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RECENT PHILOSOPHY |
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Select: Gabriel Marcel - Jean-Paul Sartre |
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Background Essay General Observations About Existentialism FRENCH EXISTENTIALISM The rise of French Existentialism is independent of that of German Existentialism, just as the content of the one is independent of the content of the other. German thinkers except for Jaspers remain immersed in an immanentist conception, whereas most French thinkers rise to the transcendence of God, according to the traditional spiritualism of their country. Representative of French Existentialism are Gabriel Marcel, Rene Lesenne, Louis Lavelle, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Elsewhere On the Internet
Marcel, a dramatist and philosopher, a convert from Hegelianism to Catholicism, is the most representative of the French Existentialists. He expressed his thought in the Journal metaphysique, Etre et avoir, and Du refus a l'invocation. Etre et avoir has been translated into English under the title Being and Having. None of these works, however, are systematic treatises. The work of putting the writings of Marcel into a logical whole was achieved by one of his friends. Marcel introduced this compilation to the public with the words: "This is the book I should have written!" The philosophical thought of Marcel had originally been expressed in the form of scattered statements, of deep flashes of insight into the problems of human life, which he had noted in his Journal metaphysique as early as 1925, even before the publication of the works of Heidegger. According to Marcel, philosophy is not research on being but an attempt to find being. By this distinction he means that the object of philosophy is not a thing separate from us, one about which we ask questions for the purpose of reaching some solution. The object of philosophical research is the inquiring subject himself, not only because he is a being but because he is the first being who is brought into his own immediate experience. Hence philosophy necessarily must be existentialist, and its starting point must be this immediate fact: actual existence in the world. This distinction between research on being and an attempt to find being is followed by another subtle distinction between "problem" and "mystery." Marcel designates as problems all the questions which are concerned with the objects conceived of as distinct from us. Concerning these, we may ask questions, and we may deduce a "solution." On the contrary, he calls "mysteries" all those questions which are concerned with our own existence. The answer to such questions can be obtained only through mystical "recollection." Besides these two distinctions, Marcel makes another between having and being. He observes that having implies a dualism composed of a possessing subject and a possessed object; having is concerned with objective exteriority. Being on the contrary, does not admit of any dualism, for the object is identical with the subject. Thus I do not have my body; I am my body. Having made these distinctions, Marcel begins his philosophical research with the existent, and starts from the level of knowledge. First of all, he observes that perception is not a simple representation of an object to the sentient subject. Sensation essentially consists in the act of perceiving, and this act is "mine." To perceive an object means that the subject becomes mysteriously that object. Thus by means of perception I am deepening in a new and mysterious way my participation in the universe. Perception is like a creation of the universe in me. The first and most intimate participation is that effected with my body. In virtue of the distinction between "problem" and "mystery," the union of the soul with the body is not open to investigation; for Marcel such a union is a mystery. I am my body, which means that I am "incarnated" in my body, not in the sense that my existence is absorbed by my body, but in the sense that I could not be existent without this mysterious "other" which is my body. Through my body I perceive surrounding objects. They represent a transcendent thing for me; but through the act of perception I am open to them and they are open to me. Thus the act of perception is an act of love. Through it I transcend myself; I am in mysterious participation with objects. Through the act of perception objects become immanent in me. Now, the objects are no longer a third thing; they become the "thou" with whom I talk. From the "thou" of the finite things I ascend to God, the absolute Thou. Thus, I feel God as present to me and I invoke Him. The existence of God is an object of faith and not of reason; and faith is possible only when charity overcomes all impediments and all obstacles. Man thus becomes available to all, and all become available to man. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On the Internet
Theological and Moral Nihilism While for the philosopher Heidegger the existent is reduced to a being tending to death, for Jean-Paul Sartre (picture), the existent is identified with the series of phenomena which tells us of its existence. In other words, to be an existent means to be a series of appearances. Ordinarily, appearance tells us of a dualism, i.e., the appearance and what is hidden in that appearance. Such a dualism is denied by Sartre and he maintains instead that appearance is the entire and only reality. As a result God, who cannot be phenomenal, does not exist; and the existent is only one unit in the complete series of phenomena, and is "without support and help." The drama of such a negative condition is manifested in moments of "nausea and disgust," similar to the anguish of Kierkegaard except that the discomfort of the Danish philosopher resulted in a quest for God, while in Sartre it is the demonstration of the "nothingness" with which the existent is infected. However, the existent is actuated by "the other," in the sense that he finds in himself the representation of the world. Thus the existent is founded on an opposition: he is both the subject of consciousness and the representation of the world. Sartre calls the terms of this opposition of the "pour-soi" or "for-self" (the existent as subject of consciousness) and the "en-soi" or "in-self" (the world, i.e., the totality of phenomena). Each of these two terms is established because of its negative relation to the other; that is, the "for-self" is not the "in-self" and vice versa. The opposition between the for-self and the in-self is insuperable. Indeed, if the for-self were synthesized or metamorphosed into the in-self, it would become God; but we know that this idea is contradictory. Thus the existent is nothing other than a "useless passion," a "project" with the assignment of putting itself into execution. Since, according to Sartre, God does not exist and man is without "support and help," the existent must construct his existence freely: "Man is damned to be free." In regard to the free execution of the project of existence, Sartre repeats the maxim of Ivan Karamazov of Dostoevski's famed novel: "If God does not exist, all is permitted"; hence freedom results in arbitrary acts in the carrying out of the project of existence. The atheism and amoralism of Sartre may be considered as the ultimate corruption of Existentialism, and of philosophy in general. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On the Internet
Positive contributions of Existentialism to the Perennial Philosophy It is really too early to tell what contributions Existentialism will make to the Perennial Philosophy. Heidegger, Jaspers, and Marcel have certainly raised some concrete issues which must be addressed by commonsense philosophical realism. But Sartre makes no positive contributions whatsoever. There are some traditional philosophical realists who are making an attempt to bring about a synthesis of some of the main points raised by the theistic Existentialists, but whether or not they are successful will be seen in the future. |
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