{"id":48,"date":"2023-12-03T13:48:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T19:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/?page_id=48"},"modified":"2025-06-09T17:01:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T22:01:03","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"Divided Individuals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"mainpage\" class=\"col_12\">\n<div class=\"col_9\">\n<div id=\"leadstory\"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"LeadStory\" --><\/p>\n<p>There are two famous trios of existentialists; other existentialists are grouped with these trios of \u201cleaders\u201d as appropriate. The first trio of <a href=\"kierkegaard.shtml\">S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard<\/a>, <a href=\"nietzsche.shtml\">Friedrich Nietzsche<\/a>, and <a href=\"heidegger.shtml\">Martin Heidegger<\/a> is grouped together intellectually. These men are the fathers of existentialism and dedicated themselves to the study of the human condition. While they expressed political views, especially <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/heidegger.shtml\">Heidegger<\/a>, their primary interest was metaphysical.<\/p>\n<p>The second trio of <a href=\"sartre.shtml\">Jean-Paul Sartre<\/a>, <a href=\"camus.shtml\">Albert Camus<\/a>, and <a href=\"beauvoir.shtml\">Simone de Beauvoir<\/a> is viewed as a political trio. They were a social trio until <a href=\"sartre.shtml\">Sartre<\/a> and <a href=\"camus.shtml\">Camus<\/a> proved that petty squabbles and pride cannot be overcome by basic philosophy. While other individuals moved in and out of these two groups, literally and figuratively, these six individuals define existentialism.<\/p>\n<p>Can we reasonably group a set of individuals as \u201cexistentialists\u201d when their divisions are more clear? Yet, any attempt to divide existential thinkers into groups is bound to result in the oversimplification of their writings, lectures, and public statements. Still, we tend to group related thinkers for purposes of study. St. Elmo Nauman, writing in <em>The New Dictionary of Existentialism<\/em>, offers the following groupings of existential thinkers:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Existentialism has exerted a profound unifying influence on the usually diverse disciplines of philosophy, theology, literature, and psychology.<\/p>\n<p>The immediate foundations of existentialism were laid by <a href=\"kierkegaard.shtml\">S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard<\/a> (1813\u20131855), <a href=\"nietzsche.shtml\">Friedrich Nietzsche<\/a> (1844\u20131900), and to some extent by the phenomenologist <a href=\"husserl.shtml\">Edmund Husserl<\/a> (1859\u20131938). The major formulations of existentialism are by <a href=\"jaspers.shtml\">Karl Jaspers<\/a> (1883\u20131969), <a href=\"heidegger.shtml\">Martin Heidegger<\/a>, and <a href=\"sartre.shtml\">Jean-Paul Sartre<\/a>. In addition to these thinkers, the most commonly acknowledged existentialists are Gabriel Marcel, <a href=\"merleau.shtml\">Maurice Merleau-Ponty<\/a>, Migeul de Unamuno y Jugo (1864\u20131936), and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874\u20131948).<\/p>\n<p>The literary existentialists, in addition to many of the above, are <a href=\"dostoevsky.shtml\">Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky<\/a> (1821\u20131881), Rainer Maria Rilke (1875\u20131926), <a href=\"kafka.shtml\">Frank Kafka<\/a> (1883\u20131924), <a href=\"camus.shtml\">Albert Camus<\/a> (1913\u20131960), Andr\u00e9 Gide (1869\u20131951) and Andr\u00e9 Malraux.<\/p>\n<p>The most noted men in the field of existential psychology, in addition to Kierkegaard, Jaspers, and Sartre, are <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/frankl.shtml\">Viktor Frankl<\/a>, <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/may.shtml\">Rollo May<\/a>, Ludwig Binswanger, and Roland Kuhn.<\/p>\n<p>The theological existentialists, in addition to Kierkegaard, Jaspers, and Marcel, are <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/buber.shtml\">Martin Buber<\/a>, <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/barth_k.shtml\">Karl <\/a>, Rudolph Bultmann, and <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/tillich.shtml\">Paul Tillich<\/a>. \u2014 <em>The New Dictionary of Existentialism<\/em>; St. Elmo Nauman, pp. 46-7<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- End right column --> <!-- End extra padding -->  <!--- Page content in chunks --><\/p>\n<div class=\"col_12\"><!-- InstanceBeginRepeat name=\"StoryContent\" --><!-- InstanceBeginRepeatEntry --> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"StoryText\" --><\/p>\n<div class=\"subtitle\"><a id=\"metaphysics\" name=\"metaphysics\"><\/a>From Metaphysics<\/div>\n<p>The early thinkers associated with existentialism concentrated their writings and lectures upon the metaphysical. <a href=\"kierkegaard.shtml\">Kierkegaard<\/a>, <a href=\"nietzsche.shtml\">Nietzsche<\/a>, and <a href=\"heidegger.shtml\">Heidegger<\/a> are the primary intellectual and metaphysical existentialists, even though Heidegger claimed to be rejecting metaphysics in his works. The novelist <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/dostoevsky.shtml\">Dostoevsky<\/a> also emphasized metaphysical questions in his writings.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u2026 [T]here is a very strong spiritual current that carries through into Existentialist writing well into the twentieth century and why there is often a desire to go beyond the present material, physical being and to achieve some kind of transcendence.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u00a0<em>Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed<\/em>; Steven Earnshaw, p. 5<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>What Are Metaphysics?<\/h3>\n<p>Literally, \u201cmetaphysics\u201d are those disciplines that are \u201cbeyond physics.\u201d In practice, metaphysics is the study of abstract concepts and the very nature of abstract thinking.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the metaphysicians associated with existentialism were so dedicated to thought that they were generally asocial, while caring a great deal about mankind.<\/p>\n<h2>Metaphysical Questions<\/h2>\n<p>The most basic, and complex, metaphysical questions include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is \u201ctruth\u201d and is anything irrefutably true?<\/li>\n<li>What is \u201creal\u201d and how can we know reality with any certainty?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Questions of Faith<\/h3>\n<p>Reference works indicate that <a href=\"nietzsche.shtml\">Nietzsche<\/a> (1844\u20131900) was not a reader of <a href=\"kierkegaard.shtml\">Kierkegaard\u2019s<\/a> essays (1813\u20131855), but they both pursued the same general question: What, short of a fear of a Creator, limits the actions of an individual? Kierkegaard approached the problem from the possibility that Christianity, and faith in general, is irrational. Kierkegaard argued that proving the existence of a single, supreme entity was not a useful pursuit. Instead, Kierkegaard believed, the important test of a man was his commitment to faith despite the absurdity of that faith.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"nietzsche.shtml\">Nietzsche<\/a>, often characterized as an atheist, was more precisely a critic of organized religion and the doctrines of his time. He believed that organized religion, especially the powerful Catholic church, was opposed to anyone gaining power or self-reliance without consent. Nietzsche used the phrase <em>herd<\/em> to describe the populous, which followed the churches willingly. Nietzsche argued that proving the existence of a Creator was neither possible nor important. However, while <a href=\"kierkegaard.shtml\">Kierkegaard<\/a> considered devotion in the absence of proof courageous, Nietzsche considered the pursuit of personal excellence a sign of courage. Nietzsche\u2019s philosophy can be compared to <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/milton.shtml\">Milton\u2019s<\/a> Lucifer in <em>Paradise Lost<\/em>. Lucifer said, \u201cBetter to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some twentieth-century theologians have debated these differing views of man&#8217;s relationship with the Creator. The writers addressing this issue include <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/barth_k.shtml\">Karl Barth<\/a>, <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/tillich.shtml\">Martin Buber<\/a>, and <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/tillich.shtml\">Paul Tillich<\/a>. This group is referred to as the religious or <a href=\"ex_theo.html\">theological existentialists<\/a>. Tillich was one of the most influential members of this group. Because he emigrated to the United States after opposing the National Socialists in Germany, Tillich was embraced by the American intellectual community.<\/p>\n<p><!-- InstanceEndEditable --> <!-- InstanceEndRepeatEntry --><!-- InstanceBeginRepeatEntry --> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"StoryText\" --><\/p>\n<div class=\"subtitle\"><a id=\"politics\" name=\"politics\"><\/a>Political Thinkers<\/div>\n<p>It might be a bit unfair to call the French Existentialists politicians, but they were politically active and often politically motivated. France was the center of political existentialism, as noted in the included <a href=\"ex_history.html\">history<\/a>. German philosophers, until World War II, were isolated from daily political struggles. Even during the two world wars, the German philosophers could only imagine the horrors of concentration camps. The French Resistance, meanwhile, was the refuge of some of France\u2019s leading thinkers.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There is certainly nothing in Existential thought itself which necessitates political engagement, although it can certainly be argued, especially in the Sartrean line of thought, that &#8216;to exist&#8217; is &#8216;to act&#8217;, is to be engaged in a manner with the world and others and is therefore not like Kierkegaard&#8217;s view of existence as a deepening inwardness which has the result of removing the individual from the public realm.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 <em>Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed<\/em>; Earnshaw, p. 12<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"sartre.shtml\">Jean-Paul Sartre<\/a> and <a href=\"camus.shtml\">Albert Camus<\/a>, recognized as the two most influential 20th-century existential writers, were both active in the French Resistance. Camus had been politically active in his native Algeria. Camus had been born into poverty. As a result, he was drawn into socialist groups while attending college. Sartre, in comparison, was more political after World War II. His family\u2019s prominent social standing had isolated him from most political matters. The war galvanized these two men into activists. Sartre became a leading defender of the Soviet Union for a time, while Camus promoted what he called \u201chumanistic socialism\u201d or socialism with compassion.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It was over political stances that Camus and Sartre fell out, and Sartre is often seen as abandoning Existentialism for socialism. It is Sartre again who articulates the difficulty his brand of intellectual finds when it comes to committing to political activity; it is dramatized in a number of his creative pieces, for example the play\u00a0<em>Dirty Hands\u00a0<\/em>(1948),\u00a0<em>The Roads to Freedom\u00a0<\/em>novel trilogy (1945-9), and in his essay \u2018Search for a Method\u2019 (1957) which had originally begun as a piece on the situation of Existentialism in the latter half of the 1950s.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u00a0<em>Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed<\/em>; Earnshaw, p. 14<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Other thinkers associated with existentialism also shifted towards political affairs at the expense of academic philosophical pursuits. The shift from primarily philosophical to primarily political concerns among the \u201coriginal\u201d existentialists was completed by de Beauvoir.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Simone de Beauvoir in her novel\u00a0<i><em>The Blood of Others\u00a0<\/em><\/i>(1945) explores the relationship between individual authenticity and our being-in-the-world-with-others. The significance of choice and freedom is all the more dramatic for being set among the French Resistance in the Second World War and so the choices facing the individual are political. For de Beauvoir there is the inescapable fact that when we choose for ourselves we choose for others, to the point where we may be responsible for the deaths of others. With her book\u00a0<i><em>The Second Sex\u00a0<\/em><\/i>(1949), however, she too began to move away from a more central Existentialist perspective to a primarily political one. In the narrative that puts Sartre and others closely associated with him at the centre of Existentialism, it is indeed politics which brings about the end of that particular driving force.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 <em>Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed<\/em>; Earnshaw, p. 14<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>European texts as well as the writings of <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/marx.shtml\">Marx<\/a> and Lenin help clarify communism and socialism as understood by the political existentialists. The writings of <a href=\"camus.shtml\">Camus<\/a>, <a href=\"sartre.shtml\">Sartre<\/a>, and other existentialists who claimed to be either Communist Party supporters or socialists add to this understanding.<\/p>\n<h4><a id=\"marxism\" name=\"marxism\"><\/a>Marx and Existentialism<\/h4>\n<p>The American public has been taught that the \u201creal\u201d definition of Marism is communal living. This is not the case in most writings contemporary to <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/marx.shtml\">Karl Marx<\/a> himself. In 1847, <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/marx.shtml\">Marx<\/a> explained to the Communist League of London that a strong central power was needed to manage the production and distribution of goods for the benefit of all. <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/marx.shtml\">Marx<\/a> abandoned Engels\u2019 idea that utopia was all working for each other, with no central structure.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/marx.shtml\">Marx<\/a> stated that a dictatorship was a step toward the \u201cclassless\u201d society, stating in 1852 that \u201cclass struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat.\u201d Remember that Marx\u2019s famous quote, from about 1880, is \u201cI am not a Marxist,\u201d referring to the misinterpretation of his writings.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/marx.shtml\">Marx<\/a> would have, in fact, considered the Soviet Union a Marxist nation, in that he defined Marxism in his letters as a belief that a few men can and should decide issues for the masses, freeing them from the problems of capitalism. In other words, <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/marx.shtml\">Marx<\/a> thought it honorable that some men would sacrifice their freedom to worry about the business of production, leaving the masses equal and free to pursue their interests. <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/marx.shtml\">Marx<\/a> was asked what these men would do if everyone wanted to go fishing when the society needed wheat. His answer was to state that Marxism was not freedom to do anything, but freedom from things, such as worries about money, food, and shelter.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, sacrifice your freedom to do things in favor of a freedom from things. That is, in its simplest form, the promise that <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/marx.shtml\">Marx<\/a>, not necessarily Engels, saw in a single-party, dictatorial government. His biggest concerns were the basics of life. This makes sense, as he saw that European culture was very exclusive, with the poor always worrying about basic needs. Communism has come to mean Marxism, which his own writings indicate was not a utopian society in which men were free to do as they wanted. Only his early writings were so idealistic as to dream of worker-owners. By the 1850s, Marx was an authoritarian. Lenin and Stalin took these later writings to justify killing \u201cenemies of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"camus.shtml\">Camus<\/a> and <a href=\"sartre.shtml\">Sartre<\/a>, both originally supporters of Marxist ideas, used their fame as writers of fiction to promote their ideals. The metaphysicians would have avoided most direct political engagement. Camus accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, considering it a tool to argue for human rights. Curiously, Sartre, who loved to be the center of attention, refused to accept the award in 1964. His public refusal probably attracted more attention for him.<\/p>\n<p>Public perception of existentialism was furthered (and tainted) by the political existentialists. For many Americans, the existentialists are <a href=\"sartre.shtml\">Sartre<\/a> and <a href=\"camus.shtml\">Camus<\/a>, with <a href=\"nietzsche.shtml\">Nietzsche<\/a> symbolizing an even darker image.<\/p>\n<h4>Libertarianism and Existentialism<\/h4>\n<p>Libertarianism is as often misunderstood as existentialism. There are libertarian socialists and libertarian anarchists. However, libertarianism in the United States and other Anglo-American cultures is most often associated with variations of Austrian economics.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this emphasis on radical individualism, existentialism is sometimes compared to <a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/ex_plus.html#objectivism\">Ayn Rand&#8217;s objectivism<\/a> (a mistake, generally) or political libertarianism. Like existentialists, Rand and her followers used the arts to further a philosophy. However, objectivism claims there are basic, universal truths of human nature and experience. Rand&#8217;s works and objectivism embody a neo-liberal philosophy of personal self-interest and, by some, of greed. Most of the existential thinkers of the twentieth century are associated with left-leaning democratic socialism and even communism. Yes, this is also contradictory on its face, reflecting the complexity of any attempt to unravel existentialism.<\/p>\n<p>William Irwin has argued that existentialism and libertarianism complement each other, particularly in his book <i><em>The Free Market Existentialist: Capitalism without Consumerism<\/em><\/i>. As Irwin notes, because many contemporary philosophers and scholars view extenstialism in terms of the French political philosphers <a href=\"sartre.shtml\">Sartre<\/a>, <a href=\"camus.shtml\">Camus<\/a>, and <a href=\"beauvoir.shtml\">de Beauvoir<\/a>, it is difficult to consider neo-liberalism and classical liberalism as complementary to existentialism.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"small\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/archives\/2015\/12\/30\/its-time-to-embrace-free-market-existent\">It&#8217;s Time To Embrace Free-Market Existentialism!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Capitalism provides the most choices and opportunities for philosophical self-definition.<\/p>\n<p>William Irwin | December 30, 2015<\/p>\n<p>A friend of mine was &#8220;horrified,&#8221; as he put it, when I told him about what I had planned in connecting existentialism and capitalism. He warned me that any other self-identifying existentialist would be horrified as well. What he could not tell me was why.<\/p>\n<p>Existentialism and libertarianism both value freedom and responsibility. As with individualism, the sense of freedom characteristic of existentialism is not exactly the same as the sense of freedom characteristic of libertarianism, but they are not foreign to each other. The entrepreneurs whom libertarians celebrate are risk takers and often rebels who feel a sense of exhilaration in taking chances. Existentialists, though, because of their largely negative view of capitalism, have typically ignored or dismissed such entrepreneurs as not-genuine examples of individuals exercising their freedom.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>One of the great concerns of the political left is that capitalism makes us into mindless drones who simply buy and consume. Of course capitalism provides circumstances that make it easier for a person to live that way, but capitalism can&#8217;t make you do anything. It is possible to have capitalism without consumerism. Existentialism is actually the ideal balancing agent, the perfect accompaniment to capitalism, allowing us to reap the benefits of a free market while encouraging us to resist crass consumerism.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"sources\">Sources<\/h2>\n<p class=\"hanging\">Earnshaw, Steven. <i><em>Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed.<\/em><\/i> London; New York: Continuum International Pub. Group, 2006. [0826485294, 9780826485298 (hc); 0826485308, 9780826485304 (pbk)]<\/p>\n<p class=\"hanging\">Nauman, St Elmo. <em><i>The New Dictionary of Existentialism.<\/i><\/em> New York: Philosophical Library, 1971. [080222346X]<\/p>\n<p class=\"hanging\"><a href=\"\/csw\/exist\/sources.shtml\">Complete Bibliography<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are two famous trios of existentialists; other existentialists are grouped with these trios of \u201cleaders\u201d as appropriate. The first trio of S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard, Friedrich&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/people\/\">Continue Reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Divided Individuals<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":30,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"iawp_total_views":219,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-48","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-people","tag-general","entry"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/Pfiwmh-M","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/exist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}