His most famous and clear initiatives are Sartre's mottos: "l'existence précède l'essence" and "Anything is possible". He means that there is no moral or external soul except human existence. Morality and soul are created by human beings in existence. People have no obligation to abide by certain moral standards or religious beliefs, and they have freedom of choice. Judge a person by his behavior, not by who he is, because a person is defined by his behavior. Existentialism denies the existence of God or any other predetermined rule. Sartre opposes any "resistance" factors in life, because they narrow the space for people to choose freely. If there is no such resistance, then the only problem a person has to solve is which way he chooses to take.
Create background
The emergence of existentialism is closely related to the social background of its time: World War I was the beginning of the end of European bourgeois civilization. With the advent of modern times, mankind has entered the secular stage in history. At this time, although he had unprecedented rights, technology and civilization, he also found himself homeless. Without the all-encompassing framework of religion, people not only have nothing, but also become fragmented existence. He has no sense of belonging and thinks he is an "outsider" in this human society, alienating himself. When he urgently needed a theory to solve his sense of alienation, existentialism came into being.
Ideological origin
The ideological origin of existentialism mainly comes from Kierkegaard's mysticism, Nietzsche's voluntarism and Husserl's phenomenology.
Kierkegaard (Denmark)
Kierkegaard's personality is very contradictory. In his view, the central fact of the19th century is that the Christian civilization that once existed no longer exists, so he wrote an attack on the Christian world to discuss this issue. But he is also a Christian, and he thinks all Christians should learn from him! Although he thinks that Christianity only cares about personal affairs, but not about the development and changes of the whole society, this is inconsistent with his thought.
It is precisely because of the contradiction of Kierkegaard's personal thought that it is not accepted by the world. People often make a fuss about some of his shortcomings, but ignore his thought of transcending the times-Kierkegaard's main movement to advocate modernity is to drift to the group society. And such a highly collectivized and externalized group society also means the death of individuals. Here, Kierkegaard denied the role of individual existence and ignored the significance of real world existence. He is not only ahead of the times, but also too extreme, which makes him unpopular and often refuted by others.
Nietzsche (Germany)
Nietzsche shouted the slogan "God is dead" and put forward the theory of absolute will, which influenced generations of European philosophers. He called on the present human beings to come to an end, and we should create "Superman" to replace human beings and continue to exist in this world. The "Superman" created by Nietzsche is a person who develops the "will to power" to the limit in order to surpass human beings.
He said: "The strongest and highest will of life does not exist in the struggle for survival, but in the will of struggle and in the strong will." He came to the final conclusion for strong will, which is the basis of all other psychological motives.
However, Nietzsche also believes that strength itself is an out-and-out motive force, and strength itself is a strong will. Therefore, when he pursues power as a greater power, he inevitably falls into the void outside the power itself, thus creating the problem of nihilism. Because of this, in nothingness, Nietzsche declared that the highest value of human beings has lost its own value-"If human beings lose the anchor chain on which they used to live," Nietzsche asked, "will he drift into the endless void?" So what does man exist for? For vanity? Of course not. Nietzsche believes that the only value of human existence is precisely: strength!
Production and development
The main founder of existentialism is Heidegger, and it is Sartre who develops existentialism.
Heidegger (Germany)
The understanding of existence itself determines the existence of this being-martin heidegger.
Heidegger is the founder of western existentialism, and he is deeply influenced by Nietzsche. He said, "Only when we start thinking can we hear Nietzsche's call sign."
Heidegger believes that the whole history of western thought only pays attention to what exists, but forgets the existence of what exists. This is a great breakthrough in philosophical research! But how to reveal this, he borrowed his teacher Husserl's phenomenology as a tool. The word "phenomenon" means "self-expression" in Greek, so Heidegger thinks that phenomenology is to let things explain their intentions. He said: "Only when we don't try to stuff things into the ideological framework we created for them can it show itself to us." Here, he began to refute Nietzsche's view that knowledge is ultimately the expression of the will to power. Heidegger believes that we can't know an object by force, conquest and suppression, but let it be like this, so that it can show its true colors.
Descartes' consciousness of existence, that is, "I think, therefore I am." Heidegger tore open the picture of Descartes' philosophy in one fell swoop. He said that the basic characteristic of human beings is to exist in the world. People are in the world, because people exist completely. He regards man as a field or field of existence, and there is no so-called spiritual entity or self-entity in the center of the field.
In Being and Time, Heidegger made a profound analysis of death, from which we can see his views on the value of human existence. He believes that "I am going to die" is not an external and open fact in the world, but an internal possibility of my own existence. I may die at any time, so death is my possibility now, and I will die, no matter what kind of death, so death is the extreme of my existence. This is the most extreme and absolute of all my possibilities. To admit death is to admit the finiteness of human beings, so Heidegger also studied this problem. He believes that the limited experience of human beings lies not in its perimeter and extension, but in the core of its existence. Man is limited because his existence is full of non-existence! Heidegger discussed this problem so ambitiously.
Sartre (France)
Sartre divided existence into two kinds: free existence and self-reliant existence. The existence of freedom is the existence of an object equivalent to itself. Self-existence expands with consciousness, and the essence of consciousness is that it will always be itself. Sartre believes that our thoughts transcend ourselves and everything, so human existence always transcends itself: we always transcend ourselves in existence. Therefore, we can't possess our existence, and our existence is always outside of ourselves, that is, existence precedes essence.
However, Sartre didn't realize that in his theoretical system, there are free existence and self-existence, but there is no existence! Self-reliance, freedom, there is no room for them to display, how can they exist?
Philosophical proposition
First of all, existence precedes essence.
"Existence precedes essence" was put forward by Sartre, which represents the metaphysics of existentialism. This kind of metaphysics is essentially different from western traditional metaphysics. Traditional metaphysics generally endows "essence" with universal, abstract and formal characteristics, and it is generally believed that essence precedes existence in time.
Existentialism holds that it is not an absolute and universal law that essence precedes existence. It only applies to things, not to people. Man's existence precedes essence, that is to say, man must exist before creating himself. But existence does not create him, he creates himself in the process of existence. Sartre said, "What does it mean to say that existence precedes essence? What he means is: first, people exist, appear, appear, and then define themselves. According to the existentialist point of view, if a person can't be defined, it's because he is nothing at first, and then he is someone who makes himself what he wants to be ... A person is not only the person he wants to be, but also the person he is determined to be when he rushes into existence. Man is just something he created himself. " It can be seen that human nature is created by people themselves through their own choices, not endowed. Sartre's passage also helps us to understand the meaning of existentialism.
On the basic concept of existentialism "existence":
1. refers to the existence of people, not things. Things can only exist, not exist.
2. It does not refer to the existence of ordinary people and human beings, but refers to the existence of concrete and individual people.
3. It does not refer to the concrete existence of a specific person, but refers to the relationship between a lonely individual and himself and his self-awareness.
4. It does not refer to the individual's rational understanding of himself, but to the irrational emotional experience of lonely individuals.
Second, existence is accidental and absurd.
Existentialism believes that all existence, including human existence, is accidental and happens by accident. However, this does not mean that the physical universe is disordered, and there are no laws or rules at all, nor does it mean that the laws discovered by science in the study of the physical world are completely illusory and unreliable. It's just that nothing is predetermined, neither for people nor for the physical universe.
The so-called accident means that the material world exists for no reason, is not based on some absolute concept, thought or spirit, and has certain significance in advance.
Since all existence is not decisive, but accidental, existence is uncertain. It can be inferred that existence is fundamentally absurd.
Therefore, we have no reason to decide in advance that things should be like this and not like that. Similarly, there is no reason for us to decide in advance whether people should be like this or not.
For the solution of absurd problems, theistic existentialists put forward the way of religious belief, while atheistic existentialists believe that actions should be used to win the meaning of life and create their own value.
Third, freedom and choice.
Existence is accidental and absurd. For people, people exist first, and then decide their own nature through their own choices. Therefore, people are absolutely free, and their existence cannot be separated from their own choices, and they cannot be separated from being responsible for their own choices.
Sartre believes that human freedom is absolute, because people live in an isolated world, and people are "thrown" into this world. God, science, reason and morality have nothing to do with people, that is, they can't tell us the truth of life and the way of life, and at the same time, they have no control and restraint on people. Because of this, people have absolute freedom.
Existentialism recognizes that human freedom is manifested in two aspects: choice and action. Man can only achieve freedom through his own actions, because the essence of man is determined by his own actions.
Existentialism believes that the freedom of an individual is first manifested in his awareness of the lack of freedom due to the limitations of traditional culture and customs. Therefore, the most important thing for people is to understand the importance of choice, act according to their own choices, and assume the responsibility of life.
Fourth, the relationship between people.
The relationship between people is a concern of existentialists. Different existentialists have different views on this issue, but they all think that I can understand others and others can understand me. The difference lies in whether I treat others or others as crops or as subjective people.
In the relationship between people, Heidegger and Sartre basically belong to one type, that is, they think that the relationship between individuals and others is antagonistic, but in fact it is a relationship between subject and object, and a relationship between people and things. The other school, represented by Bubel and Marcel, holds the opposite view.
Heidegger believes that a person must deal with others in the world, and his relationship with others is "trouble" and "trouble". Getting along with other people will inevitably cause endless troubles. He either conspires with others, agrees with others or opposes others.
Sartre thought that "others are hell". In Sartre's view, others are an object of existence, different from things. He not only exists, but also poses a threat to me, because he is a free object. He may turn me into something under his nose. In this case, there are only two ways for a person to get rid of other people's eyes or other people's hell: to be willing to do other people's things, or to turn others into their own things and manipulate others.
Bubel believes that there are two different relationships between man and the outside world. One is the objective relationship, which is expressed as "me and it". The other is my relationship with you. If the relationship between people is regarded as the relationship between adults and things, then human nature will be destroyed.
In the relationship between me and it, individuals look at external things in a purely objective way and regard them as things that are used and manipulated for their own purposes.
In my relationship with you, everyone has his own inner world of meaning, and my relationship with you is manifested in the inner friendship between two people. You and I are both subjects. We sympathize with each other, trust and understand each other. And a series of "I and you" relationships constitute the relationship between man and God.
Marcel believes that people can communicate not only with themselves, but also with others, and what connects themselves with others is sympathy and love. Communication between people is a necessary condition of social life. Only by communicating with others will he realize that he is not alone and see hope.
5. Life is a tragedy
In the view of existentialists, people live in a world that is opposite to themselves and disappointed, and their position in the world is uncertain. An absolutely free person is also a distressed and helpless loner. Although people have the freedom to choose, the future life they face is chaotic and aimless. He just walked blindly into the future. He only knows that the real end of life is death. As the ultimate destination of life, death is of great significance to the existence of individuals.
representative works
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