.

J O H N   C H I A P P O N E

 

C H A P T E R  32

PHENOMENOLOGY

& EXISTENTIALISM

 

Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky
Nietzsche, Sartre

Søren Kierkegaard
(
1813–1855)

Danish founder of
existentialist philosophy

Edmund Husserl

(1859–1938)

German mathematician

and philosopher

Martin Heidegger
(1889 – 1976)

German Philosopher

 

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
(1905–1980)

French existentialist philosopher, writer, and political activist.

   
 

LIFE

Born in Paris.

In 1939 he went to war.

In 1940 he was captured by the Germans.

 

 

 


Existentialism is a Humanism: (1945)

 
1.   Descartes subjectivity is his starting point.

      There is no picture behind the picture (Fellini).

      Although embarrassment and shame imply other minds.

      When other minds intrude, we respond by dominating them, or being dominated. Relationships are parasitic.

2.   There is no God, so everything is permissible.
 

      If everything is permissible, then there is no God.

      Everything is permissible.

      Therefore there is no God.


      If There is no God, then everything is permissible.

      There is no God.

      Therefore everything is permissible.
 

3.   Existence precedes essence.

     Atheism is incompatible with our essence preceding existence.

     At first we are nothing. (tabula rosa)

     Than we create and define yourself through our actions.

4.   We are radically free.

     Bad faith is covering up our freedom with determinism and universal rules.

     Seeking to conceal our freedom entails that we recognize it.  

5.   We are responsible for mankind and ourselves.

6.   The result is anguish, forlorn, and despair.

 

Possible Alternative Position:


- At first you are empty- not nothing.

- Then your epoch creates and defines you.

- Truly creating and defining yourself requires that you go back toward your emptiness.

- Only philosophers and nihilists truly define themselves.

- Now you're alone, destitute, alienated, with no one to turn to.

- No universal rule or book can help you define yourself.

Has Sartre confused his own philosophical nature with the condition that everyone is in? Is it not a commonplace condition, or is it the condition of philosophers and nihilists.

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

ONLINE BOOKS


Canonical Reading List in Philosophy

 


 

VIDEOS:

Bryan Magee & William Barrett

Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3

 

 

 
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