The Meaning of Existentialism

THE MEANING OF EXISTENTIALISM There is no sanity in those whom anything in creation displeases. St. Augustine, Confessions. But, friends, let me open my whole heart to you: if there were gods in existence, how could I endure not to be a god. Nietzsche, Zarathustra. I. T HE purpose of this essay is to discuss briefly and tentatively, though in a strictly philosophical way, some principles and distinctions drawn from the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas which provide a perspective for the proper appreciation of the importance of Existentialism. Existentialism is a name which covers a multitude of intellectual sins, and is often assumed by cheap revivals of the perennial philos~phical errors and sophisms, absolute scepticism , nominalism and the like. It has become more a speculative fashion than a distinct philosophical movement. Then again, even from the most sincere and responsible exponents of Existentialism, it is difficult to arrive at any clear definition of its meaning; for, so they say themselves, if it is taken as a formal philosophical doctrine, if it is universalised or systematised in any way, it loses its whole raison d'etre. How to define the essence of a philosophical movement which denies in fact that there are any essences to be defined or that the process of definition itself is of any value! Apart from this, there are radical differences between all the best known Existentialists. For Kierkegaard, Christianity is the centre of any true" Existentialism ," as it is also for Gabriel Marcel. But for Sartre, and it would seem also for Heidegger, atheism is an integral part of an " Existential " philosophy. Then again, each of the 472 THE MEANING OF EXISTENTIALISM 473 main contemporary Existentialists has shown himself anxious to dissociate himself from the others. Sartre, for example, has criticized Heidegger severely; Jaspers has announced his opposition to them both, and Marcel maintains a wholly independent position. In spite of all this we can propose a loose kind of definition of Existentialism which will serve as a preliminary definition for our enquiry here. The essence of Existentialism, we may say, lies in its insistence upon the primacy of subjectivity. First, in the speculative order, the order of thought, this primacy of subjectivity means the rejection of all "systematic" thought-of the abstract and the necessary and the universalfor the sake of the individual and singular and unique and ineffable experience of the subject. The lived experience of the subject is the only valid criterion of truth. So Jaspers says, "I cannot verify anything save through my personal being, and I have no other rule than this personal being itself." Or, as Gabriel Marcel puts it in a striking epigram, "We do not study problems of philosophy, we are those problems." Or again Kierkegaard, " Does not the vanity of our age come from the fact that, with all its knowledge, lost in the objectivism of its theories, it forgets those two little things which are so simple, the meaning of existence and the meaning of inwardness? " Secondly, in the practical or moral order, the order of moral action and choice, this "primacy of subjectivity" means the rejection of any a priori morality and the affirmation of the complete freedom, the complete gratuitousness of the liberty of the subject. It affirms man's capacity to determine his destiny, to "make" himself what he is. (In this sense, but in this sense only, he "makes," as Sartre says, his nature or "essence'.'; and in this sense again his" essence," or what he is, is posterior to his "existence.") Further, it affirms man's responsibility for his moral action, face to face with moral situations which are never the same but which demand always a new and unique moral choice. "Preparation for becoming attentive to Christianity," so Kierkegaard says in his Post- 474 MAX. CHARLESWORTH script, " does not consist in reading books or in making smveys of world history, but in deeper immersion in existence." How does this radical subjectivism escape the absurdity of absolute scepticism and solipsism? How shall we understand a statement such as Marcel's," To think, to formulate, to judge, is always in the last :resort to betray?" What value has the Existentialist...