 611612.
[18] Weinstein, Deena. Heavy Metal:The Music and its Subcul-

ture.Da Capo Press, 2009. p. 46
[19] Larsson, Susanna.I Bang My Head, Therefore I Am: Con-

structing Individual and Social Authenticity in the Heavy
Metal Subculturein Young. 21 (1). 2013. p. 95-110
[20] Olson 2008, p. 47.

Chapter 6
Other
For other uses, see Other (disambiguation). (body) of a human being; it is the relation of essential and
In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Con- supercial characteristics of personal identity that corre-
sponds to the relation between opposite, but corresponding,
characteristics of the Self, because the dierence is inner-
dierence, within the Self.* [3]* [4]
The condition and quality of Otherness, the characteris-
tics of the Other, is the state of being dierent from and
alien to the social identity of a person and to the identity of
the Self.* [5] In the discourse of philosophy, the term Oth-
erness identies and refers to the characteristics of Who?
and What? of the Other, which are distinct and separate
from the Symbolic order of things; from the Real (the au-
thentic and unchangeable); from the sthetic (art, beauty,
taste); from political philosophy; from social norms and
social identity; and from the Self. Therefore, the condi-
tion of Otherness is a person's non-conformity to and with
the social norms of society; and Otherness is the condi-
tion of disenfranchisement (political exclusion), eected
either by the State or by the social institutions (e.g. the
professions) invested with the corresponding socio-political
power. Therefore, the imposition of Otherness alienates the
labelled person from the centre of society, and places him
or her at the margins of society, for being the Other.* [6]
The term Othering describes the reductive action of la-
belling a person as someone who belongs to a subordinate
social category dened as the Other. The practice of Other-
ing is the exclusion of persons who do not t the norm of the
social group, which is a version of the Self.* [7] Likewise,
in the eld of human geography, the action term to Other
identies and excludes a person from the social group, plac-
The founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl, identied the
ing him or her at the margins of society, where the social
Other as one of the conceptual bases of intersubjectivity, of the re-
lations among people.
norms do not apply to and for the person labelled as the
Other.* [8]
stitutive Other identify the other human being, in his and
her dierences from the Self, as being a cumulative, con-
stituting factor in the self-image of a person; as his or
her acknowledgement of being real; hence, the Other is
dissimilar to and the opposite of the Self, of Us, and of 6.1 History
the Same.* [1]* [2] The Constitutive Other is the relation
between the personality (essential nature) and the person
32
6.1. HISTORY 33
The idealist philosopher G. F. W. Hegel introduced the concept of

the Other as constituent part of human preoccupation with the Self.
The ethical philosopher Emmanuel Lvinas associated the concept

6.1.1 Philosophy of the Other with the ethical systems proposed in scripture and tra-
dition.
The concept of the Self requires the existence of the Other
as the counterpart entity required for dening the Self;
in the late 18th century, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to the existence of the Self. In that mode, in The Second
(17701831) introduced the concept of the Other as a con- Sex (1949), Simone de Beauvoir (19081986) applied the
stituent part of self-consciousness (preoccupation with the concept of Otherness to Hegel's dialectic of the "Lord and
Self),* [9] which complements the propositions about self- Bondsman" (Herrschaft und Knechtschaft) and found it to
awareness (capacity for introspection) proered by Johann be like the dialectic of the ManWoman relationship, thus
Gottlieb Fichte (17621814).* [10] See: The Phenomenol- a true explanation for society's treatment and mistreatment
ogy of Spirit (1807) of women.
Edmund Husserl (18591938) applied the concept of the
Other as a basis for intersubjectivity, the psychological rela-
tions among people. In Cartesian Meditations: An Introduc- 6.1.2 Psychology
tion to Phenomenology (1931), Husserl said that the Other
is constituted as an alter ego, as an other self. As such, the The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (19011981) and the
Other person posed and was an epistemological problem Ethical philosopher Emmanuel Lvinas (19061995) es-
of being only a perception of the consciousness of the tablished the contemporary denitions, usages, and appli-
Self.* [11] cations of the Other, as the radical counterpart of the Self.
In Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Lacan associated the Other with language and with the sym-
Ontology (1943), Jean-Paul Sartre (19051980) applied the bolic order of things. Lvinas associated the Other with the
dialectic of intersubjectivity to describe how the world is ethical metaphysics of scripture and tradition; the ethical
altered by the appearance of the Other, of how the world proposition is that the Other is superior and prior to the Self.
then appears to be oriented to the Other person, and not to In the event, Lvinas re-formulated the face-to-face en-
the Self. The Other appears as a psychological phenomenon counter (wherein a person is responsible to the Other per-
in the course of a person's life, and not as a radical threat son) to include the propositions of Jacques Derrida (1930
34 CHAPTER 6. OTHER
2004) about the impossibility of the Other (person) be-

ing an entirely metaphysical pure-presence. That the Other
could be an entity of pure Otherness (of alterity) personi-
ed in a representation created and depicted with language 6.1.4 Critical theory
that identies, describes, and classies. The conceptual re-
formulation of the nature of the Other also included Lv- Derrida proposed that the absolute alterity of the Other
inas's analysis of the distinction between "the saying and is compromised because the Other is other than the Self
the said"; nonetheless, the nature of the Other retained the and the group. That logical problem has especially nega-
priority of ethics over metaphysics. tive consequences in the realm of human geography when
In the psychology of the mind (e.g. R. D. Laing), the Other the Other person is denied ethical priority in geopolitical
identies and refers to the unconscious mind, to silence, to discourse. Hence, the use of the language of Otherness
insanity, and to language (to what is referred and to what in the anthropological discourse (Oriental Studies) about
is unsaid).* [12] Nonetheless, in such psychologic and an- Western encounters with nonWestern cultures preserves
alytic usages, there might arise a tendency to relativism if the dominantordominated discourse of hegemony, just as
the Other person (as a being of pure, abstract alterity) leads misrepresenting the feminine as Other reasserts male priv-
to ignoring the commonality of truth. Likewise, problems ilege as primary in social discourse.* [1]
arise from unethical usages of the terms The Other, Oth- In The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq
erness, and Othering to reinforce ontological divisions of (2004), the geographer Derek Gregory said that the re-
reality: of being, of becoming, and of existence.* [11] sponses of U.S. President George W. Bush (20012009) to
the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 reinforced philo-
sophic divisions of connotation and denotation that perpet-
6.1.3 Ethics uated the negative representation of the non-Western Other,
when he rhetorically asked the U.S. populace Why do they
In Totality and Innity: An Essay on Exteriority (1961) Em- hate us? as political prelude to the War on Terror.* [14]
manuel Lvinas said that previous philosophy had reduced
President Bush's rhetorical question led the U.S. populace
the Other person to an object of consciousness, by not pre-
to make an articial, Us-and-Them division in the relations
serving its absolute alteritythe innate condition of other-
between the U.S. and the countries and cultures of the Mid-
ness, by which the Other radically transcends the Self and
dle East, which artice is a basic factor of the perpetual war
the totality of the human network into which the Other is
on terrorism, and is a step away from eradicating the imag-
being placed. As a challenge to self-assurance, the exis-
inary representations of the Self and the Other created with
tence of the Other is a matter of ethics, because the ethical
the Orientalist geographies produced by Oriental Studies;
priority of the Other equals the primacy of ethics over on-
* about which the cultural critic Edward Sad said that:
tology in real life. [11]
From that perspective, Lvinas described the nature of the
Other as insomnia and wakefulness"; an ecstasy (an exte- To build a conceptual framework around
riority) towards the Other that forever remains beyond any a notion of Us-versus-Them is, in eect, to
attempt at fully capturing the Other, whose Otherness is in- pretend that the principal consideration is
nite; even in the murder of an Other, his or her Otherness epistemological and natural our civilization
remains uncontrolled and not negated. The innity of the is known and accepted, theirs is dierent and
Other allowed Lvinas to derive other aspects of philosophy strangewhereas, in fact, the framework sepa-
and science as secondary to that ethic; thus: rating us from them is belligerent, constructed,
and situational.
The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine
The others that obsess me in the Other do not and Iraq (2004), p. 24.* [15]
aect me as examples of the same genus united
with my neighbor, by resemblance or common
nature, individuations of the human race, or
chips o the old block ... The others concern
me from the rst. Here, fraternity precedes 6.2 Imperialism and colonialism
the commonness of a genus. My relationship
with the Other as neighbor gives meaning to my The contemporary, world system of post-colonial, nation-
relations with all the others. states (with interdependent politics and economies) was
Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence preceded by the European imperial system of colonies (set-
(1974), p. 159.* [13] tler and economic) in whichthe creation and maintenance
6.2. IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM 35
of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relation- pseudo-intellectual belief that the size of the cranium of the
ship, usually between states, and often in the form of an em- nonEuropean Other was indicative of the inferior intelli-
pire, [was] based on domination and subordination.* [16] gence of the coloured peoples designated as the nonwhite
In the imperialist world system, political and economic af- Other.* [20]
fairs were fragmented, and the discrete empiresprovided In 1951, the United Nations ocially declared that the dif-
for most of their own needs ... [and disseminated] their ferences among the races were insignicant in relation to
inuence solely through conquest [empire] or the threat of the anthropological sameness among the peoples who are
conquest [hegemony].* [17] the human race. Despite the facts, in the U.S., the articial
distinctions against the Other remain, especially in govern-
6.2.1 Orientalism ment forms that ask a U.S. citizen to identify and place him
or herself into a racial category, as in the questionnaires of
The imperial conquest of nonwhitecountries was in- the census bureau.* [20] In practice of Othering, immigrants
tellectually justied with the fetishization of the Eastern and refugees endure the experience of socio-political reduc-
world, which was eected with cultural generalizations tionism with the artice of racial classication, as implied
that divided the peoples of the world into the articial, in the terms such as illegal immigrant(from overseas)
binary-relationship of The Eastern World and The West- and illegal alien(for Mexicans) in the U.S.* [20]
ern World, the dichotomy which identied, designated,
and subordinated the peoples of the Orient as the Other
as the nonEuropean Self.* [18] The process of fetishization 6.2.3 The subaltern native
of people and things is a function of Orientalism, which the
colonialist ideologue realises with three actions: (i) Homog- Maintaining an empire requires the cultural subordination
enization (all Oriental peoples are the same folk); (ii) Fem- of the Other into the subaltern native (the colonized peo-
inization (Oriental people are the lessers in the EastWest ple), which facilitates the exploitation of their labour, of
binary relationship); and (iii) Essentialization (a people re- their lands, and of the natural resources of their country as a
duced to the articial essence of universal, innate character- colony of the motherland. To realise those ends, the process
istics); thus, the praxis of Othering reduced to cultural infe- of Othering culturally justies the domination and subordi-
riority the people, places, and things of the Eastern world, nation of the native people, by placing them (as the Other)
which then justied colonialism by establishing the West as at the social periphery of the geopolitical enterprise that is
the superior standard of culture.* [18]* [19] colonial imperialism. The colonizer creates the Other with
a false dichotomy of native weakness(social and politi-
cal, cultural and economic) against the colonial strength
6.2.2 Race of imperial power, which can be resolved only with the
noblesse oblige of racialism the moral responsibility
that psychologically authorizes the colonialist Self to unilat-
erally assume a civilizing mission to educate, convert, and
culturally assimilate the Other into the empire.* [21]
In the praxis of colonialism, the native populace constitute
the Other whom the colonizers mean to dominate in order
to civilise and save them in the course of exploiting the nat-
ural and human resources of the natives' homeland.* [22]
As such, a colony is a way to dominate and dispose of two
groups of people (colonists and colonised) who can be used
to dene the Other.* [23] The practice of Othering estab-
Scientic racism of the Other: In the late-19th century, H. Strick- lishes the unequal relationship between the native people
land Constable justied anti-Irish racism among white people by and the colonizers, who believe themselves essentially su-
claiming similarity between the cranial features of the Irish- perior to the natives whom they reduced to inhuman inferi-
Iberianman (left) and the Negroman (right), as proof that ority, asthe Other.* [24] The dehumanisation of colonial-
each man is racially inferior to the Anglo-Teutonic man (centre) ismthe colonistSelfagainst the colonisedOther
possessed of the cranial ideal. is maintained with the false binary-relations of social class
and race, of sex and gender, and of nation and religion.* [22]
The practice of Othering was the prevalent cultural per- The proper, protable functioning of a colony features con-
spective of the European imperial powers, which was sup- tinual protection of such cultural demarcations, which es-
ported by the fabrications of scientic racism, such as the tablish and enforce the socio-economic binary relation be-
36 CHAPTER 6. OTHER
tween civilized man(the colonist) and savage man lives, the majority of women interviewed, at a university-
(the colonial subaltern).* [24] class reunion, used binary gender language, and referred to
and identied themselves as their roles (wife, mother, man-
ager) in the private sphere. They did not identify their own
6.3 Sex and gender achievements (career, job, business) in the public sphere
of life. Unawares, the women had conventionally automati-
cally identied themselves as the social Other. Although the
nature of the social Other is inuenced by the society's so-
cial constructs (social class, sex, gender), as a human organ-
isation, society holds the power (social and political) to for-
mally change the social relation between the male-dened
Self and Woman, the non-male Other.* [26] See: The Fem-
inine Mystique (1963)
The feminist philosopher Cheshire Calhoun deconstructed
the concept of the Otheras the female-half of the
binary-gender relation of the Man and Womancon-
cept. Deconstruction of the word Woman from subor-
dinate in the Man and Womanrelationconceptually
reconstructed the female Other as the Woman who exists
independently of male denition (rationalisation); indepen-
dent of the patriarchy who formally realise female subordi-
nation with binary-gender usages of the word Woman.* [27]
The existential philosopher Simone de Beauvoir applied the con-

cept of The Other to the manwoman binary relation, in critical of
the dominatordominated relation, which historically characterised
sexual inequality.
The existential philosopher Simone de Beauvoir applied

Hegel's conception of the Other(as a constituent part
of self-consciousness) to describe a male-dominated culture
that represents Woman as the sexual Other in relation to
Man. In the cultural context of the ManWoman binary
relation, the sexual Other is a minority, the least-favoured
social group, usually the women of the community, because
a man represents both the positive and the neutral, as in-
dicated by the common use of [the word] Man to designate In Feminism is Humanism. So Why the Debate?" (2012), Prof.
human beings in general; whereas [the word] Woman repre- Sarojini Sahoo said that despite equality with men, women possess a
sents only the negative, dened by limiting criteria, without discrete identity that is independent of the male denition of woman.
reciprocityfrom the rst sex, from Man.* [25] See: The
Second Sex (1949) In the essay Feminism is Humanism. So Why the De-
In 1957, Betty Friedan substantiated the ordinate bate?" (2012), the academic Sarojini Sahoo, agrees with De
subordinate nature of the ManWoman sexual relation as Beauvoir's proposition that women can be free of social sub-
social identity. When queried about their post-graduate ordination by thinking, taking action, working, creating,
6.4. KNOWLEDGE 37
on the same terms as men; instead of seeking to disparage In the 19th-century historiographies of the Orient as a place,
them, she declares herself their equal.Yet counters De European Orientalists studied only what they argued was
Beauvoir that despite having the same human-being status the high culturethe languages and literatures, the arts and
as men, women have a unique sexual identity dierent from philologiesof the Middle East as a cultural region, rather
men. In feminist denition, Women are the Other (but not than as a geopolitical place inhabited by dierent peoples
the Hegelian Other) and are not existentially dened by the and societies.* [33] About such cultural misrepresentation,
demands of Man. Women are the social Other who un- Sad said thatthe Orient that appears in Orientalism, then,
knowingly accept subjugation as part of subjectivity.* [28] is a system of representations framed by a whole set of
Whilst the identity of woman is constitutionally dierent forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, West-
from the identity of man, as human beings, men and women ern consciousness, and later, Western empire. If this def-
are equal. Hence, the harm of Othering arises from the inition of Orientalism seems more political than not, that
asymmetric nature of sex and gender roles, which arises ac- is simply because I think Orientalism was, itself, a product
cidentally and passivelyfrom natural and unavoidable of certain political forces and activities. Orientalism is a
intersubjectivity.* [29] school of interpretation whose material happens to be the
Orient, its civilisations, peoples, and localities. Its objec-
The social-exclusion function of Othering a person or a so-
cial group from society, for being dierent from the norm tive discoveriesthe work of innumerable devoted schol-
(of the Self), is understood in the socio-economic func- ars who edited texts and translated them, codied gram-
tions of gender (a social construct) and sex (biological real- mars, wrote dictionaries, reconstructed dead epochs, pro-
ity). In a society where heterosexuality is the social norm, duced positivistically veriable learning are and always
the Otherrefers to and identies the same-sex orienta- have been conditioned by the fact that its truths, like any
tion, lesbians (women who love women) and gays (men who truths delivered by language, are embodied in language,
love men), people identied as deviantfrom the binary and, what is the truth of language?, Nietzsche once said,
socio-sexual norm.* [30] Negative usages of the Other but":
are applied to the lesbian and gay, bisexual, and transgen-
der (LGBT) communities to diminish their social status and A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms,
political power by social Othering to the margins of society. and anthropomorphisms in short, a sum of
To neutralise Othering, LGBT communities queer a city, human relations, which have been enhanced,
create social spaces, that use the city's spatial and tempo- transposed, and embellished poetically and
ral plans to allow the LGBT community free expression of rhetorically, and which, after long use, seem
social identity (i.e. a gay-pride parade); as such, queering rm, canonical, and obligatory to a people:
is a political means for the sexual Other to establish their truths are illusions about which one has forgotten
reality as part of the urban body politic.* [31] that this is what they are.
Orientalism (1978) pp. 202203.* [34]* :202
6.4 Knowledge
Sad concludes that Nietzsche's perspective might be too
nihilistic, but that it draws attention to the fact that, in so far
6.4.1 Representations asthe Orientoccurred in the existential awareness of the
Western world, the Orient was a word that later accrued to
Regarding the production of knowledge about the Other, it a wide eld of meanings, associations, and connotations,
Michel Foucault and the Frankfurt School identied the which did not refer to the real Eastern world, but to the eld
process of Othering as everything to do with the cre- of study surrounding the Orientas a word.* [35]
ation and maintenance of imaginary representations
"knowledge of the Otherin service to geopolitical
power and domination. The representations of the Other 6.4.2 The Academy
(metaphoric, metonymic, anthropomorphic) are manifes-
tations of the Western cultural attitudes inherent to the In the Eastern world, the eld of Occidentalism, the inves-
European historiographies of the nonEuropean peoples tigation programme and academic curriculum of and about
labelled as the Other. Using analytical discourses the essence of The Westi.e. geographic Europe as a cul-
(academic and commercial, geopolitical and military) the turally homogenous placedid not exist as a counterpart
dominant ideology of the colonialist culture explains the to Orientalism.* [36] Moreover, in the Orientalist practices
Eastern world to the Western world, using the binary of historical negationism, the writing of distorted history
relationship of the European Self confronting the non about the places and peoples of The Eastcontinue in
European Other from overseas.* [32] the postmodern era, especially in contemporary journal-
38 CHAPTER 6. OTHER
ism; e.g. in the Third World, political parties practice intra-

phenomenological and ontological progress for Man and so-
national Othering with fabricated facts, such as threat- ciety. Public knowledge of the social identity of peoples
reports about non-existent threats (political, social, mili-classied as Outsidersis de facto acknowledgement of
their being real, and so they are part of the body politic,
tary) that are meant to aggravate the character faults of the
opponent political parties, which usually are composed of especially in the cities. As such, the post-modern city
people from the social and ethnic groups identied and des- is a geographical celebration of dierence that moves sites
ignated as the Other in that society.* [37] once conceived of as 'marginal' to the [social] centre of dis-
The process of Othering a person or a social group, by cussion and analysisof the human relations between the
Outsiders and the Establishment.* [30]
means of an ideal ethnocentricity (belief that one's ethnic
group is the superior group), and the cultural tendency to
evaluate and assign meaning to Other ethnicities, which are
negatively measured against the ideal standard of the Self 6.5 See also
is realised through mundane methods of investigation, such
as cartography.* [38]* :179 L'preuve de l'tranger
Historically, the drawing of maps emphasised and bolstered Orientalism (1978), by Edward Sad
specic lands and the associated national-identities, the nat-
ural resources and cultures of the native inhabitants. In Otherness of childhood
early cartography, the distortion (proportionate, proximate,
and commercial) of actual places and true distances estab- Allosemitism
lished the Western cartographer's homeland as the centre of Allophilia
the mapamundi; thus British cartographers centred Britain
in their maps, and drew the British islands proportionally Xenocentrism
larger than the true geography might allow. In contempo-
rary cartography, polar-perspective maps of the northern Exoticism
hemisphere, drawn by American cartographers, distort real
Social alienation
geographic spatial relations (distance, size, mass) of and be-
tween the U.S. and Russia, to emphasise American superi-
ority (military, cultural, geopolitical) and the inferiority of Sexual dierence
the Russian Other.* [38]* :10
Judith Butler
Julia Kristeva
6.4.3 Practical perspectives
Luce Irigaray
In Key Concepts in Political Geography (2009), Alison Sarojini Sahoo
Mountz proposed concrete denitions of the Other as a
philosophic concept and term within the eld of phe-
nomenology; when used as a noun, the Other identies and
refers to a person and to a group of persons; when used as 6.6 References
a verb, the Other identies and refers to a category and a
label for persons and things. [1] The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (1995) p. 637.
Post-colonial scholarship demonstrated that, in pursuit of [2]The Other, The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern
empire, the colonizing powers narrated an 'Other' whom Thought, Third Edition, (1999) p. 620.
they set out to save, dominate, control, [and] civilize ...
[3] Hegel, G. W. F.; Miller, A. V. (1977). Homeister, J., ed.
[in order to] extract resources through colonizationof the Force and the Understanding: Appearance and the Supersen-
homeland of the people labelled as the Other.* [30] As fa- sible World: Phenomenology of Spirit (5th ed.). New York:
cilitated by Orientalist representations of the nonWestern Oxford University Press. pp. 989. The relation of essential
Other, colonisationthe economic exploitation of a people nature to outward manifestation in pure change ... to innity
and their landis misrepresented as being for the material, ... as inner dierence ... [is within] its own Self.
spiritual, and cultural benet of the colonised peoples.
[4] Findlay, J. N.; Hegel, G. W. F.; Miller, A. V. (1977).
Counter to the post-colonial perspective of the Other as Homeister, J., ed. Analysis of the Text: Phenomenology
part of a DominatorDominated binary relationship, post- of Spirit (5 ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp.
modern philosophy presents the Other and Otherness as 51718.
6.7. SOURCES 39
[5] Miller, J. (2008). Otherness. The SAGE en- [27] McCann, p. 339.
cyclopedia of qualitative research methods. Thousand
Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 588591. [28] Feminism is Humanism. So Why the Debate?"
doi:10.4135/9781412963909.n304. Retrieved 27 January
[29] Jemmer, Patrick. The O(the)r (O)the(r), Engage Newcas-
2015.
tle Volume 1 (ISSN 2045-0567; ISBN 978-1-907926-00-6)
[6]Otherness, The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern August 2010, Newcastle UK: NewPhilSoc Publishing, p. 7.
Thought, Third Edition (1999), p. 620.
[30] Gallagher, Carolyn, Dahlman, Carl T, Gilmartin, Mary,
[7]Othering, The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Mountz, Alison, Shirlow, Peter. Key Concepts in Political
Thought, Third Edition (1999), p. 620. Geography. SAGE Publications Ltd, 2009.
[8] Mountz, Allison. The Other. Key Concepts in Human [31] Mountz, Allison. The Other. Key Concepts in Human
Geography: 328. Geography: 335.
[9] The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967) Vol. 1, p. 76. [32] Rieder, John. Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fic-
tion (2008) p. 76.
[10] The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967) Vol. 8, p. 186.
[33] Rieder, John. Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fic-
[11] The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (1995) p. 637. tion (2008) p. 71.
[12] The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (1999 )p. [34] Sad, Edward W. Orientalism, 25th Anniversary Ed. New
620. York: Pantheon Books, 1978.
[13] Lvinas, Emmanuel. Otherwise than Being or Beyond [35] Orientalism (1978) pp. 202203.
Essence, p. 159
[36] Humphreys, Steven R. The Historiography of the Mod-
[14] The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq ern Middle East: Transforming a Field of Study, Middle
(2004), p. 21. East Historiographies: Narrating the Twentieth Century, Is-
rael Gershoni, Amy Singer, Y. Hakam Erdem, Eds. Seattle:
[15] Gregory, Derek. The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Pales- University of Washington Press, 2006. pp. 1921.
tine and Iraq (2004), p. 24.
[37] Sehgal, Meera.Manufacturing a Feminized Siege Mental-
[16] Johnston, R.J., et al., The Dictionary of Human Geography, ity.Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 36 (2) (2007):
4th Edition Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2000. p. 375. p. 173.
[17] Gelvin, James L. The Modern Middle East: A History, 2nd [38] Fellmann, Jerome D., et al. Human Geography: Landscapes
ed. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. pp. of Human Activities, 10th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill,
3940. 2008.
[18] Mountz, Alison (27 January 2016). The Other. Key

Concepts in Political Geography.
6.7 Sources
[19] Said, Edward (1978). Orientalism. New York: Patheon
Books. Thomas, Calvin, ed. (2000). Introduction: Identi-
[20] Mountz, Alison (2009). The Other. Key Concepts in
cation, Appropriation, Proliferation, Straight with a
Political Geography: 332. Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of Heterosexual-
ity. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06813-0.
[21] Rieder, John. Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fic-
tion (2008) pp. 7677. Cahoone, Lawrence (1996). From Modernism to Post-
modernism: An Anthology. Cambridge, Mass.: Black-
[22] Mountz, A. (n.d.). The Other. Key Concepts in Political well.
Geography, pp. 328338. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
Colwill, Elizabeth. (2005). Reader Wmnst 590:
[23] http://wikiwash.metronews.ca/other/ Feminist Thought. KB Books.
703349669-703223196
Haslanger, Sally. Feminism and Metaphysics: Un-
[24] Colonialism. (n.d.). Dictionary of Human Geography, pp.
masking Hidden Ontologies. 28 November 2005.
9498. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
[25] McCann, p. 33.

McCann, Carole. Kim, Seung-Kyung. (2003). Fem-
inist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives.
[26] Haslanger Routledge. New York, NY.
40 CHAPTER 6. OTHER
Rimbaud, Arthur (1966). Letter to Georges Izam- Butler, Judith (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the Dis-
bard, Complete Works and Selected Letters. Trans. cursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge.
Wallace Fowlie. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press. Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2006), "'Etymythological
Othering' and the Power of 'Lexical Engineering'
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1974). The Gay Science. Trans. in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. A Socio-
Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage. Philo(sopho)logical Perspective, Explorations in the
Sociology of Language and Religion, edited by Tope
Saussure, Ferdinand de (1986). Course in General Lin- Omoniyi and Joshua A. Fishman, Amsterdam: John
guistics. Eds. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye. Benjamins, pp. 237258.
Trans. Roy Harris. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court.
Lacan, Jacques (1977). crits: A Selection. Trans.

Alan Sheridan. New York: Norton. 6.9 External links
Althusser, Louis (1973). Lenin and Philosophy and Denitions of Other/Othering
Other Essays. Trans. Ben Brewster. New York:
Monthly Review Press. The Centre for Studies in Otherness
Warner, Michael (1990). Homo-Narcissism; or,

Heterosexuality, Engendering Men, p. 191. Eds.
Boone and Cadden, London UK: Routledge.
Tuttle, Howard (1996). The Crowd is Untruth, Peter

Lang Publishing, ISBN 0-8204-2866-3
6.8 Further reading

Levinas, Emmanuel (1974). Autrement qu'tre ou au-
del de l'essence. (Otherwise than Being or Beyond
Essence).
Levinas, Emmanuel (1972). Humanism de l'autre

homme. Fata Morgana.
Lacan, Jacques (1966). Ecrits. London: Tavistock,

1977.
Lacan, Jacques (1964). The Four Fondamental Con-

cepts of Psycho-analysis. London: Hogarth Press,
1977.
Foucault, Michel (1990). The History of Sexuality vol.

1: An Introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York:
Vintage.
Derrida, Jacques (1973). Speech and Phenomena and

Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs. Trans.
David B. Allison. Evanston: Ill.: Northwestern Uni-
versity Press.
Kristeva, Julia (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay

on Abjection. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York:
Columbia University Press.
Butler, Judith (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and

the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Chapter 7
Angst
For other uses, see Angst (disambiguation). while Angst is a non-directional and unmotivated emotion.
In common language, however, Angst is the normal word
for fear, while Furcht is an elevated synonym.* [4]
In other languages having the meaning of the Latin word pa-
vor for fear, the derived words dier in meaning, e.g.
as in the French anxit and peur. The word Angst has ex-
isted since the 8th century, from the Proto-Indo-European
root *anghu-, restraintfrom which Old High German
angust developed.* [5] It is pre-cognate with the Latin an-
gustia,tensity, tightnessand angor,choking, clogging";
compare to the Ancient Greek (ankho) strangle.
7.1 Existentialism
In Existentialist philosophy the term angst carries a spe-
cic conceptual meaning. The use of the term was rst
attributed to Danish philosopher Sren Kierkegaard (1813
1855). In The Concept of Anxiety (also known as The Con-
cept of Dread, depending on the translation), Kierkegaard
used the word Angest (in common Danish, angst, mean-
ing dreador anxiety) to describe a profound and
deep-seated condition. Where animals are guided solely by
instinct, said Kierkegaard, human beings enjoy a freedom
of choice that we nd both appealing and terrifying.* [5]* [6]
Kierkegaard's concept of angst reappeared in the works of
Edvard Munch tried to represent an innite scream passing
through naturein The Scream (1893). existentialist philosophers who followed, such as Friedrich
Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger, each of
Angst means fear or anxiety (anguish is its Latinate whom developed the idea further in individual ways. While
equivalent, and anxious, anxiety are of similar origin). The Kierkegaard's angst referred mainly to ambiguous feelings
word angst was introduced into English from the Danish, about moral freedom within a religious personal belief sys-
Norwegian and Dutch word angst and the German word tem, later existentialists discussed conicts of personal prin-
Angst. It is attested since the 19th century in English trans- ciples, cultural norms, and existential despair.
lations of the works of Kierkegaard and Freud.* [1]* [2]* [3]
It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of appre-
hension, anxiety, or inner turmoil. 7.2 Music
In German, the technical terminology of psychology and
philosophy distinguishes between Angst and Furcht in that Existential angst makes its appearance in classical musical
Furcht is a negative anticipation regarding a concrete threat, composition in the early twentieth century as a result of
41
42 CHAPTER 7. ANGST
Fear of death
Sehnsucht
Alienation
Sturm und Drang

Terror management theory
The Mean Reds

Weltschmerz
7.4 References
Ludger Gerdes, Angst, 1989
[1] Angst - Denition of Angst by Merriam-Webster.
both philosophical developments and as a reection of the [2] Angst - Dene Angst at Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com.
war-torn times. Notable composers whose works are of- [3] Online Etymology Dictionary.
ten linked with the concept include Gustav Mahler, Richard
Strauss (operas Elektra and Salome, Claude-Achille De- [4] Duden - Furcht - Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Denition,
bussy (opera Pelleas et Melisande, ballet Jeux, other works), Synonyme, Herkunft.
Jean Sibelius (especially the Fourth Symphony), Arnold [5] Angst - denition of angst by The Free Dictionary. The-
Schoenberg (A Survivor from Warsaw, other works), Alban FreeDictionary.com.
Berg, Francis Poulenc (opera Dialogues of the Carmelites),
Dmitri Shostakovich (opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk [6] Marino, Gordon (March 17, 2012).The Danish Doctor of
District, symphonies and chamber music), Bla Bartk Dread. New York City: The New York Times. Retrieved
(opera Bluebeard's Castle, other works), and Krzysztof Pen- May 18, 2013.
derecki (especially Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima).
Angst began to be discussed in reference to popular music
in the mid- to late 1950s amid widespread concerns over
7.5 External links
international tensions and nuclear proliferation. Je Nut-
tall's book Bomb Culture (1968) traced angst in popular cul- The dictionary denition of angst at Wiktionary
ture to Hiroshima. Dread was expressed in works of folk
rock such as Bob Dylan's Masters of War (1963) and A Hard
Rain's a-Gonna Fall. The term often makes an appearance
in reference to punk rock, grunge, nu metal, and works of
emo where expressions of melancholy, existential despair
or nihilism predominate.
7.3 See also

Anger
Byronic hero
Emotion
Existentialism
Kafkaesque
List of emotions
Chapter 8
Philosophy of Sren Kierkegaard
Sren Kierkegaard's philosophy has been a major inu- of view that were aesthetic or speculative. One exception
ence in the development of 20th-century philosophy, espe- to this is Anti-Climacus, a pseudonymous author developed
cially existentialism and postmodernism. Kierkegaard was after the writing of The Point of View: Anti-Climacus is
a 19th-century Danish philosopher who has been called the a religious author who writes from a Christian perspective
Father of Existentialism.* [1] His philosophy also inu- so ideal that Kierkegaard did not wish it to be attributed to
enced the development of existential psychology.* [2] himself.* [6]
Kierkegaard criticized aspects of the philosophical systems Because the pseudonymous authors write from perspectives
that were brought on by philosophers such as Georg Wil- which are not Kierkegaard's own, some of the philosophy
helm Friedrich Hegel before him and the Danish Hegelians. mentioned in this article may or may not necessarily re-
He was also indirectly inuenced by the philosophy of ect Kierkegaard's own beliefs. Just as other philosophers
Immanuel Kant.* [3] He measured himself against the bring up viewpoints in their essays to discuss and criti-
model of philosophy which he found in Socrates, which cize them, Kierkegaard assigns pseudonyms to explore a
aims to draw one's attention not to explanatory systems, but particular viewpoint in-depth, which may take up a whole
rather to the issue of how one exists.* [4] book or two in some instances, and Kierkegaard, or another
One of Kierkegaard's recurrent themes is the importance pseudonym, critiques that position. For example, the au-
of subjectivity, which has to do with the way people relate thor, Johannes Climacus is not a Christian and he argues
themselves to (objective) truths. In Concluding Unscientic from a non-Christian viewpoint. Anti-Climacus, as men-
Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, he argues that sub- tioned earlier, is a Christian to a high degree and he argues
jectivity is truthandtruth is subjectivity.What he means from a devout Christian viewpoint. Kierkegaard places his
by this is that most essentially, truth is not just a matter of beliefs in-between these two authors.* [6]
discovering objective facts. While objective facts are im- Most of Kierkegaard's later philosophical and religious
portant, there is a second and more crucial element of truth, writings from 1846 to 1855 were written and authored by
which involves how one relates oneself to those matters of himself, and he assigned no pseudonyms to these works.
fact. Since how one acts is, from the ethical perspective, Subsequently, these works are considered by most schol-
more important than any matter of fact, truth is to be found ars to reect Kierkegaard's own beliefs.* [7] Where ap-
in subjectivity rather than objectivity.* [5] propriate, this article will mention the respective author,
pseudonymous or not.
8.1 Note on pseudonyms

8.2 Themes in his philosophy
See also: Indirect Communication and Pseudonymous
Authorship 8.2.1 Alienation
Many of Kierkegaard's earlier writings from 1843 to 1846 Alienation is a term philosophers apply to a wide variety
were written pseudonymously. In the non-pseudonymous of phenomena, including any feeling of separation from,
The Point of View of My Work as an Author, he explained and discontent with, society; feeling that there is a moral
that the pseudonymous works are written from perspectives breakdown in society; feelings of powerlessness in the face
which are not his own: while Kierkegaard himself was a re- of the solidity of social institutions; the impersonal, dehu-
ligious author, the pseudonymous authors wrote from points manised nature of large-scale and bureaucratic social or-
43
44 CHAPTER 8. PHILOSOPHY OF SREN KIERKEGAARD
ganisations.* [8] Kierkegaard recognizes and accepts the no- Abraham had to leave his ancestral home an
tion of alienation, although he phrases it and understands it emigrate to an alien nation, where nothing re-
in his own distinctly original terms. For Kierkegaard, the minded him of what he loved indeed, some-
present age is a reective ageone that values objectivity times it is no doubt a consolation that nothing
and thought over action, lip-service to ideals rather than ac- calls to mind what one wishes to forget, but it is
tion, discussion over action, publicity and advertising over a bitter consolation for the person who is full of
reality, and fantasy over the real world. For Kierkegaard, longing. Thus a person can also have a wish that
the meaning of values has been removed from life, by lack for him contains everything, so that in the hour
of nding any true and legitimate authority. Instead of of the separation, when the pilgrimage begins, it
falling into any claimed authority, anyliteralsacred book is as if he were emigrating to a foreign country
or any other great and lasting voice, self-aware humans must where nothing but the contrast reminds him, by
confront an existential uncertainty. the loss, of what he wished; it can seem to him as
if he were emigrating to a foreign country even if
Humanity has lost meaning because the accepted criterion
of reality and truth is ambiguous and subjective thought he remains at home perhaps in the same locality
by losing the wish just as among strangers, so
that which cannot be proven with logic, historical research,
or scientic analysis. Humans cannot think out choices in that to take leave of the wish seems to him harder
life, we must live them; and even those choices that we of- and more crucial than to take leave of his senses.
ten think about become dierent once life itself enters into Apart from this wish, even if he still does not
the picture. For Kierkegaard, the type of objectivity that a move from the spot, his lifes troublesome way
scientist or historian might use misses the pointhumans is perhaps spent in useless suerings, for we are
are not motivated and do not nd meaning in life through speaking of those who suer essentially, not of
pure objectivity. Instead, they nd it through passion, de- those who have the consolation that their suer-
sire, and moral and religious commitment. These phenom- ings are for the benet of a good cause, for the
ena are not objectively provablenor do they come about benet of others. It was bound to be thus the
through any form of analysis of the external world; they journey to the foreign country was not long; in
come about through a direct relationship between one and one moment he was there, there in that strange
the external world. Here Kierkegaard's emphasis is on rela- country where the suering ones meet, but not
tionship rather than analysis. This relationship is a way of those who have ceased to grieve, not those whose
looking at ones life that evades objective scrutiny. tears eternity cannot wipe away, for as an old
devotional book so simply and movingly says,
Kierkegaard's analysis of the present age uses terms that re- How can God dry your tears in the next world if
semble but are not exactly coincident with Hegel and Marx's you have not wept?Perhaps someone else comes
theory of alienation. However Kierkegaard expressly means in a dierent way, but to the same place.
that human beings are alienated from God because they are
Sren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses
living too much in the world. Individuals need to gain their
in Various Spirits, Hong 1993 p. 102-103
souls from the world because it actually belongs to God.
Kierkegaard has no interest in external battles as Karl Marx
Albert Camus wrote about the idea of being a stranger in
does. His concern is about the inner ght for faith.
the world but reversed Kierkegaard's meaning. A stranger
for Camus was someone living in the world who is forced to
Let us speak further about the wish and exist in a Christian way even though the individual does not
thereby about suerings. Discussion of suer- want to be a Christian. But Kierkegaard was discussing the
ings can always be benecial if it addresses not Christian who wants to be a Christian living in a world that
only the self-willfulness of the sorrow but, if pos- has abandoned Christianity. Both Camus and Kierkegaard
sible, addresses the sorrowing person for his up- had in common an equal distaste for a Christian Democ-
building. It is a legitimate and sympathetic act racy where all are forced to take a positive part in Chris-
to dwell properly on the suering, lest the suer- tianity because freedom of choice would be lacking and in
ing person become impatient over our supercial a non-Christian Democracy where none are allowed to take
discussion in which he does not recognize his suf- an active part in Christianity. Kierkegaard was against vot-
fering, lest he for that reason impatiently thrust ing about Christianity, for him, Christ was the only author-
aside consolation and be strengthened in double- ity. Camus called the existential attitude philosophical
mindedness. It certainly is one thing to go out suicide.This is how he put it in The Myth of Sisyphus and
into life with the wish when what is wished be- Other Writings
comes the deed and the task; it is something else
to go out into life away from the wish. Now, it is admitted that the absurd is the con-
8.2. THEMES IN HIS PHILOSOPHY 45
trary of hope, it is seen that existential thought for gives with one eye and with seven eyes looks to
Chestov (Lev Shestov 1866-1938) presupposes see what one will get in return, then one easily
the absurd but proves it only to dispel it. Such discovers a multitude of sins. But when the heart
subtlety of thought is a conjurors emotional is lled with love, then the eye is never deceived;
trick. When Chestov elsewhere sets his absurd for love when it gives, does not scrutinize the gift,
in opposition to current morality and reason, he but its eye is xed on the Lord. When the heart
calls it truth and redemption. Hence, there is ba- is lled with envy, then the eye has power to call
sically in that denition of the absurd an appro- forth uncleanness even in the pure; but when love
bation that Chestov grants it. What is percepti- dwells in the heart, then the eye has the power to
ble in Leo Chestov will be perhaps even more foster the good in the unclean; but this eye does
so in Kierkegaard. To be sure, it is hard to out- not see the evil but the pure, which it loves and
line clear propositions in so elusive a writer. But, encourages it by loving it. Certainly there is a
despite apparently opposed writings, beyond the power in this world which by its words turns good
pseudonyms, the tricks, and the smiles, can be into evil, put there is a power above which turns
felt throughout that work, as it were, the presen- the evil into good; that power is the love which
timent (at the same time as the apprehension) covers a multitude of sins.
of a truth which eventually bursts forth in the When hate dwells in the heart, then sin lies
last works: Kierkegaard likewise takes the leap. at a mans door, and its manifold desires ex-
Kierkegaards view that despair is not a fact but a ist in him; but when love dwells in the heart,
state: the very state of sin. For sin is what alien- then sin ees far away, and he sees it no more.
ates from God. The absurd, which is the meta- When disputes, malice, wrath, quarrels, dissen-
physical state of the consciousness of man, does sions, factions ll the heart, does one then need
not lead to God. Perhaps this notion will become to go far in order to discover the multitudinous-
clearer if I risk this shocking statement: the ab- ness of sin, or does a man need to love very
surd is sin without God. It is a matter of living long to produce these outside of himself! But
in that state of the absurd. I am taking the lib- when joy, peace, longsuering, gentleness, good-
erty at this point of calling the existential attitude ness, faith, meekness and temperance dwell in the
philosophical suicide. But this does not imply a heart, what wonder, then, that a man, even if he
judgment. It is a convenient way of indicating were surrounded by a multitude of sins, remains
the movement by which a thought negates itself an alien, a stranger, who understands only a very
and tends to transcend itself in its very negation. little about the customs of the country, even if
For the existential negation is their God. To be these were explained to him? Would not this,
precise, that god is maintained only through the then, be a covering of the multitude of sins?
negation of human reason. (Let me assert again:
it is not the armation of God that is questioned Soren Kierkegaard Three Edifying Dis-
here, but rather the logic leading to that arma- courses 1843, Swenson translation 1943 p.
tion.) Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and 69
other essays p. 26-32 Vintage books 1955 Alfred Love does not seek its own. Love does not seek
A Knopf its own, for there are no mine and yours in love.
Butmineandyoursare only relational spec-
Kierkegaard put it this way in Three Edifying Discourses ications of ones own; thus, if there are
1843 and Concluding Unscientic Postscript (1846). no mine and yours, there is no ones own
either. But if there is no ones ownat all,
Getting the majority vote on then it is of course impossible to seek ones own.
one s side and ones God-relationship Justice is identied by its giving each his own,
transformed into a speculative enter- just as it also in turn claims its own. This means
prise on the basis of probability and that justice pleads the cause of its own, divides
partnership and fellow shareholders is and assigns, determines what each can lawfully
the rst step toward becoming objec- call his own, judges and punishes if anyone re-
tive. fuses to make any distinction between mine and
Concluding Unscientic yours. The individual has the right to so as he
Postscript, Hong p. 66 pleases with this contentious and yet legally enti-
The love which covers a multitude of sins in never tled mine; and if he seeks his own in no other way
deceived. When the heart is niggardly, when one than that which justice allows, justice has nothing
with which to reproach him and has no right to this emphasis on money leads to a denial of the gifts of the
upbraid him for anything. As soon as someone is spirit to those who are poor and in misery.
defrauded of his own, or as soon as someone de-
frauds another of his own, justice intervenes, be- Do not forget to do good and to share He-
cause it safeguards the common security in which brews 13.16 - But do not forget either that this in-
everyone has his own, which he rightfully has.- cessant talk by worldliness about benecence and
But sometimes a change intrudes, a revolution, a benevolence and generosity and charitable dona-
war, an earthquake, or some such terrible misfor- tions and gift upon gift is almost merciless. Ah,
tune, and everything is confused. Justice tries in let the newspaper writers and tax collectors and
vain to secure for each person his own; it can- parish beadles talk about generosity and count
not maintain the distinction between mine and and count; but let us never ignore that Christianity
yours; in the confusion it cannot keep the balance speaks essentially of mercifulness, that Christian-
and therefore throws away the scales-it despairs! ity would least of all be guilty of mercilessness, as
Terrible spectacle! Yet does not love in a certain if poverty and misery not only needed money etc.
sense, even if in the most blissful way, produce but also were excluded from the highest, from
the same confusion? But love, it too is an event, being able to be generous, benecent, benevo-
the greatest of all, yet also the happiest. Love is a lent. But people prattle and prate ecclesiastically-
change, the most remarkable of all, but the most worldly and worldly-ecclesiastically about gen-
desirable-in fact we say in a very good sense that erosity, benecence-but forget, even in the ser-
someone who is gripped by love is changed or mon, mercifulness. Preaching should indeed be
becomes changed. Love is a revolution, the most solely and only about mercifulness. If you know
profound of all, but the most blessed! how to speak eectually about this, then generos-
ity will follow of itself and come by itself accord-
Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, 1847, ingly as the individual is capable of it. But bear
Hong 1995 264-265 in mind, that if a person raised money, money,
money by speaking about generosity-bear this in
mind, that by being silent about mercifulness he
8.2.2 Abstraction would be acting mercilessly toward the poor and
miserable person for whom he procured relief by
An element of Kierkegaard's critique of modernity in his means of the money of wealthy generosity. Bear
socio-political work, Two Ages, is the mention of money this I mind, that if poverty and misery disturb us
which he calls an abstraction.* [9]* [10] An abstraction is with their pleas, we can of course manage to get
something that only has a reality in an ersatz reality. It is not help for them through generosity; but bear this
tangible, and only has meaning within an articial context, in mind, that it would be much more appalling
which ultimately serves devious and deceptive purposes. It if we constrained poverty and misery to hin-
is a gment of thought that has no concrete reality, neither der our prayers,as Scripture says (1 Peter 3:7),
now nor in the future. by grumbling against us to God-because we were
How is money an abstraction? Money gives the illusion that atrociously unfair to poverty and misery by not
it has a direct relationship to the work that is done. That telling that they are able to practice mercifulness.
is, the work one does is worth so much, equals so much We shall now adhere to this point in this discourse
money. In reality, however, the work one does is an ex- about mercifulness and guard ourselves against
pression of who one is as a person; it expresses one's goals confusing mercifulness with what is linked to ex-
in life and associated meaning. As a person, the work one ternal conditions, that is, what love as such does
performs is supposed to be an external realization of one's not have in its power, whereas it truly has merci-
relationship to others and to the world. It is one's way of fulness in its power just as surely as it has a heart
making the world a better place for oneself and for oth- in its bosom. It does not follow that because a
ers. What reducing work to a monetary value does is to re- person has a heart in his bosom he has money in
place the concrete reality of one's everyday struggles with his pocket, but the rst is still more important and
the world to give it shape, form and meaningwith an certainly is decisive with regard to mercifulness.
abstraction. Kierkegaard lamented that a young man to- Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love Hong 1995 p.
day would scarcely envy another his capacities or skill or 315-316
the love of a beautiful girl or his fame, no, but he would
envy him his money. Give me money, the young man will Below are three quotes concerning Kierkegaard's idea of
say, and I will be all right.* [11] But Kierkegaard thinks abstraction which cannot be thought about without thinking
about concretion. He moves from the world historical, the tion with actuality, and when that is the case no
general, to the single individual, the specic. The rst from ethical way of life can be put into practice. But
the esthete and the second from the ethicist in Either/Or the person who chooses himself ethically chooses
and the third from the book that explained all his previous himself concretely as this specic individual, and
works; Concluding Unscientic Postscript. he achieves this concretion because this choice
is identical with the repentance, which raties
As has already been noted above, all classic the choice. The individual with these capacities,
productions stand equally high, because each one these inclinations, these drives, these passions,
stands innitely high. If, despite this fact, one inuenced by this specic social milieu, as this
were to attempt to introduce an order of rank into specic product of a specic environment. But
the classic procession, one would evidently have as he becomes aware of all this, he takes upon
to choose as a basis for such a distinction, some- himself responsibility for all of it. He does not
thing that was not essential; for if the basis were hesitate over whether he will take this particular
essential, the dierence itself would become an thing or not, for he knows that if he does not do it
essential dierence; from that it would again fol- something much more important will be lost. In
low that the word classicwas wrongly pred- the moment of choice, he is in complete isolation,
icated of the group as a whole. The more ab- for he withdraws from his social milieu, and yet at
stract the idea is, the smaller the probability of a the same moment he is in absolute continuity, for
numerous representation. But how does the idea he chooses himself as a product. And this choice
become concrete? By being permeated with the is freedoms choice in such a way that in choos-
historical consciousness. The more concrete the ing himself as product he can just as well be said
idea, the greater the probability. The more ab- to produce himself. At the moment of choice, he
stract the medium, the smaller the probability; is at the point of consummation, for his person-
the more concrete, the greater. But what does ality is consummating itself, and yet at the same
it mean to say that the medium is concrete, other moment he is at the very beginning, because he is
than to say it is language, or is seen in approxi- choosing himself according to his freedom. Ei-
mation to language; for language is the most con- ther/Or Part II, Hong p. 251
crete of all media. The idea, for example, which
comes to expression in sculpture is wholly ab- When in pure thinking mention is made of
stract, and bears no relation to the historical; the an immediate unity of reection-in-itself and
medium through which it is expressed is likewise reection-in-the-other and of the annulment of
abstract, consequently there is a great probabil- this immediate unity, then something must in-
ity that the section of the classic works which indeed come between the elements of the immedi-
cludes sculpture will contain only a few. In this ate unity. What is this? Yes, it is time. But time
I have the testimony of time and experience on cannot be assigned a place within pure think-
my side. If, on the other hand, I take a concrete ing. What, then, do annulment and transition
idea and a concrete medium, then it seems oth- and a new unity signify? What, if anything, does
erwise. Homer is indeed a classic poet, but just it mean to think in such a way that one always
because the epic idea is a concrete idea, and be- merely makes a show of it because everything
cause the medium is language, it so happens that that is said is absolutely revoked? And what does
in the section of the classics which contains the it mean not to admit that one thinks this way but
epic, there are many epics conceivable, which are then continually to proclaim from the housetops
all equally classic, because history constantly fur- the positive truth of this pure thinking? Just as
nishes us with new epic material. In this too, I existence has joined thinking and existing, inas-
have the testimony of history and the assent of much as an existing person is a thinking per-
experience. Either/Or Part I, Swenson p. 49, 53 son, so are there two media: the medium of ab-
straction and the medium of actuality. But pure
The two positions touched on here could be thinking is yet a third medium, very recently in-
regarded as attempts to actualize an ethical life- vented. It begins, it is said, after the most ex-
view. The reason that they do not succeed is haustive abstraction. Pure thinking is-what shall
that the individual has chosen himself in his iso- I say-piously or thoughtlessly unaware of the re-
lation or has chosen himself abstractly. To say lation that abstraction still continually has to that
it in other words, the individual has not chosen from which it abstracts. Here in this pure think-
himself ethically. He therefore has no connec- ing there is rest for every doubt; here is the eter-
nal positive truth and whatever one cares to say. cerely and intensely come to realize the truth of that
This means that pure thinking is a phantom. And fact in order to live passionately. Kierkegaard accuses
if Hegelian philosophy is free from all postu- society of being in death-denial. Even though people see
lates, it has attained this with one insane postu- death all around them and grasp as an objective fact that
late: the beginning of pure thinking. For the ex- everyone dies, few people truly understand, subjectively
isting person, existing is for him his highest in- and inwardly, that they will die someday. For example, in
terest, and his interestedness in existing in his ac- Concluding Unscientic Postscript, Kierkegaard notes that
tuality. What actuality is cannot be rendered in people never think to say, I shall certainly attend your
the language of abstraction. Actuality is an inter- party, but I must make an exception for the contingency
esse [between being] between thinking and being that a roof tile happens to blow down and kill me; for in
in the hypothetical unity of abstraction. Abstrac- that case, I cannot attend.* [12] This is jest as far as
tion deals with possibility and actuality, but its Kierkegaard is concerned. But there is also earnestness
conception of actuality is a false rendition, since involved in the thought of death. Kierkegaard said the
the medium is not actuality but possibility. Only following about death in his Three Upbuilding Discourses,
by annulling actuality can abstraction grasp it, but 1844.
to annul it is precisely to change it into possi-
bility. Within abstraction everything that is said We shall not decide which life ghts the good
about actuality in the language of abstraction is ght most easily, but we all agree that every hu-
said within possibility. That is, in the language of man being ought to ght the good ght, from
actuality all abstraction is related to actuality as a which no one is shut out, and yet this is so glorious
possibility, not to an actuality within abstraction that if it were granted only once to a past genera-
and possibility. Actuality, existence, is the dition under exceptional circumstances-yes, what a
alectical element in a trilogy, the beginning and description envy and discouragement would then
end of which cannot be for an existing person, know how to give! The dierence is about the
who qua existing is in the dialectical element. same as that in connection with the thought of
Abstraction merges the trilogy. Quite right. But death. As soon as a human being is born, he
how does it do it? Is abstraction a something begins to die. But the dierence is that there
that does it, or is it not the act of the abstrac- are some people for whom the thought of death
tor? But the abstractor is, after all, an existing comes into existence with birth and is present to
person, and as an existing person is consequently them in the quiet peacefulness of childhood and
in the dialectical element, which he cannot me- the buoyancy of youth; whereas others have a pe-
diate or merge, least of all absolutely, as long as riod in which this thought is not present to them
he is existing. If he does do it, then this must be until, when the years run out, the years of vigor
related as a possibility to actuality, to the exis- and vitality, the thought of death meets them on
tence which he himself is. He must explain how their way. Who, now, is going to decide which
he goes about it-that is, how he as an existing per- life was easier, whether it was the life of those
son goes about it, or whether he ceases to be an who continually lived with a certain reserve be-
existing person, and whether an existing person cause the thought of death was present to them
has a right to do that. As soon as we begin to or the life of those who so abandoned themselves
ask such questions, we are asking ethically and to life that they almost forgot the existence of
are maintaining the claim of the ethical upon the death?* [13]
existing person, which cannot be that he is sup-
posed to abstract from existence, but that he is
supposed to exist, which is also the existing per- 8.2.4 Dread or anxiety
sons highest interest.
Sren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientic For Kierkegaard's author, Vigilius Haufniensis,
Postscript, Vol 1, p. 314-315 Hong transla-anxiety/dread/angst (depending on the translation and
tion context) is unfocused fear. Haufniensis uses the example
of a man standing on the edge of a tall building or cli.
From this height he can see all the possibilities of life.
8.2.3 Death He's reecting on what he could become if he only threw
himself into the power of his own choice. As long as he
Death is inevitable and temporally unpredictable. stands there he stands at the crossroads of life, unable
Kierkegaard believed that individuals needed to sin- to make a decision and live within its boundaries. The
mere fact that one has the possibility and freedom to is through faith absolutely educative, because it
do something, even the most terrifying of possibilities, consumes all nite ends and discovers all their
triggers immense feelings of dread. Haufniensis called this deceptiveness. And no Grand Inquisitor has
our dizziness of freedom. such dreadful torments in readiness as anxiety
has, and no secret agent knows as cunningly
Anxiety may be compared with dizziness. He as anxiety to attack his suspect in his weakest
whose eye happens to look down into the yawn- moment or to make alluring the trap in which
ing abyss becomes dizzy. But what is the reason he will be caught, and no discerning judge
for this? It is just as much in his own eye as in understands how to interrogate and examine the
the abyss, for suppose he had not looked down. accused as does anxiety, which never lets the
Hence, anxiety is the dizziness of freedom, which accused escape, neither through amusement, nor
emerges when the spirit wants to posit the synthe- by noise, nor during work, neither by day nor by
sis and freedom looks down into its own possi- night.
bility, laying hold of niteness to support itself. Vigilius Haufniensis, The Concept of Anxiety
Freedom succumbs to dizziness. Further than p. 155-156
this, psychology cannot and will not go. In that
very moment everything is changed, and free-
dom, when it again rises, sees that it is guilty.
8.2.5 Despair
Between these two moments lies the leap, which
no science has explained and which no science Is despair a merit or a defect? Purely
can explain. He who becomes guilty in anxiety dialectically it is both. If one were to think of
becomes as ambiguously guilty as it is possible despair only in the abstract, without reference
to become. Vigilius Haufniensis, The Concept of to some particular despairer, one would have to
Anxiety p. 61 say it is an enormous merit. The possibility of
this sickness is mans advantage over the beast,
In The Concept of Anxiety, Haufniensis focuses on the rst and it is an advantage which characterizes him
anxiety experienced by man: Adam's choice to eat from quite otherwise than the upright posture, for it
God's forbidden tree of knowledge or not. Since the con- bespeaks the innite erectness or loftiness of his
cepts of good and evil did not come into existence before being spirit. The possibility of this sickness is
Adam ate the fruit, which is now dubbed original sin, Adam mans advantage over the beast; to be aware of
had no concept of good and evil, and did not know that eat- this sickness is the Christians advantage over
ing from the tree was evil. What he did know was that God natural man; to be cured of this sickness is the
told him not to eat from the tree. The anxiety comes from Christians blessedness.
the fact that God's prohibition itself implies that Adam is Anti-Climacus, The Sickness Unto Death p.
free and that he could choose to obey God or not. Af- 45
ter Adam ate from the tree, sin was born. So, according
to Kierkegaard, anxiety precedes sin, and it is anxiety that
leads Adam to sin. Haufniensis mentions that anxiety is the Most emphatically in The Sickness Unto Death,
presupposition for hereditary sin. Kierkegaard's author argues that the human self is a
composition of various aspects that must be brought into
However, Haufniensis mentions that anxiety is a way for conscious balance: the nite, the innite, a consciousness
humanity to be saved as well. Anxiety informs us of of the relationship of the two to itself,and a conscious-
our choices, our self-awareness and personal responsibility, ness of the power that positedthe self. The nite
and brings us from a state of un-self-conscious immediacy (limitations such as those imposed by one's body or one's
to self-conscious reection. (Jean-Paul Sartre calls these concrete circumstances) and the innite (those capacities
terms pre-reexive consciousness and reexive conscious- that free us from limitations such as imagination) always
ness.) An individual becomes truly aware of their poten- exist in a state of tension. That tension between two aspects
tial through the experience of dread. So, anxiety may be a of theselfthat must be brought into balance. When the
possibility for sin, but anxiety can also be a recognition or self is out of balance, i.e., has the wrong understanding of
realization of one's true identity and freedoms. who it is because it conceives itself too much in terms of
its own limiting circumstances (and thus fails to recognize
Whoever has learned to be anxious in the its own freedom to determine what it will be) or too much
right way has learned the ultimate. Anxiety in terms of what it would like to be, (thus ignoring its
is freedoms possibility, and only such anxiety own circumstances), the person is in a state of despair.
Notably, Anti-Climacus says one can be in despair even if The next level of despair isThe despair that is conscious of
one feels perfectly happy. Despair is not just an emotion, being despair and therefore is conscious of having a self in
in a deeper sense it is the loss of self, i.e., it describes the which there is something eternal and then either in despair
state when one has the wrong conception of oneself. In does not will to be itself or in despair wills to be itself.
Either/Or, A and Judge William each has one epistolary The rst form of this conscious despair is In despair not
novel in two volumes. The A is an aesthete well aware to will or want to be oneself.This becomes further sub-
that he can use the power of interpretation to dene who divided into three categories: the one already mentioned,
he is and what he takes to be valuable. He knows he can the despair not to will to be a self, and lowest, the despair
shape and reshape his own self-identity. Nothing binds to wish for a new self. These three divisions are mostly the
him to his relationships. Nothing binds him to his past self-worth the person has and the amount to which they un-
actions. In the end though, he also knows he lacks a derstand their own despair. The despair to not be oneself is
consistent understanding of who he is. He lacks a self that pretty straightforward. A person sees themself as unworthy
resists his own power of reinterpretation. His older friend and as such does not see themself as worthy before some-
Judge William, argues that a deeper concept of selfhood thing they do not understand. The despair not to be a self
is discovered as one commits to one's actions, and takes is deeper, because to not wish to be a self is to wish to not
ownership of the past and present. A concept of oneself, have a relation to God or at the very least see one's relation
as this particular human being, begins to take form in one's to God as unworthy, and thus shrink from it. The lowest
own consciousness. Another perspective, one in which form of this group, however, is the desire to be a new self.
an individual can nd some measure of freedom from This is logically the deepest form as it assumes the deepest
despair, is available for the person with religious faith. understanding of one's despair. Once in despair, without
This attunes the individual so that he or she can recognize a complete relation to God one will always be in despair,
what has always been there: a self to be realized within so to be in this level one understands the permanence of
the circumstances it nds itself right now, i.e., this inner the despair. The despair in this group arises from the na-
attunement brings about a sort of synthesis between the ture of sensate things and physical desires. These three sub
innite and the nite. In Fear and Trembling, Johannes groups are also grouped under the heading Despair over
de Silentio argues that the choice of Abraham to obey the the earthly.
private, unethical, commandment of God to sacrice his The second level of conscious despair under the heading
son reveals what faith entails: he directs his consciousness Despair over the eternal.Someone in this level views
absolutely toward the absoluterather than the merely themself in light of their own weakness. Unlike in the up-
ethical, i.e., he practices an inner spirituality that seeks per level, this weakness is understood and as such, instead
to be before godrather than seeking to understand of turning to faith and humbling oneself before God, they
himself as an ethically upright person. His God requires despair in their own weakness and unworthiness. In this
more than being good, he demands that he seek out an sense, they despair over the eternal and refuse to be com-
inner commitment to him. If Abraham were to blithely forted by the light of God.
obey, his actions would have no meaning. It is only when
he acts with fear and trembling that he demonstrates a The last and lowest form of despair is the desireIn despair
full awareness that murdering a son is absolutely wrong, to will to be oneself.This last form of despair is also re-
ethically speaking. ferred to by Kierkegaard as demonic despair(Note that
the term demonic is used in the Classical Greek Sense, not
Despair has several specic levels that a person can nd the modern sense). In this form of despair, the individual
themselves, each one further in despair than the last as laid nds him or herself in despair, understands they are in de-
out in The Sickness Unto Death. spair, seeks some way to alleviate it, and yet no help is forth-
The rst level is The despair that is ignorant of being coming. As a result, the self becomes hardened against any
despair or the despairing ignorance of having a self and form of help andEven if God in heaven and all the angels
an eternal self.Essentially this level is one which has the oered him aid, he would not want it.At this level of de-
wrong conception of what a self is, i.e., is ignorant of how spair the individual revels in their own despair and sees their
to realize the self one already potentially is. In this sense, own pain as lifting them up above the base nature of other
the person does not recognize his own despair because he humans who do not nd themselves in this state. This is the
often measures the success of his life based on whether he least common form of despair and Kierkegaard claims it is
himself judges himself to be happy. Regardless of whether mostly found in true poets. This despair can also be called
you know you are in despair or not, Kierkegaard asserts, the despair of deance, as it is the despair that strikes out
you can still be in that state. He notes that this is the most against all that is eternal. One last note is that as one travels
common in the world. further down the forms of despair, the number of people in
each group becomes fewer.
8.2.6 Ethics those who demand an ethical existence. But Kierkegaard

always points toward the religious goal, an eternal happi-
ness, or the salvation of the soul as the highest good. He
says, be whatever you want, but remember that your soul
belongs to God, not to the world.
By now you have easily seen that in his life

the ethical individual goes through stages we pre-
viously set forth as separate stages. He is going
to develop in his life the personal, the civic, the
religious virtues, and his life advances through
his continually translating himself from one stage
to another. As soon as a person thinks that one
of these stages is adequate and that he dares to
concentrate on it one-sidedly, he has not chosen
himself ethically but has failed to see the signi-
cance of either isolation or continuity and above
In Fear and Trembling, Johannes de Silentio analyzes Abraham's all has not grasped that the truth lies in the iden-
action to sacrice Isaac. Silentio argues that Abraham is a knight tity of the two. The person who has ethically cho-
of faith. sen and found himself possess himself dened in
his entire concretion. He then possesses himself
Many philosophers who initially read Kierkegaard, espe- as an individual who has these capacities, these
cially Kierkegaard's (written under the pseudonym of Jo- passions, these inclinations, these habits, who is
hannes de Silentio) Fear and Trembling, often come to the subject to these external inuences, who is inu-
conclusion that Kierkegaard supports a divine command law enced in one direction thus and in another thus.
of ethics. The divine command theory is a metaethical the- Here he then possesses himself as a task in such
ory which claims moral values are whatever is commanded a way that it is chiey to order, shape, temper,
by a god or gods. However, Kierkegaard is not arguing iname, control-in short, to produce an evenness
that morality is created by God; instead, he would argue in the soul, a harmony, which is the fruit of the
that a divine command from God transcends ethics. This personal virtues. Either/Or Part 2, Hong p. 262
distinction means that God does not necessarily create hu-
man morality: it is up to us as individuals to create our own Resignation has made the individual face or
morals and values. But any religious person must be pre- has seen to it that he face toward an eternal hap-
pared for the event of a divine command from God that piness as the end
(
, purpose, orgoal
would take precedence over all moral and rational obliga- ). This is not an element among other el-
tions. Kierkegaard called this event the teleological suspen- ements. Thus the both-and of mediation is not
sion of the ethical. Abraham, the knight of faith, chose to much better, even though less nave, than the
obey God unconditionally, and was rewarded with his son, previously described jovial chatter that includes
his faith, and the title of Father of Faith. Abraham tran- everything. At the moment of resignation, of
scended ethics and leaped into faith. collecting oneself, of choice the individual is al-
lowed to salute the absolute -but then, then
But there is no valid logical argument one can make to claim comes the mediation. So, too, a dog can be taught
that morality ought to be or can be suspended in any given to walk on two legs for a moment but then, then
circumstance, or ever. Thus, Silentio believes ethics and comes the mediation, and the dog walks on four
faith are separate stages of consciousness. The choice to legs mediation also does that. Spiritually under-
obey God unconditionally is a true existential 'either/or' de- stood, a human beings upright walk is his abso-
cision faced by the individual. Either one chooses to live lute respect for the absolute , otherwise he
in faith (the religious stage) or to live ethically (the ethical walks on all fours. When it is a matter of rela-
stage). tive elements mediation has its signicance (that
In Either/Or, Kierkegaard insists that the single individual they are all equal before mediation), but when it
has ethical responsibility of his life. However, everyone is a matter of the absolute end or goal, media-
wants to enjoy themselves and ethics gets in the way of a tion means that the absolute is reduced to a
person's enjoyment of life if taken to extremes. This results relative . It is not true, either, that the abso-
in a battle between those who want to live for pleasure and lute becomes concrete in the relative ends,
because resignations absolute distinction will not to make the slightest distinction. The essen-
at every moment safeguard the absolute tial Christian is itself too weighty, in its move-
against all fraternizing. It is true that the indi- ments too earnest to scurry about, dancing, in the
vidual oriented toward the absolute , is in frivolity of such facile talk about the higher, high-
the relative ends, but he is not in them in such a est, and the supremely highest. Think of the most
way that the absolute is exhausted in them. cultured person, one of whom we all admiringly
It is true that before God and before the absolute say, He is so cultured!Then think of Chris-
we are all equal, but it is not true that God tianity, which says to him, You shall love the
or the absolute is equal with everything else neighbor!of course, a certain social courtesy,
for me or for a particular individual. It may be a politeness toward all people, a friendly conde-
very commendable for a particular individual to scension toward inferiors, a boldly condent at-
be a councilor of justice, a good worker in the titude before the mighty, a beautifully controlled
oce, no.1 lover in the society, almost a virtu- freedom of spirit, yes, this is culture do you be-
oso on the ute, captain of the popinjay shooting lieve that it is also loving the neighbor? With the
club, superintendent of the orphanage, a noble neighbor you have the equality of a human be-
and respected father-in short, a devil of a fellow ing before God. God is the middle term. Soren
who can both-and has time for everything. But Kierkegaard, Works of Love, 1847, Hong p. 44-
let the councilor take care that he does not be- 61
come too much a devil of a fellow and proceed
to do both all this and have time to direct his life
toward the absolute . In other words, this 8.2.7 Individuality
both-and means that the absolute is on the
same level with everything else. But the absolute For Kierkegaard, true individuality is called selfhood. Be-
has the remarkable quality of wanting to coming aware of our true self is our true task and endeavor
be the absolute at every moment. If, then, in lifeit is an ethical imperative, as well as preparatory
at the moment of resignation, of collecting one- to a true religious understanding. Individuals can exist at
self, of choice, an individual has understood this, a level that is less than true selfhood. We can live, for ex-
it surely cannot mean that he is supposed to have ample, simply in terms of our pleasuresour immediate
forgotten it the next moment. Therefore, as I said satisfaction of desires, propensities, or distractions. In this
before, resignation remains in the individual and way, we glide through life without direction or purpose. To
the task is so far from getting the absolute have a direction, we must have a purpose that denes for
mediated into all sorts of both-and that, on the us the meaning of our lives. Kierkegaard puts it this way in
contrary, it is to aim at the form of existence that Either/Or,
permanently has the pathos of the great moment.
Concluding Unscientic Postscript, Hong, p. 400- Here, then, I have your view of life, and, be-
401 lieve me, much of your life will become clear
to you if you will consider it along with me as
In Works of Love and Purity of Heart, Kierkegaard skill- thought-despair. You are a hater of activity in
fully examines Christian ethics and the maxim, Love life-quite appropriately, because if there is to be
Thy Neighbour.* [14]* [15] Kierkegaard stressed that it was meaning in it life must have continuity, and this
Christianity that discovered the neighbor.* [16] your life does not have. You keep busy with your
studies, to be sure; you are even diligent; but it
Test it, place as the middle term between the is only for your sake, and it is done with as lit-
lover and the beloved the neighbor, whom one tle teleology as possible. Moreover, you are un-
shall love, place as a middle term between two occupied; like the laborers in the Gospel stand-
friends the neighbor, whom one shall love, and ing idle in the marketplace, you stick your hands
you will immediately see jealousy. Yet the neigh- in your pocket and contemplate life. Now you
bor is self-denials middle term that steps in be- rest in despair. Nothing concerns you; you step
tween self-loves I and I, but also between erotic aside for nothing; If someone threw a roof tile
love s and friendship s I and the other I. .... Love down I would still not step aside.You are like
for the neighbor is therefore the eternal equality a dying person. You die daily, not in the pro-
in loving. Equality is simply not to make dis- found, earnest sense in which one usually under-
tinctions and eternal equality is unconditionally stands these words, but life has lost its reality and
not to make the slightest distinction, unqualiedly youAlways count the days of your life from one
termination-notice to the next.You let every- struggle the truth, only in this way does the vic-
thing pass you by; nothing makes any impact. But tory have validity- only when the single individual
then something suddenly comes along that grips ghts for himself with himself within himself and
you, an idea, a situation, a young girls smile, and does not unseasonably presume to help the whole
now you are involved,for just on certain oc- world to obtain external equality, which is of very
casions you are notinvolved,so at other times little benet, all the less so because it never ex-
you are at your servicein every way. Wher- isted, if for no other reason than that everyone
ever there is something going on you join in. You would come to thank him and become unequal
behave in life as you usually do in a crowd.You before him, only in this way is equality the divine
work yourself into the tightest group, see to it, if law. Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, by Soren
possible, to get yourself shoved up over the oth- Kiekegaard Hong, p. 143
ers so that you come to be above them, and as
soon as you are up there you make yourself as Kierkegaard's critique of the modern age, therefore, is
comfortable as possible, and in this way you let about the loss of what it means to be an individual. Mod-
yourself be carried through life.But when the ern society contributes to this dissolution of what it means
crowd is gone, when the event is over, you again to be an individual. Through its production of the false idol
stand on the street corner and look at the world. ofthe public, it diverts attention away from individuals
Either/Or Part II p. 195-196, 272 to a mass public that loses itself in abstractions, commu-
nal dreams, and fantasies. It is helped in this task by the
In Sickness Unto Death specically Kierkegaard deals with media and the mass production of products to keep it dis-
the self as a product of relations. In this sense, a human re- tracted. Even the ght for temporal equality is a distraction.
sults from a relation between the Innite (Noumena, spirit, In Works of Love he writes,
eternal) and Finite (Phenomena, body, temporal). This
does not create a true self, as a human can live without a To bring about similarity among people in
selfas he denes it. Instead, the Self or ability for the the world, to apportion to people, if possible
self to be created from a relation to the Absolute or God equally, the conditions of temporality, is indeed
(the Self can only be realized through a relation to God) something that preoccupies worldliness to a high
arises as a relation between the relation of the Finite and degree. But even what we may call the well-
Innite relating back to the human. This would be a posi- intentioned worldly eort in this regard never
tive relation. comes to an understanding with Christianity.
Well-intentioned worldliness remains piously, if
An individual person, for Kierkegaard, is a particular that
you will, convinced that there must be one tem-
no abstract formula or denition can ever capture. Includ-
poral condition, one earthly dissimilarity found
ing the individual in the public(or the crowdor
by means of calculations and surveys or in what-
the herd) or subsuming a human being as simply a mem-
ever other way that is equality. Works of Love,
ber of a species is a reduction of the true meaning of life
by Sren Kierkegaard, 1847, Hong 1995 p. 71-
for individuals. What philosophy or politics try to do is to
72 see p. 61-90
categorize and pigeonhole individuals by group character-
istics, each with their own individual dierences. In Four
Upbuilding Discourses, 1843 Kierkegaard says the dier- Although Kierkegaard attacked the public, he is sup-
ences aren't important, the likeness with God is what brings portive of communities:
equality.
In community, the individual is, crucial as
the prior condition for forming a community.
In the hallowed places, in every upbuilding Every individual in the community guarantees
view of life, the thought arises in a persons the community; the public is a chimera, numer-
soul that help him to ght the good ght with ality is everything
esh and blood, with principalities and powers, Sren Kierkegaard, Journals* [6]
and in the ght to free himself for equality before
God, whether this battle is more a war of aggres-
sion against the dierences that want to encum-
ber him with worldly favoritism or a defensive 8.2.8 Pathos (passion)
war against the dierences that want to make him
anxious in worldly perdition. Only in this way is For Kierkegaard, in order to apprehend the absolute, the
equality the divine law, only in this way is the mind must radically empty itself of objective content. What
supports this radical emptying, however, is the desire for the When the depressed person desires to be rid
absolute. Kierkegaard names this desire Passion.* [17] of life, indeed of himself, is this not because he is
According to Kierkegaard, the human self desires that unwilling to learn earnestly and rigorously to love
which is beyond reason. Desire itself appears to be a desire himself? When someone surrenders to despair
for the innite, as Plato once wrote. Even the desire to prop- because the world or another person has faith-
agate, according to Plato, is a kind of desire for immortality lessly left him betrayed, what then is his fault (his
that is, we wish to live on in time through our children and innocent suering is not referred to here) except
their children. Erotic love itself appears as an example of not loving himself in the right way? When some-
one self-tormentingly thinks to do God a service
this desire for something beyond the purely nite. It is a
taste of what could be, if only it could continue beyond the by torturing himself, what is his sin except not
willing to love himself in the right way? And if,
boundaries of time and space. As the analogy implies, hu-
mans seek something beyond the here and now. The ques- alas, a person presumptuously lays violent hands
upon himself, is not his sin precisely this, that he
tion remains, however, why is it that human pathos or pas-
sion is the most precious thing? In some ways, it might have does not rightly love himself in the sense in which
a person ought to love himself?
to do with our status as existential beings. It is not thought
that gets us through lifeit is action; and what motivates Oh, there is a lot of talk in the world about
and sustains action is passion, the desire to overcome hard- treachery, and faithlessness, and, God help us,
ships, pain, and suering. It is also passion that enables us it is unfortunately all too true, but still let us
to die for ideals in the name of a higher reality. While a never because of this forget that the most dan-
scientist might see this as plain emotion or simple animal gerous traitor of all is the one every person has
desire, Kierkegaard sees it as that which binds to the source within himself. This treachery whether it con-
of life itself. The desire to live, and to live in the right way, sists in selshly loving oneself or consists in self-
for the right reasons, and with the right desires, is a holy and ishly not willing to love oneself in the right way
sacred force. For Kierkegaard all Christian action should this treachery is admittedly a secret. No cry is
have its ground in love, which is a passion. raised as it usually is in the case of treachery and
faithlessness. But is it not therefore all the more
If anyone is unwilling to learn from Chris- important that Christianitys doctrine should be
tianity to love himself in the right way, he can- brought to mind again and again, that a person
not love the neighbor either. He can perhaps shall love his neighbor as himself, that is as he
hold together with another or a few other persons, ought to love himself? You shall love this,
through thick and thin,as it is called, but this is then is the word of the royal Law. Works of Love,
by no means loving the neighbor. To love your- Hong p. 22-24
self in the right way and to love the neighbor cor-
respond perfectly to one another, fundamentally One can also look at this from the perspective of what the
they are one and the same thing. When the Law meaning of our existence is. Why suer what humans have
s as yourself has wrested from you the self-love suered, the pain and despairwhat meaning can all of this
that Christianity sadly enough must presuppose to have? For Kierkegaard, there is no meaning unless passion,
be in every human being, then you actually have the emotions and will of humans, has a divine source.
learned to love yourself. The Law is therefore: Passion is closely aligned with faith in Kierkegaard's
you shall love yourself in the same way as you thought. Faith as a passion is what drives humans to seek
love your neighbor when you love him as your- reality and truth in a transcendent world, even though every-
self. thing we can know intellectually speaks against it. To live
Whoever has any knowledge of people will and die for a belief, to stake everything one has and is in the
certainly admit that just as he has often wished to belief in something that has a higher meaning than anything
be able to move them to relinquish self-love, he in the worldthis is belief and passion at their highest.
has also had to wish that it were possible to teach
them to love themselves. When the bustler wastes Kierkegaard wrote of the subjective thinker's task in his
his time and powers in the service of the futile, Concluding Unscientic Postscript. Intellectual reason had
inconsequential pursuits, is that not because he been deied by Hegel in his theology and Kierkegaard felt
has not learned rightly to love himself? When the this would lead to the objectication of religion.
light-minded person throws himself almost like a
nonentity into the folly of the moment and makes There is an old proverb: oratio, tentatio, med-
nothing of it, is this not because he does not know itatio, faciunt theologum [prayer, trial, medita-
how to love himself rightly? tion, make a theologian]. Similarly, for a subjec-
tive thinker, imagination, feeling and dialectics in regulate it, dialectical enough in thinking to mas-
impassioned existence-inwardness are required. ter it. The subjective thinkers task is to under-
But rst and last, passion, because for an existing stand himself in existence. p. 350-351
person it is impossible to think about existence
without becoming passionate, inasmuch as exist-
ing is a prodigious contradiction from which the 8.2.9 Subjectivity
subjective thinker is not to abstract, for then it
is easy, but in which he is to remain. In a world- Johannes Climacus, in Concluding Unscientic Postscript to
historical dialectic, individuals fade away into hu- Philosophical Fragments, writes the following cryptic line:
mankind; in a dialectic such as that it is impossi- "Subjectivity is Truth. To understand Climacus's concept
ble to discover you and me, an individual existing of the individual, it is important to look at what he says re-
human being, even if new magnifying glasses for garding subjectivity. What is subjectivity? In very rough
the concrete are invented. The subjective thinker terms, subjectivity refers to what is personal to the indi-
is a dialectician oriented to the existential; he has vidualwhat makes the individual who he is in distinction
the intellectual passion to hold rm the qualita- from others. It is what is insidewhat the individual can
tive disjunction. But, on the other hand, if the see, feel, think, imagine, dream, etc. It is often opposed to
qualitative disjunction is used atly and simply, if objectivitythat which is outside the individual, which the
it is applied altogether abstractly to the individual individual and others around can feel, see, measure, and
human being, then one can run the ludicrous risk think about. Another way to interpret subjectivity is the
of saying something innitely decisive, and of be- unique relationship between the subject and object.
ing right in what one says, and still not say the Johann Fichte wrote similarly about subjectivity in his 1799
least thing. Therefore, in the psychological sense book The Vocation of Man.
it is really remarkable to see the absolute disjunc-
tion deceitfully used simply for evasion. When
the death penalty is placed on every crime, the re- I must, however, remind my reader that the
sult is that no crimes at all are punished. It is the Iwho speaks in the book is not the author
same with the absolute disjunction when applied himself, but it is his earnest wish that the reader
atly and simply; it is just like a silent letter-it should himself assume this character, and that he
cannot be pronounced or, if it can be pronounced, should not rest contented with a mere historical
it says nothing. The subjective thinker, therefore, apprehension of what is here said, but really and
has with intellectual passion the absolute disjunc- truly, during reading, hold converse with him-
tion as belonging to existence, but he has it as the self, deliberate, draw conclusions, and form res-
nal decision that prevents everything from end- olutions, like his representative in the book, and,
ing in a quantifying. Thus he has it readily avail- by his own labour and reection, developed out
able, but not in such a way that by abstractly re- of his own soul, and build up within himself, that
curring to it, he just frustrates existence. The sub- mode of thought the mere picture of which is laid
jective thinker, therefore, has also esthetic pas- before him in the work. Preface
sion and ethical passion, whereby concretion is
gained. All existence-issues are passionate, be- Scientists and historians, for example, study the objective
cause existence, if one becomes conscious of it, world, hoping to elicit the truth of natureor perhaps the
involves passion. To think about them so as to truth of history. In this way, they hope to predict how the
leave out passion is not to think about them at all, future will unfold in accordance with these laws. In terms
is to forget the point that one indeed is oneself of history, by studying the past, the individual can perhaps
and existing person. Yet the subjective thinker is elicit the laws that determine how events will unfoldin
not a poet even if he is also a poet, not an ethicist this way the individual can predict the future with more ex-
even if he is also an ethicist, but is also a dialec- actness and perhaps take control of events that in the past
tician and is himself essentially existing, whereas appeared to fall outside the control of humans.
the poets existence is inessential in relation to In most respects, Climacus did not have problems with
the poem, and likewise the ethicists in relation science or the scientic endeavor. He would not disregard
to the teaching, and the dialecticians in rela- the importance of objective knowledge. Where the scien-
tion to the thought. The subjective thinker is not tist or historian nds certainty, however, Climacus noted
a scientist-scholar; he is an artist. To exist is an very accurately that results in science change as the tools of
art. The subjective thinker is esthetic enough for observation change. But Climacus's special interest was in
his life to have esthetic content, ethical enough to history. His most vehement attacks came against those who
believed that they had understood history and its lawsand live and die, the single individual has a life that no one else
by doing so could ascertain what a humans true self is. will ever live. In dealing with what life brings his way, the
That is, the assumption is that by studying history someone individual must encounter them with all his psycho-physical
can come to know who he really is as a person. Kierkegaard resources.
especially accused Hegel's philosophy of falling prey to this Subjectivity is that which the individualand no one else
assumption. He explained this in, Concluding Unscientic has. But what does it mean to have something like this?
Postscript: It cannot be understood in the same way as having a car or
a bank account. It means to be someone who is becoming
It is the existing spirit who asks about truth, someoneit means being a person with a past, a present,
presumably because he wants to exist in it, but and a future. No one can have an individual's past, present
in any case the questioner is conscious of being or future. Dierent people experience these in various ways
an existing individual human being. In this way these experiences are unique, not anyone else's. Having a
I believe I am able to make myself understand- past, present, and future means that a person is an existing
able to every Greek and to every rational human individualthat a person can nd meaning in time and by
being. If a German philosopher follows his incli- existing. Individuals do not think themselves into existence,
nation to put on an act and rst transforms him- they are born. But once born and past a certain age, the in-
self into a superrational something, just as al- dividual begins to make choices in life; now those choices
chemists and sorcerers bedizen themselves fan- can be his, his parents', societys, etc. The important point
tastically, in order to answer the question about is that to exist, the individual must make choicesthe in-
truth in an extremely satisfying way, this is of no dividual must decide what to do the next moment and on
more concern to me than his satisfying answer, into the future. What the individual chooses and how he
which no doubt is extremely satisfying-if one is chooses will dene who and what he isto himself and to
fantastically dressed up. But whether a German others. Kierkegaard put it this way in Works of Love, 1847:
philosopher is or is not doing this can easily be
ascertained by anyone who with enthusiasm con- We are truly reluctant to make a young per-
centrates his soul on willing to allow himself to son arrogant prematurely and teach him to get
be guided by a sage of that kind, and uncritically busy judging the world. God forbid that anything
just uses his guidance compliantly by willing to we say should be able to contribute to develop-
form his existence according to it. When a per- ing this malady in a person. Indeed, we think we
son as a learner enthusiastically relates in this way ought to make his life so strenuously inwardly that
to such a German professor, he accomplishes the from the very beginning he has something else
most superb epigram upon him, because a spec- to think about, because it no doubt is a morbid
ulator of that sort is anything but served by a hatred of the world that, perhaps without having
learner s honest and enthusiastic zeal for express- considered the enormous responsibility, wants to
ing and accomplishing, for existentially appropri- be persecuted. But on the other hand we are also
ating his wisdom, since this wisdom is something truly reluctant to deceive a young person by sup-
that the Herr Professor himself has imagined and pressing the diculty and by suppressing it at the
has written books about but has never attempted very moment we endeavor to recommend Chris-
himself. It has not even occurred to him that it tianity, inasmuch as that is the very moment we
should be done. Like the customers clerk who, in speak. We put our condence in boldly daring
the belief that his business was merely to write, to praise Christianity, also with the addition that
wrote what he himself could not read, so there in the world its reward, to put it mildly, is in-
are speculative thinkers who merely write, and gratitude. We regard it as our duty continually
write that which, if it is to be read with the aid to speak about it in advance, so that we do not
of action, if I may put it that way, proves to be sometimes praise Christianity with an omission
nonsense, unless it is perhaps intended only for of what is essentially dicult, and at other times,
fantastical beings. P. 191 perhaps on the occasion of a particular text, hit
upon a few grounds of comfort for the person
Hegel wanted to philosophize about Christianity but had no tried and tested in life. No, just when Christianity
intention to ever become a Christian. For Climacus, the in- is being praised most strongly, the diculty must
dividual comes to know who he is by an intensely personal simultaneously be emphasized. (.) Christianly
and passionate pursuit of what will give meaning to his life. the worlds opposition stands in an essential rela-
As an existing individual, who must come to terms with ev- tionship to the inwardness of Christianity. More-
eryday life, overcome its obstacles and setbacks, who must over, the person who chooses Christianity should
at that very moment have an impression of its to point to it; so that you would wish the adver-
diculty so that he can know what it is that he sity did not exist because it constrains in you the
is choosing. Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, selshness that, although suppressed, yet fool-
Hong 1995, p. 193-194 ishly deludes you into thinking that if you were
lucky you would do something for the good that
The goal of life, according to Socrates, is to know thyself. would be worth talking about, deludes you into
Knowing oneself means being aware of who one is, what forgetting that the devout wise person wishes no
one can be and what one cannot be. Kierkegaard uses the adversity away when it befalls him because he
same idea that Socrates used in his own writings. He asks obviously cannot know whether it might not in-
the one who wants to be a single individual the following deed be a good for him, into forgetting that the
questions in his 1847 book, Upbuilding Discourses in Vari- devout wise person wins his most beautiful vic-
ous Spirits tory when the powerful one who persecuted him
wants, as they say, to spare him, and the wise one
Everyone must make an accounting to God as replies: I cannot unconditionally wish it, because
an individual; the king must make an accounting I cannot denitely know whether the persecution
to God as an individual, and the most wretched might not indeed be a good for me. Are you do-
beggar must make an accounting to God as an ing good only out of the fear of punishment, so
individual lest anyone be arrogant by being that you scowl even when you will the good, so
more than an individual, lest anyone despon- that in your dreams at night you wish the punish-
dently think that he is not an individual, perhaps ment away and to that extent also the good, and
because in the busyness of the world he does not in your daydreams delude yourself into thinking
even have a name but is designated only by a num- that one can serve the good with a slavish mind?
ber. What else, indeed, is the accounting of eter- Soren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses
nity than that the voice of conscience is installed in Various Spirits, 1847, Hong p. 127-140
eternally in its eternal right to be the only voice!
.... Are you now living in such a way that you Subjectivity comes with consciousness of myself as a self.
are aware of being a single individual and thereby It encompasses the emotional and intellectual resources that
aware of your eternal responsibility before God; the individual is born with. Subjectivity is what the individ-
are you living in such a way that this awareness ual is as a human being. Now the problem of subjectivity is
can acquire the time and stillness and liberty to to decide how to choosewhat rules or models is the indi-
withdraw from life, from an honorable occupa- vidual going to use to make the right choices? What are the
tion, from a happy domestic life on the con- right choices? Who denes right? To be truly an individ-
trary, that awareness will support and transgure ual, to be true to himself, his actions should in some way be
and illuminate your conduct in the relationships expressed so that they describe who and what he is to him-
of life. You are not to withdraw and sit brood- self and to others. The problem, according to Kierkegaard,
ing over your eternal accounting, whereby you is that we must choose who and what we will be based on
only take on a new responsibility. You will nd subjective intereststhe individual must make choices that
more and more time for your duties and tasks, will mean something to him as a reasoning, feeling being.
while concern for your eternal responsibility will
keep you from being busy and from busily tak- Kierkegaard decided to step up to the Tree of the knowledge
ing part in everything possible an activity that of good and evil for himself, replacing Adam, and make his
can best be called a waste of time. .... Have you choice in the presence of God, where no one was there to ac-
made up your mind about how you want to per- cuse or judge him but his Creator. This is what he had Abra-
form your work, or are you continually of two ham do in Fear and Trembling. This is how Kierkegaard
minds because you want to be in agreement with thought learning about oneself takes place. Here is where
the crowd? Do you stick to your bid, not de- the single individual learns about guilt and innocence. His
antly, not despondently, but eternally concerned; book, The Concept of Anxiety, makes clear that Adam did
do you, unchanged, continue to bid on the same have knowledge when he made his choice and that was the
thing and want to buy only the same thing while knowledge of freedom. The prohibition was there but so
the terms are variously being changed? .... Are was freedom and Eve and Adam decided to use it.
you hiding nothing suspicious in your soul, so that In Kierkegaard's meaning, purely theological assertions are
you would still wish things were dierent, so that subjective truths and they cannot be either veried or inval-
you would dare robber-like to seize the reward idated by science, i.e. through objective knowledge.* [18]
for yourself, would dare to parade it, would dare For him, choosing if one is for or against a certain sub-
jective truth is a purely arbitrary choice.* [18] He calls versal aim, the absolute nal end, and
the jump from objective knowledge to religious faith a has, as it were, gathered itself to-
leap of faith, since it means subjectively accepting state- gether out of the wide and manifold
ments which cannot be rationally justied.* [18] For him the interests of actual outward existence
Christian faith is the result of the trajectory initiated by such and concentrated itself in the innite
choices, which don't have and cannot have a rational ground depths of its inner life. Such are the
(meaning that reason is neither for or against making such determinations which follow in a logi-
choices).* [18] Objectively regarded, purely theological as- cal manner from the nature of the No-
sertions are neither true nor false.* [18] tion. At the close it will become ap-
parent that even the original immedi-
acy does not exist as immediacy, but
8.2.10 Three stages of life is something posited. The child it-
self is something begotten. George
Early American Kierkegaard scholars tried to reduce the Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on
complexity of Kierkegaard's authorship by focusing on the Philosophy of Religion vol 1 trans-
three levels of individual existence, which are named in lated by Rev. E B Speiers 1895 p.
passing by one of Kierkegaard's pseudonyms, Johannes 266* [19]
Climacus, who wrote Concluding Unscientic Postscript. In the world of the spirit, the dif-
Though the stages represent only one way of interpreting ferent stages are not like cities on
Kierkegaard's thought, it has become a popular way of in- a journey, about which it is quite
troducing his authorship. In continental European circles, all right for the traveler to say di-
stage theory never took hold in the same way. This typies rectly, for example: We left Peking
what Kierkegaard was talking about throughout his writing and came to Canton and were in Can-
career. Early American scholarsand European cir- ton on the fourteenth. A traveler like
clesdenote partitions of thought concerning the writings that changes places, not himself; and
of his works. He was against reecting oneself out of re- thus it is alright for him to mention
alityand partitioning theworld of the spiritbecause the and to recount the change in a di-
world of the spirit cannot be objectively divided. He wrote rect, unchanged form. But in the
about Hegel's stages in his book, Lectures on the Philosophy world of the spirit to change place
of Religion: is to be changed oneself, and there
all direct assurance of having arrived
These stages may be com- here and there is an attempt a la
pared to those of the ages of man. Munchausen. The presentation itself
The child is still in the primal imme- demonstrates that one has reached
diate unity of the will with nature, as that far place in the world of spirit.
representing both his own nature and ... The pseudonymous author and I
the nature which surrounds him. The along with them were all subjective.
second stage, adolescence, when in- I ask for nothing better than to be
dividuality is in process of becoming known in our objective times as the
independent, is the living spirituality, only person who was not capable of
the vitality of Spirit, which while set- being objective. That subjectivity, in-
ting no end before it as yet, moves for- wardness, is truth, that existing is the
ward, has aspirations, and takes an in- decisive factor, that this was the way
terest in everything which comes its to take to Christianity, which is pre-
way. The third is the age of manhood; cisely inwardness, but please note, not
this is the period of work for a par- every inwardness, which was why the
ticular end, to which the man makes preliminary stages denitely had to
himself subserviently, to which he de- be insisted upon-that was my idea, I
votes his energies. Finally, old age thought that I had found a similar en-
might be considered as a last stage, deavor in the pseudonymous writings,
which having the Universal before it and I have tried to make clear my in-
as an end, and recognizing this end, terpretation of them and their relation
has turned back from the particular to my Fragments. Sren Kierkegaard,
interests of life and work to the uni- Concluding Unscientic Postscript to
Philosophical Fragments, 1846, Hong have become another person; no, he preserved
translation 1992 the friendship unchanged and in that way helped
Peter to become another person. Do you think
In one popular interpretation of stage theory, each of the that Peter would have been won again without
so-called levels of existence envelops those below it: an Christs faithful friendship? But it is so easy
ethical person is still capable of aesthetic enjoyment, for to be a friend when this means nothing else than
example, and a religious person is still capable of aesthetic to request something in particular from the friend
enjoyment and ethical duty. The dierence between these and, if the friend does not respond to the request,
ways of living are internal, not external, and thus there are then to let the friendship cease, until it perhaps
no external signs one can point to determine at what level a begins again if he responds to the request. Is this
person is living. This inner and outer relationship is com- a relationship of friendship? Who is closer to
monly determined by an individual by looking to others to helping an erring one than the person who calls
gauge one's action, Kierkegaard believed one should look to himself his friend, even if the oense is commit-
oneself and in that relationship look to Christ as the exam- ted against the friend! But the friend withdraws
ple instead of looking at others because the more you look and says (indeed, it is as if a third person were
at others the less you see of yourself. This makes it easier to speaking): When he has become another person,
degrade your neighbor instead of loving your neighbor. But then perhaps he can become my friend again. We
one must love the person one sees not the person one wishes are not far from regarding such behavior as mag-
to see. Either love the person you see as that person is the nanimous. But truly we are far from being able
person he is or stop talking about loving everyone.* [20] to say of such a friend that in loving he loves the
person he sees. Christs love was boundless, as it
Back to the Stages. It is markedly dierent must be if this is to be fullled: in loving to love
from Either/Or by a tripartition. There are three the person one sees. This is very easy to perceive.
stages, an esthetic, an ethical, a religious, yet not However much and in whatever way a person is
abstract as the immediate mediate, the unity, but changed, he still is not changed in such a way
concrete in the qualication of existence cate- that he becomes invisible. If this-the impossible-
gories as pleasure-perdition, action-victory, suf- is not the case, then of course we do see him,
fering. But despite this tripartition, the book is and the duty is to love the person one sees. Or-
nevertheless an either/or. That is, the ethical and dinarily we think that if a person has essentially
the religious stages have an essential relation to changed for the worse, he is then so changed that
each other. The inadequacy of Either/Or is sim- we are exempt from loving him. But Christianity
ply that the work ended ethically, as has been asks: Can you because of this change no longer
shown. In Stages that has been made clear, and see him? The answer to that must be: Certainly
the religious is maintained in its place. .... A I can see him; I see that he is no longer worth
story of suering; suering is the religious cat- loving. But if you see this, then you do not really
egory. In Stages the esthete is no longer a clever see him (which you certainly cannot deny you are
fellow frequenting B's living room a hopeful doing in another sense), you see only the unwor-
man, etc., because he still is only a possibility; thiness and the imperfection and thereby admit
no, he is existing [existerer]. It is exactly the that when you loved him you did not see him in
same as Either/Or.Constantin Constantius and another sense but merely saw his excellence and
the Young Man placed together in Quidam of perfections, which you loved.
the experiment. (Humor advanced.) Concluding
Sren Kierkegaard, Works of Love (1847)
Unscientic Postscript, Hong p. 294, Journals of
Hong 1995 p. 172-173
Sren Kierkegaard, VIB 41:10
When a person to whom the possible pertains re-
Christs love for Peter was boundless in this lates himself equally to the duality of the pos-
way: in loving Peter he accomplished loving the sible, we say: He expects. To expect contains
person one sees. He did not say, Peter must within itself the same duality that the possible
rst change and become another person before I has, and to expect is to relate oneself to the pos-
can love him again.No, he said exactly the op- sible purely and simply as such. Then the rela-
posite, Peter is Peter, and I love him. My love, tionship divides according to the way the expect-
if anything will help him to become another per- ing person chooses. To relate oneself expectantly
son.Therefore he did not break o the friend- to the possibility of the good is to hope, which
ship in order perhaps to renew it if Peter would for that very reason cannot be any temporal ex-
pectancy but is an eternal hope. To relate oneself You love the accidental. A
expectancy to the possibility of evil is to fear. But smile from a pretty girl in an inter-
both the one who hopes and the one who fears esting situation, a stolen glance, that
are expecting. As soon, however, as the choice is is what you are hunting for, that is a
made, the possible is changed, because the pos- motif for your aimless fantasy. You
sibility of the good is the eternal. It is only in the who always pride yourself on being
moment of contact that the duality of the possi- an observateur must, in return, put up
ble is equal; therefore, by the decision to choose with becoming an object of observa-
hope, one decided innitely more than it seems, tion. Ah, you are a strange fellow,
because it is an eternal decision. one moment a child, the next an old
People think that they are speaking with am- man; one moment you are thinking
ple experience in dividing a persons life into most earnestly about the most impor-
certain periods and ages and then call the rst tant scholarly problems, how you will
period the age of hope or of possibility. What devote your life to them, and the next
nonsense! Thus, in talk about hope they com- you are a lovesick fool. But you are
pletely leave out the eternal and yet speak about a long way from marriage. Either/Or
hope. But how is this possible, since hope per- Part II p. 7-8
tains to the possibility of the good, and thereby
to the eternal! On the other hand, how is it pos- Just consider, your life is passing;
sible to speak about hope in such a way that it for you, too, the time will eventually
is assigned to a certain age! Surely the eternal come even to you when your life is at
extends over the whole of life and there is and an end, when you are no longer shown
should be hope to the end; then there is no period any further possibilities in life, when
that is the age of hope, but a persons whole life recollection alone is left, recollection,
should be the time of hope! And then they think but not in the sense in which you love
they are speaking with ample experience about it so much, this mixture of ction
hope-by abolishing the eternal. and truth, but the earnest and faithful
recollection of your conscience. Be-
Sren Kierkegaard, Works of Love (1847) ware that it does not unroll a list for
Hong 1995 p. 249-251 you-presumably not of actual crimes
but of wasted possibilities, showdown
pictures it will be impossible for you
Stage one: aesthetic to drive away. The intellectual agility
you possess is very becoming to youth
Kierkegaard was interested in aesthetics, and is sometimes and diverts the eye for a time. We are
referred to as the poet-philosopherbecause of the pas- astonished to see a clown whose joints
sionate way in which he approached philosophy. But he is are so loose that all the restraints of
often said to be interested in showing the inadequacy of a mans gait and posture are annulled.
life lived entirely in the aesthetic level. Aesthetic life is de- You are like that in an intellectual
ned in numerous dierent ways in Kierkegaard's author- sense; you can just as well stand on
ship, including a life dened by intellectual enjoyment, sen- your head as on your feet. Every-
suous desire, and an inclination to interpret oneself as if one thing is possible for you, and you can
were on stage.There are many degrees of this aesthetic surprise yourself and others with this
existence and a single denition is thus dicult to oer. At possibility, but it is unhealthy, and for
bottom, one might see the purely unreective lifestyle. At your own peace of mind I beg you
the top, we might nd those lives which are lived in a reec- to watch out lest that which is an ad-
tive, independent, critical and socially apathetic way. But vantage to you end by becoming a
many interpreters of Kierkegaard believe that most people curse. Any man who has a convic-
live in the least reective sort of aesthetic stage, their lives tion cannot at his pleasure turn him-
and activities guided by everyday tasks and concerns. Fewer self and everything topsy-turvy in this
aesthetically guided people are the reective sort. Whether way. Therefore I do not warn you
such people know it or not, their lives will inevitably lead to against the world but against yourself
complete despair. Kierkegaard's author A is an example of and the world against you. Either/Or
an individual living the aesthetic life. II, Hong p. 16
Stage two: ethical must be made individually. To take responsibility for the
various relationships in which an individual nds him- or
The second level of existence is the ethical. This is where an herself is a possibility open to every human being, but it
individual begins to take on a true direction in life, becom- does not follow that every human being chooses to do so as
ing aware of and personally responsible for good and evil a matter of course. The meaning of a person's life for Wil-
and forming a commitment to oneself and others. One's helm depends on how he takes responsibility for his current
actions at this level of existence have a consistency and co- and future choices, and how he takes ownership of those
herence that they lacked in the previous sphere of existence. choices already made. For Wilhelm, the ethically governed
For many readers of Kierkegaard, the ethical is central. It person takes responsibility for past actions, some good and
calls each individual to take account of their lives and to some bad, seeks consistency, and takes seriously the obli-
scrutinize their actions in terms of absolute responsibility, gation to live in a passionate and devoted way.
which is what Kierkegaard calls repentance. If we com-
pare Kierkegaard's idea of ethics with Vedic system of four
The Christian God is spirit
aims of life, this Ethical system probably correlates most
and Christianity is spirit, and there
with Dharma - following this or that religion,set of rules,
is discord between the esh and the
laws etc. (Hindus would call any religion as dharma,
spirit but the esh is not the sensuous-
though dharma is also a law).
it is the selsh. In this sense, even
the spiritual can become sensuous-for
He repents himself back into himself, back example, if a person took his spiri-
into the family, back into the race, until he nds tual gifts in vain, he would then be
himself in God. Only on this condition can he carnal. And of course I know that
choose himself. And this is the only condition he it is not necessary for the Christian
wants, for only in this way can he choose himself that Christ must have been physically
absolutely.....I repent myself out of the whole beautiful; and it would be grievous-for
existence. Repentance specically expresses that a reason dierent from the one you
evil essentially belongs to me and at the same give-because if beauty were some es-
time expresses that it does not essentially belong sential, how the believer would long
to me. If the evil in me did not essentially be- to see him; but from all this it by
long to me, I could not choose it; but if there no means follows that the sensuous is
were something in me that I could not choose annihilated in Christianity. The rst
absolutely, then I would not be choosing myself love has the element of beauty in it-
absolutely at all, then I myself would not be the self, and the joy and fullness that are
absolute but only a product..... It is a sign in the sensuous in its innocence can
of a well brought up child to be inclined to say very well be caught up in Christian-
it is sorry without too much pondering whether ity. But let us guard against one thing,
it is in the right or not, and it is likewise a sign a wrong turn that is more dangerous
of a high-minded person and a deep soul if he than the one you wish to avoid; let us
is inclined to repent, if he does not take God to not become too spiritual. Either/Or
court but repents and loves God in his repentance. Part II p. 50
Without this, his life is nothing, only like foam.
... The Either/Or I erected between living es- The question, namely, is this: Can
thetically and living ethically is not an unquali- this love be actualized? After having
ed dilemma, because it actually is a matter of conceded everything up to this point,
only one choice. Through this choice, I actually you perhaps will say: Well, it is just
choose between good and evil, but I choose the as dicult to actualize marriage as to
good, I choose eo ipso the choice between good actualize rst love. To that I must re-
and evil. The original choice is forever present spond: No, for in marriage there is a
in every succeeding choice.Sren Kierkegaard, law of motion. First love remains an
Either/Or Part II, Hong, p. 216-217, 224, 237- unreal in itself that never acquires in-
238, 219 ner substance because it moves only in
the external medium. In the ethical
Judge Wilhelm,a pseudonymous author of Either/Or and and religious intention, marital love
the voice who denes the ethical consciousness, argues that has the possibility of an inner history
the commitment to take responsibility for one's own choices and is as dierent from rst love as
the historical is from the unhistori- moment is all and to that extent, in turn, essen-
cal. This love is strong, stronger than tially nothing, just as the Sophistic thesis that
the whole world, but the moment it everything is true is that nothing is true. On
doubts it is annihilated; it is like a the whole the conception of time is the deci-
sleepwalker who is able to walk the sive element in every standpoint up to the para-
most dangerous places with the com- dox, which paradoxically accentuates time. To
plete security but plunges down when the degree that time is accentuated, to the same
someone calls his name. Marital love degree there is movement from the esthetic, the
is armed, for in the intention not only metaphysical, to the ethical, the religious, and the
is attentiveness directed to the sur- Christian-religious. Where Johannes the Seducer
rounding world but the will is directed ends, the Judge begins: Womans beauty in-
toward itself, toward the inner world. creases with the years. Here time is accentuated
Either/Or II p. 94 ethically, but still not in such a way that precludes
the possibility of recollections withdrawal out
The choice itself is crucial for the of existence into the eternal. p. 298-299
content of the personality: through If a man like Kant, standing on the pinna-
the choice the personality submerges cle of scientic scholarship, were to say in refer-
itself in that which is being chosen, ence to demonstrations of the existence of God:
and when it does not choose, it with- Well, I do not know anything more about that
ers away in atrophy. ... Imagine a cap- than that my father told me it was so-this is hu-
tain of a ship the moment a shift of morous and actually says more than a whole book
direction must be made; then he may about demonstrations, if the book forgets this. p.
be able to say: I can do either this 552-553
or that. But if he is not a mediocre
captain he will also be aware that dur- The Kierkegaardian pseudonyms who speak of stage theory
ing all this the ship is ploughing ahead consider religion to be the highest stage in human existence.
with its ordinary velocity, and thus In one discussion of religious life, one of Kierkegaard's
there is but a single moment when it is pseudonyms, Johannes Climacus, distinguishes two types
inconsequential whether he does this within this stage, which have been called Religiousness A
or does that. So also with a person- and Religiousness B.* [21] One type is symbolized by the
if he forgets to take into account the Greek philosopher Socrates, whose passionate pursuit of
velocity-there eventually comes a mo- the truth and individual conscience came into conict with
ment where it is no longer a matter his society. Another type of religiousness is one charac-
of an Either/Or, not because he has terized by the realization that the individual is sinful and is
chosen, but because he has refrained the source of untruth. In time, through revelation and in
from it, which also can be expressed direct relationship with the paradox that is Jesus, the indi-
by saying: Because others have cho- vidual begins to see that his or her eternal salvation rests
sen for him-or because he has lost on a paradoxGod, the transcendent, coming into time in
himself. Either/Or II p. 163-164 human form to redeem human beings. For Kierkegaard,
the very notion of this occurring was scandalous to human
reasonindeed, it must be, and if it is not then one does
Stage three: religious not truly understand the Incarnation nor the meaning of hu-
man sinfulness. For Kierkegaard, the impulse towards an
The ethical and the religious are intimately connected: a awareness of a transcendent power in the universe is what
person can be ethically serious without being religious, but religion is. Religion has a social and an individual (not just
the religious stage includes the ethical. Whereas living in personal) dimension. But it begins with the individual and
the ethical sphere involves a commitment to some moral ab- his or her awareness of sinfulness. Here are several quotes
solute, living in the religious sphere involves a commitment from Kierkegaard's where he discusses his concept of sin.
and relation to the Christian God. Kierkegaard explained
this in Concluding Unscientic Postscript like this:
The sin/faith opposition is the Christian one
which transforms all ethical concepts in a Chris-
Johannes the Seducer ends with the thesis tian way and distils one more decoction from
that woman is only the moment. This in its gen- them. At the root of the opposition lies the cru-
eral sense is the essential esthetic thesis, that the cial Christian specication: before God; and that
8.3. KIERKEGAARD'S THOUGHTS ON OTHER PHILOSOPHERS 63
in turn has the crucial Christian characteristic:

the absurd, the paradox, the possibility of of-
fense. And it is of the utmost importance that
this is demonstrated in every specication of the
Christian, since oense is the Christian protec-
tion against all speculative philosophy. In what,
then, do we nd the possibility of oense here?
In the fact that a person should have the reality
of his being, as a particular human being, di-
rectly before God, and accordingly, again, and
by the same token, that mans sin should be of
concern of God. This notion of the single hu-
man being before God never occurs to specula-
tive thought; it only universalizes particular hu-
man phantastically into the human race. It is ex-
actly for this reason that a disbelieving Christian-
ity came up with the idea that sin is sin, that it is
neither here nor there whether it is before God. In
other words, it wanted to get rid of the specica-
tionbefore God , and to that end invented a new
wisdom, which nevertheless, curiously enough,
was neither more nor less than what the higher
wisdom generally is-old paganism. The Sickness Fichte
Unto Death, Hannay, 1989 p. 115
Admittance is only through the consciousness wrote the book The Vocation of Man (1800) which called
of sin; to want to enter by any other road is high for a progression in the life of the human being from doubt
treason against Christianity. The simple soul to knowledge and then to faith. De omnibus dubitandum est
who humbly acknowledges himself to be a sinner, is from Descartes and means everything must be doubted.
himself personally (the single individual), has no Both Kierkegaard and Fichte were interested in this idea of
need at all to learn about all the diculties that beginning with doubt as well as subjectivity. Kierkegaard
come when one is neither simple or humble. wrote: In Fichte, subjectivity became free, innite, neg-
To the extent Christianity, terrifying, will rise up ative. But in order for subjectivity to get out of this move-
against him and transform itself into madness or ment of emptiness in which it moved in innite abstraction,
horror until he either learns to give up Christian- it had to be negated; in order for thought to become actual,
ity or-by means of what is anything but scholarly it had to become concrete.* [23]
propaedeutics, apologetics, etc., by means of the
anguish of a contrite conscience, all in propor- Our whole age is imbued with a formal striv-
tion to his need-learns to enter into Christianity ing. This is what led us to disregard congenial-
by the narrow way, through the consciousness of ity and to emphasize symmetrical beauty, to pre-
sin. Practice in Christianity, Hong, 1991, p. 67- fer conventional rather than sincere social rela-
68 tions. It is this whole striving which is denoted by
to use the words of another author Fichte's
and the other philosophers' attempts to construct
8.3 Kierkegaard's thoughts on other systems by sharpness of mind and Robespierre's
attempt to do it with the help of the guillotine;
philosophers it is this which meets us in the owing buttery
verses of our poets and in Auber's music, and -
8.3.1 Kierkegaard and Fichte nally, it is this which produces the many revo-
lutions in the political world. I agree perfectly
Kierkegaard wrote much about Johann Gottlieb Fichte in with this whole eort to cling to form, insofar as
his thesis The Concept of Irony* [22] as well as in his it continues to be the medium through which we
rst book De omnibus dubitandum est, written under the have the idea, but it should not be forgotten that it
pseudonym Johannes Climacus, and his Journals. Fichte is the idea which should determine the form, not
the form which determines the idea. We should Many philosophers think that one of Kierkegaard's great-
keep in mind that life is not something abstract est contributions to philosophy is his critique of Georg
but something extremely individual. We should Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Indeed, many of Kierkegaard's
not forget that, for example, from a poetic genius' works are written in response to or as a critique of Hegel.
position of immediacy, form is nothing but the Although Kierkegaard strongly criticized some aspects of
coming into existence of the idea in the world, Hegelian philosophy, his work also shows that he was also
and that the task of reection is only to investi- positively inuenced by Hegel, and had respect for Hegel
gate whether or not the idea has gotten the prop- himself.
erly corresponding form. Form is not the basis of
life, but life is the basis of form. Imagine that a Now everything is set in motion, and usually
man long infatuated with the Greek mode of life this also involves making the system popular
had acquired the means to arrange for a build- per systema inuxus physici it lays hold of all
ing in the Greek style and a Grecian household men. How Kant was treated in his time is well
establishment whether or not he would be sat- known, and therefore I need only mention the in-
ised would be highly problematical, or would he nite mass of lexicons, summaries, popular pre-
soon prefer another form simply because he had sentations, and explanations for everyman, etc.
not suciently tested himself and the system in And how did Hegel fare later, Hegel, the most
which he lived. But just as a leap backward is modern philosopher, who because of his rigor-
wrong (something the age, on the whole, is in- ous form would most likely command silence?
clined to acknowledge), so also a leap forward Has not the logical trinity been advanced in the
is wrong both of them because a natural de- most ludicrous way? And therefore it did not
velopment does not proceed by leaps, and life's astound me that my shoemaker had found that
earnestness will ironize over every such exper- it could also be applied to the development of
iment, even if it succeeds momentarily. Soren boots, since, as he observes, the dialectic, which
Kierkegaard, Journals, Our Journalistic Litera- is always the rst stage in life, nds expression
ture November 28, 1835 even here, however insignicant this may seem,
in the squeaking, which surely has not escaped
the attention of some more profound research
8.3.2 Kierkegaard and Hegel psychologist. Unity, however, appears only later,
in which respect his shoes far surpass all others,
which usually disintegrate in the dialectic, a unity
which reached the highest level in that pair of
boots Carl XII wore on his famous ride, and since
he as an orthodox shoemaker proceeded from the
thesis that the immediate (feet without shoes
shoes without feet) is a pure abstraction and took
it [the dialectical] as the rst stage in the devel-
opment. And now our modern politicians! By
veritably taking up Hegel, they have given a strik-
ing example of the way one can serve two mas-
ters, in that their revolutionary striving is paired
with a life-outlook which is a remedy for it, an
excellent remedy for lifting part of the illusion
which is necessary for encouraging their fantas-
tic striving. And the actuality of the phenomenon
will surely not be denied if one recalls that the
words immediate or spontaneous unityoccur
just as necessarily in every scientic-scholarly
treatise as a brunette or a blonde in every well-
ordered romantic household. At the happy mo-
ment everyone received a copy of Holy Scrip-
tures, in which there was one book which was al-
most always too brief and sometimes almost in-
Hegel visible, and this was, I regret the Acts of the
Apostles. And how curious it is to note that the this whole. Hegel claimed that the doctrines and history
present age, whose social striving is trumpeted of Christianity could be explained as a part of the rational
quite enough, is ashamed of the monks and nuns unfolding and development of our understanding of the nat-
of the Middle Ages, when at the same time, to ural world and our place within it. Kierkegaard considered
conne ourselves to our own native land, a so- Hegel's explanation of Christianity as a necessary part of
ciety has been formed here which seems to em- world history to be a distortion of the Christian message
brace almost the entire kingdom and in which a and a misunderstanding of the limits of human reason. He
speaker began thus: Dear Brothers and Sisters. attempted to refute this aspect of Hegel's thought by sug-
How remarkable to see them censure the Jesuitry gesting that many doctrines of Christianity - including the
of the Middle Ages, since precisely the liberal de- doctrine of Incarnation, a God who is also human - cannot
velopment, as does every one-sided enthusiasm, be explained rationally but remain a logical paradox. How-
has led and must lead to that. And now Chris- ever, he was in favor of youthful striving after truth.
tianity how has it been treated? I share en-
tirely your disapproval of the way every Christian Let a doubting youth, but an existing doubter
concept has become so volatilized, so completely with youths lovable, boundless condence in
dissolved in a mass of fog, that it is beyond all a hero of scientic scholarship, venture to nd
recognition. To the concepts of faith, incarna- in Hegelian positivity the truth, the truth of
tion, tradition, inspiration, which in the Christian existence-he will write a dreadful epigram on
sphere are to lead to a particular historical fact, Hegel. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean
the philosophers choose to give an entirely dier- that every youth is capable of overcoming Hegel,
ent, ordinary meaning, whereby faith has become far from it. If a young person is conceited and
the immediate consciousness, which essentially foolish enough to try that, his attack is inane. No,
is nothing other than the vitale Fluidum of men- the youth must never think of wanting to attack
tal life, its atmosphere, and tradition has become him; he must rather be willing to submit uncon-
the content of a certain experience of the world, ditionally to Hegel with feminine devotedness,
while inspiration has become nothing more than but nevertheless with sucient strength also to
God's breathing of the life-spirit into man, and stick to his question-then he is a satirist without
incarnation no more than the presence of one or suspecting it. The youth is an existing doubter;
another idea in one or more individuals. Jour- continually suspended in doubt, he grasps for the
nals IA 328 1836 or 1837 truth-so that he can exist in it. Consequently,
he is negative, and Hegels philosophy is, of
In a journal entry made in 1844, Kierkegaard wrote: course, positive-no wonder he puts his trust in
it. But for an existing person pure thinking is a
If Hegel had written the whole of his logic chimera when the truth is supposed to be the truth
and then said, in the preface or some other place, in which to exist. Having to exist with the help
that it was merely an experiment in thought in of the guidance of pure thinking is like having to
which he had even begged the question in many travel in Denmark with a small map of Europe
places, then he would certainly have been the on which Denmark is no larger than a steel pen-
greatest thinker who had ever lived. As it is, he point, indeed, even more impossible. The youth
is merely comic. s admiration, his enthusiasm, and his limitless
Sren Kierkegaard, (Journals, 1844* [6]) condence in Hegel are precisely the satire on
Hegel. This would have been discerned long ago
if pure thinking had not maintained itself with
the aid of a reputation that impresses people, so
While Kierkegaard was a student of theology at the that they dare not say anything except that it is
University of Copenhagen, Hegelianism had become in- superb, that they have understood it-although in
creasingly popular. Johan Ludvig Heiberg and Hans a certain sense that it is indeed impossible, since
Lassen Martensen were key gures in Danish Hegelianism. no one can be led by this philosophy to under-
Kierkegaard remarked in his journal on 17 May 1843 that stand himself, which is certainly an absolute con-
Heiberg's writings wereborrowedfrom Hegel, implying dition for all other understanding. Socrates has
Heiberg would have been a nobody without Hegel. rather ironically said that he did not know for sure
Kierkegaard objected to Hegel's claim that he had devised whether he was a human being or something else,
a system of thought that could explain the whole of real- but in the confessional a Hegelian can say with all
ity, with a dialectical analysis of history leading the way to solemnity: I do not know whether I am a human
being-but I have understood the system. I prefer lead readers away from knowledge rather than
to say: I know that I am a human being, and I towards it.
know that I have not understood the system. And Sren Kierkegaard, William McDonald
when I have said that very directly, I shall add that
if any of our Hegelians want to take me into hand
and assist me to an understanding of the system, By doing this, Hegelian critics accuse Kierkegaard of us-
nothing will stand in the way from my side. In ing the dialectic to disprove the dialectic, which seems
order that I can learn all the more, I shall try hard somewhat contradictory and hypocritical. However,
to be as obtuse as possible, so as not to have, if Kierkegaard would not claim the dialectic itself is bad, only
possible, a single presupposition except my igno- the Hegelian premise that the dialectic would lead to a har-
rance. And in order to be sure of learning some- monious reconciliation of everything, which Hegel called the
thing, I shall try hard to be as indierent as pos- Absolute. Kierkegaard stated this most clearly in his book
sible to all charges of being unscientic and un- The Concept of Anxiety,
scholarly. Existing, if this is to be understood as
just any sort of existing, cannot be done without
passion. Dogmatics must not explain hereditary sin
but rather explain it by presupposing it, like
Soren Kierkegaard 1846, Concluding Un- that vortex about which Greek speculation con-
scientic Postscript to Philosophical Frag- cerning nature had so much to say, a mov-
ments, Hong p. 310-311 ing something that no science can grasp. That
such is the case with dogmatics will readily be
To refute Hegel's claim that Christianity should be un- granted if once again time is taken to understand
derstood as a part of the necessary evolution of thought, Schleiermachers immortal service to this sci-
or in Hegelians terms, Spirit, in Fear and Trembling, ence. He was left behind long ago when men
Kierkegaard attempts to use the story of Abraham to show chose Hegel. Yet Schleiermacher was a thinker
that there is a goal higher than that of ethics (questioning in the beautiful Greek sense, a thinker who spoke
the Hegelian claim that doing one's ethical duty is the high- only of what he knew. Hegel, on the contrary,
est that can be said of a human being) and that faith cannot despite all his outstanding ability and stupen-
be explained by Hegelian ethics, (disproving Hegel's claim dous learning, reminds us again and again by his
that Christianity can be rationally explained by philosophy). performance that he was in the German sense
Either way, this work can be read as a challenge to the a professor of philosophy on a large scale, be-
Hegelian notion that a human being's ultimate purpose is cause he a tout prix [at any price] must explain
to fulll ethical demands. all things. The Concept of Anxiety, by Reidar
Thomte Princeton University Press 1980 P. 20
Kierkegaard's strategy was to invert this
dialectic by seeking to make everything more
dicult. Instead of seeing scientic knowledge Kierkegaardian scholars have made several interpretations
as the means of human redemption, he regarded of how Kierkegaard proceeds with parodying Hegel's di-
it as the greatest obstacle to redemption. Instead alectic. One of the more popular interpretations argues
of seeking to give people more knowledge he the aesthetic-ethical-religious stages are the triadic process
sought to take away what passed for knowledge. Kierkegaard was talking about. See section Spheres of ex-
Instead of seeking to make God and Christian istence for more information. Another interpretation ar-
faith perfectly intelligible he sought to emphasize gues for the world-individual-will triadic process. The di-
the absolute transcendence by God of all human alectic here is either to assert an individual's own desire
categories. Instead of setting himself up as a to be independent and the desire to be part of a commu-
religious authority, Kierkegaard used a vast array nity. Instead of reconciliation of the world and the indi-
of textual devices to undermine his authority as vidual where problems between the individual and society
an author and to place responsibility for the ex- are neatly resolved in the Hegelian system, Kierkegaard ar-
istential signicance to be derived from his texts gues that there's a delicate bond holding the interaction be-
squarely on the reader. Kierkegaard's tactic tween them together, which needs to be constantly reaf-
in undermining Hegelianism was to produce an rmed. Jean-Paul Sartre takes this latter view and says the
elaborate parody of Hegel's entire system. The individual is in a constant state of rearming his or her own
pseudonymous authorship, from Either/Or to identity, else one falls into bad faith.
Concluding Unscientic Postscript, presents an This process of reconciliation leads to a both/andview
inverted Hegelian dialectic which is designed to of life, where both thesis and antithesis are resolved into
a synthesis, which negates the importance of personal re- Here are two more from 1846
sponsibility and the human choice of either/or. The work
Either/Or is a response to this aspect of Hegel's philoso- As is well known, Hegelian philosophy has
phy. A passage from that work exemplies Kierkegaard's canceled the principle of contradiction, and
contempt for Hegel's philosophy. Note the comparison be- Hegel himself has more than once emphatically
tween Aand B(Judge Vilhelm) in Either/Or and held judgment day on the kind of thinkers who
Stages on Life's Way. remained in the sphere of understanding and re-
ection and who have therefore insisted that there
is an either/or. Since that time, it has become
Marry, and you will regret it. Do not marry,
a popular game, so that as soon as someone
and you will also regret it. Marry or do not
hints at an aut/aut [either/or] a Hegelian comes
marry, you will regret it either way. Whether
riding trip-trap-trap on horse and wins a vic-
you marry or you do not marry, you will regret it
tory and rides home again. Among us, too, the
either way. Laugh at the stupidities of the world,
Hegelians have several times been on the move,
and you will regret it; weep over them, and you
especially against Bishop Mynster, in order to
will also regret it. Laugh at the stupidities of the
win speculative thoughts brilliant victory; and
world or weep over them, you will regret it either
Bishop Mynster, has more than once become a
way. Whether you laugh at the stupidities of the
defeated standpoint, even though for being a de-
world or you weep over them, you will regret it
feated standpoint he is holding up very well, and
either way. Trust a girl, and you will regret it.
it is rather to be feared that the enormous exer-
Do not trust her, and you will also regret it.
tion of the victory has been too exhausting to the
Hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will
undefeated victors. And yet there may be a mis-
regret it either way. Whether you hang yourself
understanding at the root at the conict and the
or do not hang yourself, you will regret it either
victory, Hegel is perfectly and absolutely right in
way. This, gentlemen, is the quintessence of all
maintaining that, looked at eternally, sub specie
the wisdom of life.
aeterni, there is no aut/aut either/or in the lan-
Sren Kierkegaard, Either/Or Part I, Hong
guage of abstraction, in pure thought and pure
being. Where the devil would it be, since abstrac-
tion, after all, simply removes the contradiction;
My dear reader, if you do not have the time therefor [sic] Hegel and the Hegelians should in-
and opportunity to take a dozen years of your stead take the trouble to explain what is meant by
life to travel around the world to see everything the masquerade of getting contradiction, move-
a world traveler is acquainted with, if you do not ment, transition, etc. into logic. The defenders
have the capability and qualications from years of aut/aut are in the wrong if they push their way
of practice in a foreign language to penetrate into the territory of pure thinking and want to de-
to the dierences in national characteristics as fend their cause there. Concluding Unscientic
these become apparent to the research scholar, Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, Volume I
if you are not bent upon discovering a new p. 305
astronomical system that will displace both the
Copernican and the Ptolemaic-then marry; and According to Hegel the truth is the contin-
if you have time for the rst, the capability for uous world-historical process. Each generation,
the second, the idea for the last, then marry also. each stage of this process, is legitimated and yet
Even if you did not manage to see the whole is only an element of the truth. Short of resort-
globe or to speak in many tongues or to know ing to a bit of charlatanry, which helps by assum-
all about the heavens, you will not regret it, for ing that the generation in which Hegel lived or
marriage is and remains the most important the one after him is imprimatur, and this gen-
voyage of discovery a human being undertakes; eration is the last and world history is past, we
compared with a married mans knowledge of are all implicated in skepticism. The passion-
life, any other knowledge of it is supercial, for ate question of truth does not even come up, be-
he and he alone has properly immersed himself cause philosophy has rst tricked the individuals
in life. into becoming objective. The positive Hegelian
Sren Kierkegaard, Judge Vilhelm, Stages on truth is just as deceptive as happiness was in pa-
Life's Way, Hong p. 89 ganism. Not until afterward does one come to
know whether or not one has been happy, and
thus the next generation comes to know what of Berlin. The university started a lecture series given by
truth was in the preceding generation. The great Schelling in order to espouse a type of positive philoso-
secret of the system is close to Protagorass phy which would be diametrically opposed to Hegelianism.
sophism Everything is relative, except that Kierkegaard was initially delighted with Schelling. Before
here everything is relative in the continuous pro- he left Copenhagen to attend Schelling's lectures in Berlin,
cess. But no living soul is served by that he wrote to his friend Peter Johannes Sprang:
Concluding Unscientic Postscript to Philosophi-
cal Fragments Volume I, by Johannes Climacus, Schelling lectures to a select, numerous,
edited by Sren Kierkegaard, Copyright 1846 and yet also undique conatum auditorium.
Edited and Translated by Howard V. Hong and During the rst lectures it was almost a matter of
Edna H. Hong 1992, Princeton University Press. risking one's life to hear him. I have never in my
Note p. 33 life experienced such uncomfortable crowding
still, what would one not do to be able to
The whole idea of one generation spending all its time hear Schelling? His main point is always that
studying past generations and then the next generation there are two philosophies, one positive and
spending their time studying past generations and making one negative. The negative is given, but not by
moral and social comments about preceding generations Hegel, for Hegel's is neither negative nor positive
was called,The Hegelian cud-chewing process with three- but a rened Spinozaism. The positive is yet to
stomachs - rst immediacy - then regurgitation - then down come. In other words, in the future it will not
again.He said, Maybe a succeeding master-mind could be only the lawyers who become the doctores
continue this with four stomachs, etc., down once more and juris utriusque, for I venture to atter myself that
up again. I don't know if the master-mind grasps what I without submitting another dissertation I shall
mean.* [24] become a magister philosophiae utriusque.
Sren Kierkegaard, (Journals, 1841)* [6]
8.3.3 Kierkegaard and Schelling

At Berlin, Kierkegaard gave high praises to Schelling. In a
journal entry made sometime around October or Novem-
ber 1841, Kierkegaard wrote this piece about Schelling's
second lecture:
I am so pleased to have heard Schelling's

second lecture -- indescribably! I have sighed for
long enough and my thoughts have sighed within
me; when he mentioned the word, reality
in connection with the relation of philosophy
to reality the fruit of my thought leapt for joy
within me. I remember almost every word he
said from that moment on. Now I have put all
my hopes in Schelling!
As time went on, however, Kierkegaard, as well as many

in Schelling's audience, began to become disillusioned with
Schelling. In a particularly insulting letter about Schelling,
Kierkegaard wrote to his brother, Peter Kierkegaard:
Schelling Schelling drivels on quite intolerably! If you

want to form some idea what this is like then
In 18411842, Kierkegaard attended the Berlin lectures of I ask you to submit yourself to the following
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling. Schelling was experiment as a sort of self-inicted sadistic
a critic of Georg Hegel and a professor at the University punishment. Imagine person R's meandering
philosophy, his entirely aimless, haphazard cause Schelling shifted his focus on actuality, including
knowledge, and person Hornsyld's untiring a discussion on quid sit [what is] and quod sit [that is],
eorts to display his learning: imagine the two to a more mythological, psychic-type pseudo-philosophy.
combined and in addition to an impudence Kierkegaard's last writing about Schelling's lectures was on
hitherto unequalled by any philosopher; and 4 February 1842. He wrote the following in 1844,
with that picture vividly before your poor mind
go to the workroom of a prison and you will Some men of Schellings school have been
have some idea of Schelling's philosophy. He especially aware of the alteration that has taken
even lectures longer to prolong the torture. place in nature because of sin. Mention has been
Consequently, I have nothing to do in Berlin. I made also of the anxiety that is supposed to be
am too old to attend lectures and Schelling is too in inanimate nature. Schellings main thought
old to give them. So I shall leave Berlin as soon is that anxiety, etc., characterize the suering of
as possible. But if it wasn't for Schelling, I would the deity in his endeavor to create. In Berlin
never have travelled to Berlin. I must thank him he expressed the same thought more denitely
for that. I think I should have become utterly by comparing God with Goethe and Jon Von
insane if I had gone on hearing Schelling. Muller,* [25] both of whom felt well only when
Sren Kierkegaard, (Journals, 27 February producing, and also by calling attention to the fact
1842)* [6] that such a bliss, when it cannot communicate it-
self, is unhappiness. The Concept of Anxiety P.
59-60 Note p. 59
It is common knowledge that Aristotle used
the term rst philosophy primarily to desig-
Although Schelling had little inuence on Kierkegaard's
nate metaphysics, though he included within it a
subsequent writings, Kierkegaard's trip to Berlin provided
part that accorded to our conception belongs to
him ample time to work on his masterpiece, Either/Or. In
theology. In paganism it is quite in order for the-
a reection about Schelling in 1849, Kierkegaard remarked
ology to be treated there. It is related to the same
that Schelling was like the Rhine at its mouth where it be-
lack of an innite penetration reection that en-
came stagnant water - he was degenerating into a Prussian
dowed the theater in paganism with reality as a
Excellency. (Journals, January 1849)* [6]
kind of divine worship. If we now abstract from
this ambiguity, we could retain the designation
and by rst philosophy understand that totality of
8.3.4 Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer
science which we might call ethnical,whose
essence is immanence and is expressed in Greek
Kierkegaard became acquainted with Arthur Schopen-
thought by recollection,and by second phi-
hauer's writings quite late in his life. Kierkegaard felt
losophy understand that totality of science whose
Schopenhauer was an important writer, but disagreed on
essence is transcendence or repetition. Schelling
almost every point Schopenhauer made. In several journal
called attention to this Aristotelian term in sup-
entries made in 1854, a year before he died, Kierkegaard
port of his own distinction between negative and
spoke highly of Schopenhauer:
positive philosophy. By negative philosophy he
meant logic; that was clear enough. On the
other hand, it was less clear to me what he really In the same way that one disinfects the
meant by positive philosophy, except insofar as it mouth during an epidemic so as not to be
became evident that it was the philosophy that he infected by breathing in the poisonous air, one
himself wished to provide. However, since I have might recommend students who will have to live
nothing to go by except my own opinion, it is not in Denmark in an atmosphere of nonsensical
feasible to pursue this subject further. Constantin Christian optimism, to take a little dose of
Constantius has called attention to this by point- Schopenhauer's Ethic in order to protect them-
ing out that immanence runs aground upon in- selves against infection from that malodourous
terest.With this concept, actuality for the rst twaddle.
time comes into view. Sren Kierkegaard, The Sren Kierkegaard, (Journals, 1854)* [6]
Concept of Anxiety 1844, p. 21 and Note p. 21
Nichol
However, Kierkegaard also considered him, a most danger-
Kierkegaard became disillusioned with Schelling partly be- ous sign of things to come:
This is extremely suspicious, and may even con-

ceal the most terrible and corrupting voluptuous
melancholy: a profound misanthropy. In this
too it is suspicious, for it is always suspicious to
propound an ethic which does not exert so much
power over the teacher that he himself expresses.
Schopenhauer makes ethics into genius, but that
is of course an unethical conception of ethics.
He makes ethics into genius and although he
prides himself quite enough on being a genius, it
has not pleased him, or nature has not allowed
him, to become a genius where asceticism and
mortication are concerned.
Little else is known about Kierkegaard's attitude to

Schopenhauer. On Schopenhauer himself, Kierkegaard
felt that Schopenhauer would have been patronizing.
Schopenhauer interests me very much, as does his fate in
Germany. If I could talk to him I am sure he would shudder
or laugh if I were to show him [my philosophy].(Journals,
Arthur Schopenhauer 1854)* [6]
Schopenhauer is so far from being a real 8.4 Kierkegaard and Eastern philos-
pessimist that at the most he represents 'the in-
teresting': in a certain sense he makes asceticism ophy
interesting--the most dangerous thing possible
for a pleasure-seeking age which will be harmed Because Kierkegaard read Schopenhauer, and because
more than ever by distilling pleasure even out Schopenhauer was heavily inuenced by Eastern philoso-
of asceticism is by studying asceticism in a phy, it would seem that Kierkegaard would have shown
completely impersonal way, by assigning it a an awareness of Eastern philosophy. There is, however,
place in the system. little direct reference to Asian thought in Kierkegaard's
Sren Kierkegaard, (Journals, 1854)* [6] writings. Anyone who is familiar with such Asian tradi-
tions as Buddhist, Taoist, or Shinto philosophy, will quickly
see the philosophical similarities that Kierkegaard shares
Kierkegaard believes Schopenhauer's ethical point of view with these traditions. These similarities perhaps explain
is that the individual succeeds in seeing through the the Japanese reception of Kierkegaard and the fact that
wretchedness of existence and then decides to deaden or Japanese awareness and translations of Kierkegaard were
mortify the joy of life. As a result of this complete asceti- appearing at least 30 years before any English transla-
cism, one reaches contemplation: the individual does this tions.* [26] There is also extensive Japanese scholarship
out of sympathy. He sympathizes with all the misery and on Kierkegaard, a scholarship that interprets Kierkegaard's
the misery of others, which is to exist. Kierkegaard here philosophy in terms of Asian thought.* [27] This interpre-
is probably referring to the pessimistic nature of Schopen- tation is understandable when one sees that Kierkegaard's
hauer's philosophy. One of Kierkegaard's main concerns is central concerns of subjectivity, anxiety, freedom, despair,
a suspicion of his whole philosophy: and self-deception, are also of central concern to Buddhism
and, consequently, that there is nothing exclusively Chris-
After reading through Schopenhauer's tian about such concerns.* [28] Both Kierkegaard and Zen
Ethic one learns - naturally he is to that extent Buddhism, for example, have seen the predicaments of ex-
honest - that he himself is not an ascetic. istence in very similar ways.* [29] A specic example of
And consequently he himself has not reached the similarities here can be seen in Purity of Heart where
contemplation through asceticism, but only a Kierkegaard describes the state of awareness that one must
contemplation which contemplates asceticism. enter in order to partake of confession. Kierkegaard's de-
8.4. KIERKEGAARD AND EASTERN PHILOSOPHY 71
scription of this state is similar to the state of meditation de- natures such as St. Theresa, Pascal,
scribed by Buddhist philosophers.* [30] It is distinct, how- and Soren Kierkegaard. There is no
ever, in that the aim of confession, for Kierkegaard, is to doubt an element of deep pathos in
center itself upon this relation to itself as an individual who Augustine also, but in his case we
is responsible to God(cf. Kierkegaard,Purity of Heart have the Platonist and the prince of
).* [31] Kierkegaard aims to claim back the subject from the the church combined with the earnest
crowdmentality of Christendom (cf. Kierkegaard,On seeker, and it is the combination of
the Dedication to 'That Single Individual' ")* [32] and reaf- all these elements which renders him
rm the absolute responsibility to God, which is our telos such a unique gure in the history of
(cf. Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling).* [33] the religious life. St. Theresa felt the
need of union with God so powerfully
Harald Hoding (1843-1931) helped introduce
Kierkegaard to Western Europe in the early years of that death alone could satisfy it: I
knew not where else to seek this life
the 20th century. He compared Kierkegaard to Eastern
philosophy in his 1914 book The Philosophy Of Religion in but in death. The sh, drawn out of
the water, sees at any rate the end of
this way:
its torment; but what death can com-
A characteristic and very fre- pare with the life in which I languish?
quent type of religious faith is de- With Kierkegaard, too, his great
termined by the need of rest. The desire was to be released from the
main cause of fatigue and exhaustion struggle of life. The lines which he
in life is chiey unrest and distrac- desired should be inscribed on his
tion of mind. We are inuenced on gravestone express this longing: A
so many sides that it is dicult for us little while the search is oer. The
to collect our thoughts; we are drawn din of battle sounds no more.In this
in so many directions that we nd it life the believer nds himself in an
dicult to focus our will on any one alien element; between the inner and
aim; so many dierent and chang- the outer, between life and its condi-
ing feelings are aroused that the in- tions there is a want of harmony. In
ner harmony of the mind is exposed Kierkegaard s case, too, we get the
to the danger of dissolution. Owing metaphor of the sh out of water; it
to this feeling of mist with our ideal is characteristic of this type that the
we experience an inner need, while same gure should be employed by
our outer needs are borne in upon us the ancient Indians in the Upanishads,
in the guise of pain, frailty, and de- by the Spanish nun of the sixteenth
pendence on the elementary wants of century, and by the northern thinker
life. In the Upanishads we nd:The of the nineteenth century. This trait
Self (Atma), the sinless one, who re- sheds a light on the psychology of re-
deems from old age, death, suer- ligion. The aim of man is innite,
ing, hunger, and thirst, whose wishes but he is condemned to spend his life
are the right ones and whose decree in the world of nitude, and hence
is the right one I am that self which it follows that his existence acquires
men must inquire after and seek to a sort of spasmodic character. In
know. He who has found and known Kierkegaard, and even in Pascal, this
this Self has attained all worlds and all opposition is more sharply brought
wishes.And in another place:Save out than in St. Theresa. In the latter
me, for I feel in this worlds life like it evokes longing and inner aspiration,
a frog in a sealed fountain.Jesus of but her will is occupied entirely by the
Nazareth says: " Come unto me, all ye highest object, and only her memory
that labour and are heavy laden, and I and her imagination are free to anal-
will refresh you. Learn of me, and ye yse her experiences. But both Pascal
shall nd rest for your souls.Un- and Kierkegaard have constantly to
quiet is our heart,says Augustine to summon the will to their aid; in their
his God, until it nd rest in Thee. case they have a desperate struggle
This need for rest rises to a passion in to keep themselves upright in face of
the harsh discord between the true life [14] Here are some verses from the Bible about loving your neigh-
and the conditions of actual life; to bor Love thy neighbor
hold fast to the thought of the object
of faith and to resist the onslaughts of [15] D. Anthony Storm. Kierkegaard Commentary. Retrieved
doubt. The Philosophy Of Religion, September 15, 2006.
Dr. Harald Hoding p. 116-118,
[16] Works of Love, Hong p. 44
Translated from the German Edition,
By B. E. Meyer 1914 [17] Kangas
[18] Robert C. Solomon, No Excuses: Existentialism and the

8.5 See also Meaning of Life, The Great Courses, The Teaching Com-
pany, http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_
detail.aspx?cid=437
Attributes of God in Christianity
[19] Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion vol 1 also see Upbuild-
ing Discourses in Various Spirits, March 13, 1847 by Soren
8.6 References Kierkegaard, copyright 1993 by Howard Hong, Princeton
University Press p. 12
[1] McGrath, Alister E. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern [20] See Works of Love and Practice in Christianity
Christian Thought. Blackwell Publishing, 1993. p 202
[21] See Concluding Unscientic Postscript p. 555
[2] Matustik, M. J. and M. Westphal (eds). Kierkegaard in
Post/Modernity, Indiana University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-
[22] See The Concept of Irony, p. 272
253-20967-6
[3] Green, Ronald M. Kierkegaard and Kant: The Hidden Debt. [23] Soren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Irony, Hong p. 275
SUNY Press, 1992, ISBN 0-7914-1107-9
[24] Journals and Papers 25 August 1936 1A229
[4] See for example, Concluding Unscientic Postscript to Philo-
sophical Fragments: "Socrates' innite merit is to have been [25] See his Universal History published in 1818 https://
an existing thinker, not a speculative philosopher who forgets openlibrary.org/authors/OL4431565A/John_von_Muller
what it means to existThe innite merit of the Socratic posi-
tion was precisely to accentuate the fact that the knower is an [26] Masugata, Kinya,A Short History of Kierkegaard's Recep-
existing individual, and that the task of existing is his essential tion in Japan, in J. Giles (ed.) Kierkegaard and Japanese
task." Swenson/Lowrie translation (1941), p.184-5. Thought, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp. 31-52
[5] Hong, Howard V. and Edna H. Subjectivity/Objectivity. [27] Mortensen, Finn Hauberg, Kierkegaard Made in Japan, Uni-
Sren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers. Vol. 4. Indiana versity Press of Southern Denmark, 1996
University Press, 1975, p. 712-13. ISBN 0-253-18243-3
[28] Giles, JamesIntroduction: Kierkegaard's among the Tem-
[6] Kierkegaard, Sren. Papers and Journals, trans. A. Hannay, ples of Kamakura, in J. Giles (ed.) Kierkegaard and
London, Penguin Books, 1996. Japanese Thought, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp. 1-30
[7] Watts, Michael. Kierkegaard. Oneworld, 2003, ISBN 1-
[29] Jacobson, Nolan Pliny, The Predicament of Man in Zen
85168-317-8
Buddhism and Kierkegaard, Philosophy East and West 2,
[8] Dictionary of the History of Ideas 1952, 238-253
[9] Kierkegaard, Sren. The Two Ages, trans. Howard and Edna [30] Giles, James,To Practice One Thing: Kierkegaard through
Hong. Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-07226- the Eyes of Dogen, in J. Giles (ed.) Kierkegaard and
5 Japanese Thought, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp. 87-105
[10] Perkins, Robert L. Two Ages: International Kierkegaard [31] http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=

Commentary. Mercer University Press, ISBN 978-0-86554- 2523&C=2401
081-1
[32] http://www.ccel.org/k/kierkegaard/untruth/untruth.htm
[11] Two Ages, p.75, Hong translation.
[12] Concluding Unscientic Postscript, Hong 1992 p. 88 [33] Sren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, ed. and trans.
Howard and Edna Hong, (Princeton: Princeton University
[13] Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, Hong p. 280 Press, 1983), 81.
8.8. EXTERNAL LINKS 73
8.7 Further reading

Dru, Alexander. The Journals of Sren Kierkegaard,
Oxford University Press, 1938.
Duncan, Elmer. Sren Kierkegaard: Maker of the
Modern Theological Mind, Word Books 1976, ISBN
0-87680-463-6
Gar, Joakim. Sren Kierkegaard: A Biography,

Princeton University Press 2005, ISBN 0-691-09165-
X.
Hannay, Alastair. Kierkegaard: A Biography, Cam-

bridge University Press, New edition 2003, ISBN 0-
521-53181-0.
Kierkegaard. The Concept of Anxiety, Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 1981, ISBN 0-691-02011-6
Kierkegaard. The Concept of Irony with Continual Ref-
erence to Socrates, Princeton University Press 1989,
ISBN 0-691-07354-6
Kierkegaard. The Sickness Unto Death, Princeton Uni-

versity Press, 1983, ISBN 0-691-02028-0
Lippit, John. Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling,

Routledge 2003, ISBN 0-415-18047-3
Ostenfeld, Ib and Alastair McKinnon. Sren

Kierkegaard's Psychology, Wilfrid Laurer University
Press 1972, ISBN 0-88920-068-8
Westphal, Merold. Becoming a Self: A Reading of
Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientic Postscript, Pur-
due University Press 1996, ISBN 1-55753-090-4
8.8 External links

D. Anthony Storm's Commentary On Kierkegaard
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Sren

Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard, Sren at DMOZ

Chapter 9
Existential nihilism
Existential nihilism is the philosophical theory that life that both religion and metaphysics are simply results of the
has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the uni- fear of death.* [2]
verse, existential nihilism posits that a single human or even
According to Donald A. Crosby, There is no justication
the entire human species is insignicant, without purpose for life, but also no reason not to live. Those who claim to
and unlikely to change in the totality of existence. Accord- nd meaning in their lives are either dishonest or deluded.
ing to the theory, each individual is an isolated being born In either case, they fail to face up to the harsh reality of the
into the universe, barred from knowing why, yet com- human situations.* [3]
pelled to invent meaning.* [1] The inherent meaninglessness
of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of
existentialism, where one can potentially create their own
subjective meaningor purpose. Of all types of 9.2 History
nihilism, existential nihilism has received the most literary
and philosophical attention.* [2]
Existential nihilism has been a part of the Western intel-
lectual tradition since the Cyrenaics, such as Hegesias of
Cyrene. During the Renaissance, William Shakespeare
9.1 Meaning of life eloquently summarized the existential nihilist's perspective
through Macbeth's mindset in the end of the play. Arthur
The idea that meaning and values are without foundation is Schopenhauer, Sren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche
a form of nihilism, and the existential response to that idea further expanded on these ideas, and Nietzsche, particu-
is noting that meaning is not a matter of contemplative larly, has become a major gure in existential nihilism.
theory,but instead, a consequence of engagement and The atheistic existentialist movement spread in 1940s
commitment. France. Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness and
Jean-Paul Sartre, the author of Being and Nothingness, Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus discussed the topic.
wrote in his essay Existentialism and Humanism, What Camus wrote further works, such as The Stranger, Caligula,
*
do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We The Plague, The Fall and The Rebel. [1] Other gures in-
mean that man rst of all exists, encounters himself, surges clude Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida. In addition,
up in the world and denes himself afterwards. If man Ernest Becker's Pulitzer Prize winning life's work The De-
as the existentialist sees him as not denable, it is because nial of Death is a collection of thoughts on existential ni-
to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until hilism.
later, and then he will be what he makes of himself.Here
it is made clear what is meant by Existentialists when they The common thread in the literature of
say meaning is a consequence of engagement and com- the existentialists is coping with the emotional
mitment. anguish arising from our confrontation with
The theory purports to describe the human situation to cre- nothingness, and they expended great energy
ate a life outlook and create meaning, which has been sum- responding to the question of whether surviving
marized as, Strut, fret, and delude ourselves as we may, it was possible. Their answer was a qualied
our lives are of no signicance, and it is futile to seek or Yes,advocating a formula of passionate
to arm meaning where none can be found.* [3] Exis- commitment and impassive stoicism.
tential nihilists claim that, to be honest, one must face the Alan Pratt* [1]
absurdity of existence, that he/she will eventually die, and
74
9.4. REFERENCES 75
9.3 See also

Absurdism
Cosmicism
Dysteleology
Existence precedes essence
Logotherapy
Man's Search for Meaning
Meaning of life
Meaning (existential)
9.4 References
[1] Alan Pratt (April 23, 2001). Nihilism. Internet Encyclo-
pedia of Philosophy. Embry-Riddle University. Retrieved
February 4, 2012.
[2] David Storey (2011).Nihilism, Nature, and the Collapse of

the Cosmos. Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural
and Social Philosophy. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
[3] Donald A. Crosby (July 1, 1988). The Specter of the Ab-

surd: Sources and Criticisms of Modern Nihilism. State
University of New York Press. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
76 CHAPTER 9. EXISTENTIAL NIHILISM
9.5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
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Existentialism: An Introduction

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What are some of the main concepts of existentialism discussed?

What are some of the main concepts of existentialism discussed?

What are some criticisms of existentialism mentioned?

What are some criticisms of existentialism mentioned?

Existentialism

1.12 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2 Existence precedes essence 17

5.1.3 Other perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

8 Philosophy of Sren Kierkegaard 43

1.1 Denitional issues and back-

1.2 Concepts Some interpret the imperative to dene oneself as meaning

Main article: Angst

See also: Positivism and Rationalism

1.5 Nihilism 1.7 History

See also: Existential nihilism 1.7.1 19th century

acquainted with Martin Heidegger, who held a profes-

1.7.3 After the Second World War

Following the Second World War, existentialism became

ond Sex and The Ethics of Ambiguity. Although often over-

1.9 Criticisms Abandonment (existentialism)

[38] Sren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers Vol 5, p. 5

Rose, Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) (1994). Nihilism: The

Sartre, Jean-Paul (1945). Existentialism and Human-

Stewart, Jon (ed.) (2011). Kierkegaard and Existen-

1.12 External links

Existentialism. Internet Encyclopedia of Philoso-

Friesian interpretation of Existentialism

Buddhists, Existentialists and Situationists: Waking

1.12.1 Journals and articles

Existential Analysis published by The Society for Ex-

Existence precedes essence

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, article

a category, the negative criterion, of the divine

Kierkegaard provides an example in one of his works, Fear

3.5.4 Freedom Non sequitur (literary device)

Freedom cannot be achieved beyond what the absurdity of 'Pataphysics

3.5.5 Hope 3.7 References

[8] Donald A. Crosby (July 1, 1988). The Specter of the Absurd:

[9] Albert Camus. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Irrationality [11] Albert Camus. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

[12] Kierkegaard, Sren. The Sickness Unto Death. Kierkegaard

[13] Dru, Alexander. The Journals of Sren Kierkegaard, Oxford

[14] Sren Kierkegaard. Naturalthinker.com. Retrieved 2016-

[15] Silentio, Johannes de. Fear and Trembling, Denmark, 1843

[16] Sickness Unto Death, Ch.3, part B, sec. 2

[17]The Kierkegaardian Leapin The Cambridge Companion

[18] Camus, Myth of Sisyphus, p. 41

[19] Camus, Myth of Sisyphus, p. 55

[20] Camus, Myth of Sisyphus, p. 64

[21] Camus, Myth of Sisyphus, p. 40, note 7

3.8 Further reading

Thomas Nagel: Mortal Questions, 1991. ISBN 0-521-

3.9 External links

Absurdist Monthly Review Magazine

[2] Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness.

[3] Meillassoux, Quentin (8 May 2008). Time Without Be-

4.7 Further reading

Heidegger, Martin. Being And Time.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Essays in Existentialism.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness.