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Existentialism came into being after the First World War. World War I was the beginning of the end of European bourgeois civilization. With the advent of modern times, people have entered the secular stage in history. At this time, although people have unprecedented rights, technology and civilization, they also find themselves 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.
Jean Paul Sartre
After World War II, existentialism occupied an important position in French ideological circles and established Christian existentialism. Some writers spread through literary creation, expanding the influence of existentialism. French existentialism is basically divided into two schools: Christian existentialism represented by Wei Yi and Gabur El Marcel; Atheistic existentialism represented by Jean-Paul Sartre, albert camus and de bovar is also called Sartre's existentialism, or existentialism for short. France was full of negative decadence and pessimism in World War II, and intellectuals became cynical and bohemian because of depression, loneliness, abandonment and no way out. Therefore, Sartre's existentialism, which puts personal life, freedom and existence first, is greatly welcomed by the bourgeoisie and intellectuals and regarded as the most fashionable philosophy by them. By the 1950s and 1960s, it had become the most popular philosophical trend in Europe. 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? Sartre, the master of existentialism, abandoned Kierkegaard's religious mysticism, inherited and developed Husserl's irrationalism, and formed his own philosophical thought-atheistic existentialism. Since then, the development of existential philosophy has entered a new stage, which is usually called contemporary existential philosophy. Existentialism puts forward three basic principles: first, "existence precedes essence", which holds that human existence precedes essence. "First, people's existence, appearance and appearance, and then explain themselves." The so-called existence, first of all, is the existence of "self", which is the existence I feel. If I don't exist, nothing exists. The so-called "existence precedes essence" means that "self" precedes essence, that is, people's "self" determines their own essence. The second is that "the world is absurd and life is painful". It is believed that in this "viewpoint-oriented" society, there must be conflicts, struggles and cruelty between people, full of ugliness and sin, and everything is absurd. And man is just a poor man in this absurd and cold situation. This world can only give people endless depression, disappointment, pessimism and negativity, and life is painful. The poor are like this, and so are the rich. The third is "free choice". This is the essence of existentialism. The core of existentialism is freedom, that is, people are absolutely free when choosing their own actions. It believes that people in this world, everyone has their own freedom, in the face of various environments, what kind of action to take, how to take action, can make a "free choice" "If existence really precedes essence, people will never be able to explain their behavior with reference to a known or specific human nature. In other words, there is no determinism-people are free. People are free. " Sartre believes that if people can't make "free choice" according to their own will in front of things, such people will lose their individuality and "self" and can't be regarded as real existence. Sartre's existential philosophy is not only the ideological core of existential literature, but also the ideological basis of various schools of postmodern literature.
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. The basic concept of existentialism: 1. Refers to the existence of people, not the existence of 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.
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.
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 have absolute freedom, and people's existence cannot be separated from people's 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.
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.
life experience
Simon was born in a scholarly family in Paris from 65438 to 0908, and lived a comfortable and stable life since childhood. 1929, in the French college and middle school teacher qualification examination. Sartre won the first place in the philosophy exam, and Simon won the second place. This year, Sartre was twenty-four years old and Simon was twenty-one. At this point, the love between them is only intellectual mutual admiration. According to Simon's memories in his later years, their initial love affair was mainly ver-bol, which "may be the reason why our relationship is so lasting". After the exam, Sartre and Simon often go back and forth. When Simon planned to spend his holiday at his home in the country, the two began to realize the pain of the coming separation. Within a few days, their relationship changed from intellectual discussion to physical attraction. Simon later recalled: "that summer, I seemed to be struck by lightning, and the idiom love at first sight suddenly took on a particularly romantic meaning." "When I said goodbye to him in early August, I already felt that he would never leave my life again." Simon's days in the country were very painful. Maybe sincere love touched heaven. One morning, her cousin came in and told her gently that there was a young man waiting for her in the field. It's Sartre. But her parents have no intention of inviting her friends to lunch. Relying on his enthusiastic cousin to deliver meals, poor Sartre spent several nights alone in the wild. Finally, love drove Simon to take food to see Sartre in the wild, regardless of his parents' opposition. They spent a real day together. On this day, they made love for the first time. That night, Simon went home. "No one talks, my father ignores me, my mother cries in the room, and my cousin thinks our event is very romantic. I'm relieved. Everything is clear. My parents can no longer control my life. Now I am really responsible for myself. I can do whatever I want, and they can't manage me anymore. " Yes, Sartre can never leave her life. They fell in love from 1929 to 1980 when Sartre died. They spent 5 1 spring and autumn together. Although they never performed the legal marriage formalities, they even kept their own house. 193 1 year, Simon went to Marseille to teach. Sartre went to le havre to teach. During this period, a woman named Olga came into their lives. Although this triangle relationship occupied a short time in their love journey, it left Simon with enough themes to complete her debut novel, The Uninvited Guest. 1939, World War II broke out. Sartre went to the front. Between bullets, Sartre writes love letters to his "dear charming beaver" every day. ("Beaver" is Simon's nickname) 1945, Sartre, Simon and several friends co-founded the monthly Existentialism. 1949, The Second Sex, regarded as the Bible by later generations, was published. 1954 won the Gongga Award of "dignitaries". Visiting China in the 1950s. The result of this trip was the publication of the Long March. Simon published the love letter Sartre wrote to her in his later years. The name of this book is a letter to beaver. Unfortunately, "Beaver" didn't write any reply. 1April 4, 986, Simone De Beauvoir died in Paris. At the age of 78. Simon's death caused repercussions all over the world. Various reputations have come and gone. At that time, Ma Erkai, then general secretary of the French * * * Production Party, made a particularly profound remark: "Beauvoir is far from agreeing with all the views of the * * * Production Party, and her argument with us is unwavering, but I would like to pay tribute to her on behalf of all the French * * * Production Party party member, because she always represents an important moment in the development of our social progress thought."
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Founder of A Brief History of Existentialism: Sartre's L' Existentialism est un Humanism (Paris, 1946), an existentialism that rose in Germany but flourished in the hands of the French, is the most representative philosophical trend of thought in the first half of the 20th century. Existentialism has a complex origin. Thinkers or writers under this banner have no consistent dogma or belief. They are like family members who are similar in appearance but suspicious in origin. If we only talk about the basic characteristics of existentialism, its pedigree can be traced back to Augustine in the fourth century at least. However, this may be valuable in the study of the history of thought, but it is not helpful to understand contemporary existentialism. As Copston, a historian of philosophy, said, the word existentialism does not represent any special philosophical system. In fact, we can keep this term for Sartre's philosophy, because he obviously called his philosophy existentialism. Ironically, Sartre "kindly" built a spacious "home of existence", but many philosophers who were welcomed into the house were ungrateful and preferred to be stranded outside. However, the "existential grandfathers" whom he "sought after and admired": Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Jasper, mistakenly became the unconscious beneficiaries of this movement, and they could not escape if they wanted to. Although the name is unpopular with peers, existentialism has swept the world. The big reason is that it "rebelled"% E9% BC% 93% E5% BA% 94 "class = innerlink >; In Mr. Chen Guying's view, the consistency of existentialists is manifested in two resolute rebellions: (1) opposing the basic assumptions and conclusions of philosophical idealism, especially Hegel's transcendental universal logic; (2) Resist technical materialism and pragmatism, accusing them of attributing the highest values and ideals of human beings to the sublimation of animal instinct, which stifles the true spirit of human culture. Just like the slogan with a strong oath in the phenomenological movement: "Face things themselves! In its own existentialism, there is also an advertising word: existence precedes essence. This proposition was carefully crafted by Sartre, the head of existentialism. It may be a little weak in momentum, but it is full of philosophical speculation. Sartre further explained in the article Existentialism is a Humanism (1946) (this article can be regarded as the declaration of existentialism): "What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that people first exist and suffer all kinds of twists and turns in this world-and then define themselves. Sartre thinks this proposition can be regarded as the basic belief of existentialists, but not everyone agrees with it. Besides this famous slogan, existentialists often use terms including subjectivity, intersubjectivity, emptiness, fear, anxiety and alienation. Although the upsurge of existentialism is gone forever, we can still smell the special flavor of that era through these words. Existentialism originated from philosophy, but it blossomed in literature. Most world-renowned existentialists can write arguments with their right hand and poems with their left hand, and they have made outstanding achievements. The reason is that literary language can better grasp the living human situation than philosophical language. Existentialists are opposed to simplifying people into abstract concepts. What can better examine the relationship between people and between people and the world than novels and plays? Nowadays, brothers karamazov and Notes in the Basement by Christopher, Trial and Castle by Kafka, Stranger and Plague by Camus, Vomiting by Sartre and The Wall have all become indispensable texts to understand this trend of thought.
Edit this existential literature
Existentialism literature is a literary school popular in Europe and America in the 20th century, and it is a literary reflection of existentialism philosophy. Existentialism, as a literary school, appeared after the Second World War, mainly in postwar French literature, and reached its climax in the late 1940s and 1950s. The pioneer of existentialism philosophy is Kierkegaard, a Danish. After World War I, existentialism prevailed in Germany, with Heidegger Jan Jaspers as the main representative. After World War II, existentialism occupied an important position in the French ideological circle, and some writers publicized it through literary and artistic works, which expanded the influence of existentialism. After the 1960s, existentialism was replaced by other new schools. Absurd drama and "black humor" are variants of existential literature. Existentialist thinkers have different views. Some people say that there are as many existential philosophers as there are in the world. French existentialism is basically divided into two factions: one is Christian existentialism represented by Wei Yi and Marcel; The second is atheistic existentialism represented by Jean Paul Sartre, albert camus and De bovar. From the social influence of literature, Sartre (1905- 1980) and Camus (19 13- 1960) are the most important. They are all French writers. Sartre, in particular, is a master of existentialism. His philosophical works include Being and Nothingness, Existentialism as a Humanism, Human Prospect and Criticism of Dialectical Reason, etc. , laid the theoretical foundation of this kind of literature. Existentialists deny the independent existence of objective things, and think that only the existence I feel is the real existence, and this real existence and objective reality are always opposite and cannot be unified. Sartre declared that "existence" is "self" and "existence precedes essence, in other words, subjectivity must be the starting point." In other words, the essence of objective things is determined by subjective consciousness. Existentialism holds that the value of the individual is above everything else, and the individual and society are always separated and opposed. When people are thrown into the world, objective things and society are always against people and always threaten "self". Sartre has an existential famous saying in his play "The Confinement": "Others are (my) hell." Existentialists regard fear, loneliness, disappointment, disgust and abandonment as people's basic feelings in the world. In their view, the difference between people and other animals is that animals don't know their own death and have no fear of death; And people can know that they will inevitably die after all. So they think that the process of existence is the process of death, and thus come to the pessimistic conclusion that "existence" equals "non-existence". Existentialists deny the cognitive function of art and think that works of art can not reflect reality, but can only reveal people's spiritual impulses to a certain extent, endow people with the ability to "enjoy" and feel, and make people's irrational feelings clear. They believe that the purpose of artists is to create their own world and express their philosophical thoughts and feelings, rather than artistically reproduce the objective world. Under the domination of this thought, the main content of existential literature is often to describe the dark psychology of individuals in the absurd world, such as loneliness, disappointment and infinite fear. Existentialists have raised many thought-provoking questions, but their attitude towards life is negative. They regard the ugliness of capitalist reality as the eternal absurdity in the world, and advocate that life is nothing, life has no purpose, and all human activities are in vain. Existentialism not only reflects the aversion to capitalist reality, but also promotes self-centered subjective idealism and individualism, and beautifies pessimistic and world-weary life philosophy in the name of "freedom". Existentialism is completely contrary to Marx's assertion that "human nature is the sum of all social relations" because it denies the class attribute and social attribute of human beings. The representative works of existentialist literature include Sartre's novel Nausea, the philosophical drama Imprisonment and Camus's novel The Outsider. Existentialist literature advocates the combination of philosophical exploration and literary creation, and takes expressing existential philosophical views as its own responsibility. Most of these works involve important philosophical, moral and political themes, emphasizing that thought is more important than form, and emphasizing logical thinking and philosophical speculation. Existentialist writers are opposed to describing people and their fate according to their types and personalities. They believe that people have no innate nature, just live in a specific environment and rely on personal behavior to create themselves and interpret their own nature. The novelist's main task is to provide a fresh and diverse environment, so that characters can go beyond their own living environment and choose what kind of people to be. Therefore, the typicalization of characters is relegated to a secondary position. In literary creation, existentialist writers advocate the trinity view of author, character and reader. It is believed that writers can't write novels without readers, and the author's views should not be transcendental and must be tested by readers. Only when the novel is presented to the readers, in the process of the characters' activities, can the author and the readers jointly discover the true features of the characters. This trinity view had a great influence on young writers in Europe and America, and was later used for reference by other literary trends of thought.
Existentialist