Existentialism
Created | Updated Oct 2, 2003
Sartre, Kierkegaard,and Nietzsche
Existentialism is a collection of ideas on a variety of philosophical topics, ranging from the idea of self and individual choice, to the existence of God. To better understand the many different facets of existentialism, this essay will compare the views of three prominent writers: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Sartre, on important issues of existentialism. This essay will begin by attempting to define existentialism. It will show that all three of these writers are existentialists since they all have the main characteristics of existentialism incorporated into their writing. It will then examine the differences among the aforementioned writers, and specifically identify them as the founder (Kierkegaard,) the misunderstood lunatic (Nietzsche,) and the reformist (Sartre.)
Some may argue that existentialism is impossible to define accurately because the interpretation of existentialism is different for every person. However, existentialism can be defined by looking at its main points, the facets that every existentialist interprets differently: the idea of self and the existence of God. Existentialism is based around the self. Nothing matters unless we make it matter, or we think it has significance. Nothing has a built-in meaning or meaning acquired from an outside source, other then the meaning assigned to it by individual people. On the other hand, Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe that the world has meaning because God (an outside source) created it, and everything they do is part of God's plan.
Another of existentialism's main beliefs is that people are autonomous individuals. We have the choice to do whatever we want, for whatever reason. Our fates are not pre-determined and so we are responsible for everything we do. We alone choose our actions, our decisions, and our morality.
Another of existentialism's main ideas deals with the possibility that there is a God. Kierkegaard, who was thought of as the first existentialist, was a devout Christian, and his writings incorporate much of the then-current Christian thinking. Nietzsche, however, said that "God was dead." Sartre was an atheist. Two other famous existentialists said that they were Christian or atheist depending on the time of day. All Existentialists comment on the subject of God, but as true existentialists they each choose to believe something different. This makes them existentialists because they choose their own individual faith.
Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen in 1813 and died in 1855. Many believed that his philosophy would die out after Kierkegaard's death, because he lived in an isolated, not often visited area, also he was not published overseas.
Even though Kierkegaard's philosophy didn't get the name Existentialism till after Sartre, Kierkegaard is acknowledged as the first existentialist because Sartre's work was based on Kierkegaard's.
Kierkegaard's ideas were based on Christianity of the times. The belief that each person was an individual free-acting being, who is completely in control of their actions comes from Christianity's belief that human beings have free choice in their actions. Kierkegaard also wrote about a personal morality something completely different from Christianity. Christians have the ten commandments, and that one moral code applies to everyone: its a set code. Existentialists believe that morals should not be written in stone, not every person would have the same moral code because people grow up in different contexts. For example, if a Christian and a cannibalistic African were to meet, the Christian would think that it would be wrong to kill and eat other people, but it is morally acceptable to the Cannibalistic African because they and everyone around them would have been doing it their entire lives.
Nietzsche was born in 1844 and died in 1900, after spending the last few years of his life in an insane asylum. He was trained as a classical philosopher, under the famous classical philosopher Ritschl. I describe Nietzsche as the misunderstood lunatic because many people thought he was a Nihilist, and he was literally a lunatic. He was described as "iconoclastic." One of his books is even subtitled: "How to philosophize with a hammer." He added some extremes to Kierkegaard's work, such as the proclamation that "God is Dead" and his anti-political position.
Saying that God is dead raises more questions then if there was a God, and he was alive. If you convinced people that God was dead the might believe that nothing was worth it, and that nothing mattered and they would turn to nihilism, but Nietzsche said that only a weak man would turn to nihilism if you took God away from them, because they wouldn't be able to live without the idea of one fixed eternal truth. If you say that there was never a God or there is a God, then that's a fixed eternal truth. Saying that God is dead brings the whole system crashing down. Especially if you are Muslim, where when you reach the highest stage of the afterlife, after spending time in less glorious realms, you join God. If God dies, where does he go? Where do those who have joined God go? If we all have a piece of God in ourselves, does that part of ourselves die as well? The whole system stops functioning.
Another of Nietzsche's ideas was the Über-mensch or Overman. The Über-mensch was an existentialist, a morally perfect being by their own personal moral code: something for humans as a species to strive for. One of the main characteristics of the Über-mensch was that he realizes that the world was always "in flux," and that we make ourselves and the world by realizing its existence. We make the world, not the other way around
The Main topic of this paper is Sartre, a main writer of existentialism, and the man who came up with the name. Sartre was born in 1905, and died in 1980. He was in WWII, but didn't see the enemy until the day he was captured. When he escaped his captors and returned to France, he found that his existentialism had become the country's most popular philosophy. When he died on April 15, 1980, hundreds of people filled the streets for his funeral march. During the 1970's Sartre abused alcohol, he smoked two packs a day, and took drugs to "rev" up to write philosophy. His doctor even threatened that if Sartre didn't stop smoking, he would amputate first Sartre's toes, then his feet, then his legs, etc. During the French-Algerian war he sided with the Algerians, not his home country France, so after the war 5,000 army veterans marched down the Champs-Elysees shouting "Kill Sartre!" In the 1950's structuralism was becoming more popular then Existentialism, then in the 1960's Sartre became a Marxist. He rejected the Nobel Prize for Literature on political grounds in 1964.
Sartre's views on the self and individual choice are basically the same as Kierkegaard's with a few additions.
Sartre thought that Existence precedes Essence, as it applies to human beings. For example, if I want to invent something that will cut paper, its essence, its idea, will exist before the actual physical object. But for human beings, someone has to exist before you can know their personality, their nature. Also, Sartre thought that people are "restless projects of becoming," meaning our essence is always becoming, always changing.
Bad faith was another of Sartre's ideas. Something that's in bad faith allows people to deny their freedom and responsibility. Sartre says the subconscious is in bad faith, because we use it to deny that we have total control over our thinking.
Also, Sartre that word were meaningless labels we use to rationalize actions. For example a seat may just as easily be the bloated belly of a dead donkey. And while its only a change of artificial labels, these labels are so embedded into society that it would be alright to sit if it was a seat, but not if it was a dead donkey, even though they are the same object with different artificial labels.
Yet another of Sartre's views on the idea of moral responsibility is that we really don't want to be independent responsible beings. If we weren't responsible for our actions, it would be like being a child for your entire life: care-free. But with responsibility comes a special stress called Angst, from having to make decisions, any of which might change your life forever. For example, Sartre wrote a lot about being a free person, and what it means. For instance, most thinking of Sartre's time said that your future actions depend on past experiences, this is called determinism. Sartre thought that there was always an infinite number of choices someone could make at any time. He gave us this example: If you and a few friends are driving to a ski resort for vacation, and found a boulder in the road, there are many different things you could do about it. You could try to find a different road, you could try to move the boulder, you could think that the boulder was so beautiful you start taking pictures of it. And then there is the one choice available to anyone at any time: suicide. You could be so depressed by the boulder you couldn't continue living. While that would be a very extreme action, its a possibility, and also Sartre's way of poking fun at the determinists.
Sartre, unlike other existentialists, didn't write much about god. He himself was an atheist, but offered no explanation as to why.
Existentialism is a philosophy that mostly developed in modern times. Kierkegaard was the first existentialist and his contributions to existentialism were based off of Christianity of his times. Nietzsche contributed the idea that God is dead, and the Über-mensch. Sartre was the most famous existentialist, he reacted to Kierkegaard's ideas, and made Nietzsche's work more integrated and understandable. He also emphasized that existence precedes essence, and that we our responsibly for our own actions, but that many excuse this responsibility with bad faith. He also believed that nothing had built in meaning, that it was up to us to interpret and give meaning.
All existentialists emphasize these points of freedom, morals, and meaning. We create everything around us, and bring meaning to the world.
Existentialism is a collection of ideas on a variety of philosophical topics, ranging from the idea of self and individual choice, to the existence of God. To better understand the many different facets of existentialism, this essay will compare the views of three prominent writers: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Sartre, on important issues of existentialism. This essay will begin by attempting to define existentialism. It will show that all three of these writers are existentialists since they all have the main characteristics of existentialism incorporated into their writing. It will then examine the differences among the aforementioned writers, and specifically identify them as the founder (Kierkegaard,) the misunderstood lunatic (Nietzsche,) and the reformist (Sartre.)
Some may argue that existentialism is impossible to define accurately because the interpretation of existentialism is different for every person. However, existentialism can be defined by looking at its main points, the facets that every existentialist interprets differently: the idea of self and the existence of God. Existentialism is based around the self. Nothing matters unless we make it matter, or we think it has significance. Nothing has a built-in meaning or meaning acquired from an outside source, other then the meaning assigned to it by individual people. On the other hand, Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe that the world has meaning because God (an outside source) created it, and everything they do is part of God's plan.
Another of existentialism's main beliefs is that people are autonomous individuals. We have the choice to do whatever we want, for whatever reason. Our fates are not pre-determined and so we are responsible for everything we do. We alone choose our actions, our decisions, and our morality.
Another of existentialism's main ideas deals with the possibility that there is a God. Kierkegaard, who was thought of as the first existentialist, was a devout Christian, and his writings incorporate much of the then-current Christian thinking. Nietzsche, however, said that "God was dead." Sartre was an atheist. Two other famous existentialists said that they were Christian or atheist depending on the time of day. All Existentialists comment on the subject of God, but as true existentialists they each choose to believe something different. This makes them existentialists because they choose their own individual faith.
Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen in 1813 and died in 1855. Many believed that his philosophy would die out after Kierkegaard's death, because he lived in an isolated, not often visited area, also he was not published overseas.
Even though Kierkegaard's philosophy didn't get the name Existentialism till after Sartre, Kierkegaard is acknowledged as the first existentialist because Sartre's work was based on Kierkegaard's.
Kierkegaard's ideas were based on Christianity of the times. The belief that each person was an individual free-acting being, who is completely in control of their actions comes from Christianity's belief that human beings have free choice in their actions. Kierkegaard also wrote about a personal morality something completely different from Christianity. Christians have the ten commandments, and that one moral code applies to everyone: its a set code. Existentialists believe that morals should not be written in stone, not every person would have the same moral code because people grow up in different contexts. For example, if a Christian and a cannibalistic African were to meet, the Christian would think that it would be wrong to kill and eat other people, but it is morally acceptable to the Cannibalistic African because they and everyone around them would have been doing it their entire lives.
Nietzsche was born in 1844 and died in 1900, after spending the last few years of his life in an insane asylum. He was trained as a classical philosopher, under the famous classical philosopher Ritschl. I describe Nietzsche as the misunderstood lunatic because many people thought he was a Nihilist, and he was literally a lunatic. He was described as "iconoclastic." One of his books is even subtitled: "How to philosophize with a hammer." He added some extremes to Kierkegaard's work, such as the proclamation that "God is Dead" and his anti-political position.
Saying that God is dead raises more questions then if there was a God, and he was alive. If you convinced people that God was dead the might believe that nothing was worth it, and that nothing mattered and they would turn to nihilism, but Nietzsche said that only a weak man would turn to nihilism if you took God away from them, because they wouldn't be able to live without the idea of one fixed eternal truth. If you say that there was never a God or there is a God, then that's a fixed eternal truth. Saying that God is dead brings the whole system crashing down. Especially if you are Muslim, where when you reach the highest stage of the afterlife, after spending time in less glorious realms, you join God. If God dies, where does he go? Where do those who have joined God go? If we all have a piece of God in ourselves, does that part of ourselves die as well? The whole system stops functioning.
Another of Nietzsche's ideas was the Über-mensch or Overman. The Über-mensch was an existentialist, a morally perfect being by their own personal moral code: something for humans as a species to strive for. One of the main characteristics of the Über-mensch was that he realizes that the world was always "in flux," and that we make ourselves and the world by realizing its existence. We make the world, not the other way around
The Main topic of this paper is Sartre, a main writer of existentialism, and the man who came up with the name. Sartre was born in 1905, and died in 1980. He was in WWII, but didn't see the enemy until the day he was captured. When he escaped his captors and returned to France, he found that his existentialism had become the country's most popular philosophy. When he died on April 15, 1980, hundreds of people filled the streets for his funeral march. During the 1970's Sartre abused alcohol, he smoked two packs a day, and took drugs to "rev" up to write philosophy. His doctor even threatened that if Sartre didn't stop smoking, he would amputate first Sartre's toes, then his feet, then his legs, etc. During the French-Algerian war he sided with the Algerians, not his home country France, so after the war 5,000 army veterans marched down the Champs-Elysees shouting "Kill Sartre!" In the 1950's structuralism was becoming more popular then Existentialism, then in the 1960's Sartre became a Marxist. He rejected the Nobel Prize for Literature on political grounds in 1964.
Sartre's views on the self and individual choice are basically the same as Kierkegaard's with a few additions.
Sartre thought that Existence precedes Essence, as it applies to human beings. For example, if I want to invent something that will cut paper, its essence, its idea, will exist before the actual physical object. But for human beings, someone has to exist before you can know their personality, their nature. Also, Sartre thought that people are "restless projects of becoming," meaning our essence is always becoming, always changing.
Bad faith was another of Sartre's ideas. Something that's in bad faith allows people to deny their freedom and responsibility. Sartre says the subconscious is in bad faith, because we use it to deny that we have total control over our thinking.
Also, Sartre that word were meaningless labels we use to rationalize actions. For example a seat may just as easily be the bloated belly of a dead donkey. And while its only a change of artificial labels, these labels are so embedded into society that it would be alright to sit if it was a seat, but not if it was a dead donkey, even though they are the same object with different artificial labels.
Yet another of Sartre's views on the idea of moral responsibility is that we really don't want to be independent responsible beings. If we weren't responsible for our actions, it would be like being a child for your entire life: care-free. But with responsibility comes a special stress called Angst, from having to make decisions, any of which might change your life forever. For example, Sartre wrote a lot about being a free person, and what it means. For instance, most thinking of Sartre's time said that your future actions depend on past experiences, this is called determinism. Sartre thought that there was always an infinite number of choices someone could make at any time. He gave us this example: If you and a few friends are driving to a ski resort for vacation, and found a boulder in the road, there are many different things you could do about it. You could try to find a different road, you could try to move the boulder, you could think that the boulder was so beautiful you start taking pictures of it. And then there is the one choice available to anyone at any time: suicide. You could be so depressed by the boulder you couldn't continue living. While that would be a very extreme action, its a possibility, and also Sartre's way of poking fun at the determinists.
Sartre, unlike other existentialists, didn't write much about god. He himself was an atheist, but offered no explanation as to why.
Existentialism is a philosophy that mostly developed in modern times. Kierkegaard was the first existentialist and his contributions to existentialism were based off of Christianity of his times. Nietzsche contributed the idea that God is dead, and the Über-mensch. Sartre was the most famous existentialist, he reacted to Kierkegaard's ideas, and made Nietzsche's work more integrated and understandable. He also emphasized that existence precedes essence, and that we our responsibly for our own actions, but that many excuse this responsibility with bad faith. He also believed that nothing had built in meaning, that it was up to us to interpret and give meaning.
All existentialists emphasize these points of freedom, morals, and meaning. We create everything around us, and bring meaning to the world.
