Existentialism (Philosophy)

La reflexión sobre la inmortalidad en la obra de Unamno: Filosofía de la existencia, epistemología y pensamiento religioso

by Santiago Juan-Navarro

Published in Cuadernos de ALDEEU 14 (1998): 111-26.

La interrogante sobre la inmortalidad del ser humano ocupa un lugar central en el pensamiento de Unamuno. Alrededor de... more La interrogante sobre la inmortalidad del ser humano ocupa un lugar central en el pensamiento de Unamuno. Alrededor de esta cuestión giran los temas esenciales de su obra: las disquisiciones sobre el ser del hombre (mosofía de la existencia), las reflexiones acerca del conocimiento y la verdad (epistemología), su incursiones ocasionales en la crítica literaria y, muy especialmente, su pensamiento religioso. En todos estos casos, el ansia de inmortalidad, la superación del fenómeno de la muerte se manifiesta como el motivo estructural tanto de sus ensayos como de sus obras de ficción.

Cause and Effect

by Shannon Nason

Rough draft of a paper to appear in Kierkegaard's Concepts, ed. Jon Stewart (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Company, forthcoming)

I offer an analysis of the concept of cause and effect in Kierkegaard's thought. Particular attention is given to... more I offer an analysis of the concept of cause and effect in Kierkegaard's thought. Particular attention is given to Kierkegaard's metaphysical views about efficient and final causation

Benjamin Fondane, la poesia e il grido

by Alice Gonzi

Post-existentialism: The Return of Existentialism?

by Christian Gilliam

Delivered to the 2012 ESRC South East Doctoral Training Centre

Full bibliographical information will be added shortly

This paper seeks to outline the premise of post-existentialism as a political philosophy. Existentialism is no longer... more This paper seeks to outline the premise of post-existentialism as a political philosophy. Existentialism is no longer the appreciated or respected philosophy it was in the mid-twentieth century. Changes and advances in the continental tradition, namely through the poststructuralist turn, have seemingly challenged and undermined the very foundations of existentialism. Similarly, the explosion of neuroscientific research in the last few decades has expropriated existentialism’s (phenomenological) account of consciousness. To talk of consciousness on these terms alone, in an age where our understanding of the nervous system has expanded to such an incredible degree, would seem to boarder on mysticism. Despite these challenges, existentialism still offers significant insights for our understanding of existence and political philosophy. As such, it must not be consigned to the scrapheap: enter post-existentialism.
Post-existentialism is viewed as a natural and logical progression for existentialism to take in view of these challenges, rejuvenating the philosophy and making it more relevant to today’s world. It is, in short, an attempt to force existentialism to take on its major critics- namely poststructuralism and cognitive science- through amalgamating them. Through examining such an amalgamation, post-existentialism will be shown to establish a political philosophy that avoids the pitfalls of the bourgeois humanist subject, while retaining some coherent sense of agency and ethics. It accepts consciousness and the Being of freedom, or Being as freedom and all that that entails (i.e. nothingness, dread, nausea, anguish, absurdity) while placing a greater role on the part of our facticity and discursive forms of power in occluding, or shaping, an understanding of our Being. Further, post-existentialism, in confronting advances in cognitive science on embodied consciousness and the unconscious/ implicit memory, provides a naturalist twist to its deliberations. What we are witnessing here, then, is not a radical departure from the core tenets of existentialism, but rather a radical restructuring of them. With this, post-existentialism will leads us to a new sort of political ethic.

Neglected Areas in Bereavement Research- Sorrow and Solace .pdf

by Dennis Klass

An abbreviated version of this paper is now in press in Death Studies titled  Sorrow and Solace: Neglected Areas in Bereavement Research. This version includes material edited out of the DS version. I welcome comments and suggestions about how the paper could be developed further, and about other material that might illuminate the topic

The paper argues that in its focus on finding positive outcomes, bereavement research has neglected or denigrated... more The paper argues that in its focus on finding positive outcomes, bereavement research has neglected or denigrated central phenomena in intense and long-term grief: sorrow and solace. Indeed sorrow is the defining characteristic of grief and consolation historically has been its amelioration. We now seldom describe grief as sorrow.  Inconsolable, the traditional word describing difficult grief, has fallen into disuse. Sorrow has two elements: yearning for the dead person and grief’s depression. The first is best understood within attachment theory, the second is about the human condition and, thus, beyond attachment theory. When we focus on grief’s depression, we attend to grief’s thoughts that can be, as William James said, the “openers of our eyes to the deepest levels of truth.” To be consoled is to be comforted or soothed. Consolation comes into sorrow, but does not remove it. The bereaved can be consoled in human relationships and from inner resources. Solace is found within the sense of being connected to trustable realities outside the self. The paper argues that our research would be more complete were we to include solace that comes into sorrow as one of the outcomes we can help foster.

The Ontological I

by Donovan Irven

Nauseating Flux: Iris Murdoch on Sartre and Heraclitus

by David Robjant

forthcoming, The European Journal of Philosophy
Article first published online: 17 APR 2012

I observe Iris Murdoch’s distinctive use of the word ‘flux’ in discussion of Sartre’s Nausea and show that her usage... more I observe Iris Murdoch’s distinctive use of the word ‘flux’ in discussion of Sartre’s Nausea and show that her usage is persuasive and revolutionary, first as Sartre exegesis, second as Heraclitus exegesis, and throughout as a contribution to the philosophy of language. Murdoch’s usage of ‘flux’ frames a comparison of Sartre’s Roquentin with other figures who have had similarly flowing experience but without nausea. Roquentin's plight is shown to be ‘a philosopher's plight’ precipitated by a defective theory of descriptive success. I then show how the Heraclitean fragments would support Murdoch’s treatment of flux and on close analysis contradict the established view exemplified in the work of Wittgenstein and Jonathan Barnes. Flux is not a variety of change, and the river image ‘cannot be analysed into non-metaphorical components without a loss of substance’.

L'apport de la philosophie existentielle à la géographie humaniste

by Bertrand Levy

In : A. Bailly, R. Scariati (éds). L'Humanisme en Géographie, Anthropos, Paris, 1990, 77-86.

Existential philosophy  and Humanistic Geography Existential philosophy  and Humanistic Geography

Scènes de la vie (anti) américaine. Autour de La putain respectueuse de Jean-Paul Sartre

by Yan Hamel

Dans Études littéraires, vol XXXIX, no 2, hiver 2008, p. 99-111.

En France, est-ce injurier quelqu’un que de taxer son propos d’antiaméricanisme ? Voilà la question à laquelle... more En France, est-ce injurier quelqu’un que de taxer son propos d’antiaméricanisme ? Voilà la question à laquelle l’auteur de cette communication entend apporter quelques éléments de réponse en passant par une analyse de la pièce de théâtre La putain respectueuse et du tollé que ses premières représentations, en novembre 1946, soulevèrent dans la critique parisienne. L’étude amènera en outre l’auteur à se pencher sur le type particulièrement brutal de relation que, dans sa volonté d’engagement, le théâtre sartrien établit avec son public.

In France, is it an offense to pretend someone’s comments are antiamerican ? This is the question the author of this paper intends to answer. To do so, he analyzes Jean-Paul Sartre’s play La putain respectueuse (The Respectful Prostitute) and the outcry started by its first representations in November 1946. The author also questions the particularly brutal kind of relationship Sartre’s theater, in its will to commitment, establishes with its audience.

Movements of Thought in the Twentieth Century

by Epp Annus

This is an English version of the introduction to the collective monograph Kahekümnenda sajandi mõttevoolud (Ed by Epp Annus). Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, pp 933-947. The text served as an English summary of the book.

Corrigir a Existência: a ética como estética em Albert Camus

by Gabriel Ferreira

Cadernos de Ética e Filosofia Política da USP, vol. 14

"Correcting the Existence: Ethics as Aesthetics in Albert Camus" "Correcting the Existence: Ethics as Aesthetics in Albert Camus"

Vie et mort de Caligula

by Yan Hamel

Cahiers de théâtre Jeu, no 135, automne 2010.
Compte rendu critique des pièces Caligula (présenté au Trident de Québec) et Caligula remix (présenté au Théâtre de la Chapelle de Montréal)

Récupérable!. Les Mains sales

by Yan Hamel

Using's Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason for Managerial Decision-Making

by Chad Kleist

This article will offer an alternative understanding of managerial decision-making drawing from Sartre's Critique of... more This article will offer an alternative understanding of managerial decision-making drawing from Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason rather than simply Being and Nothingness.  I will begin with a brief explanation of Sartre's account of freedom in Being and Nothingness.  I will then show in the second section how Andrew West uses Sartre's conception of radical freedom from Being and Nothingness for a managerial decision-making model.  In the third section, I will explore a more robust account of freedom from Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason.  I will attempt to show that freedom is not simply a matter of choosing (or not choosing) to perform an action, but entails external constraints--including other people.  Finally, I will provide implications of this account of freedom for managerial decision-making.  I will show that it's unreasonable to place fully responsibility, but better accounts for the way in which we ought to them responsible.

Heidegger for Fun and Profit

by Anthony Gottlieb

Essay on the applied Heidegger movement. Published in the New York Times on January 7th 1990.

Ce monstre sureuropéen, l’Amérique du Nord. Jean-Paul Sartre, les États-Unis et la Guerre froide

by Yan Hamel

Dans LAROCHELLE, Marie-Hélène (dir.). Monstres et monstrueux littéraires, Québec, Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2008, p. 71-85.

Les prises de position jazzistiques de Jean-Paul Sartre

by Yan Hamel

Dans  MONTANDON, Frédérique et Aude LOCATELLI (dir.). Réflexions sur la socialité de la musique, Paris, L’Harmattan, coll. « Logiques sociales/musiques et champ social », 2007, p. 185-199.

Le tueur Delarue. La mise à mort des soldats allemands dans La mort dans l’âme de Jean-Paul Sartre

by Yan Hamel

Dans Déborah Lévy-Bertherat et Pierre Schoentjes, J’ai tué. Violence guerrière et fiction, Genève, Droz, 2010, p. 97-109.

Pour un roman francais a l'americaine: Jean-Paul Sartre critique litteraire

by Yan Hamel

Dans Études françaises, vol. 43, 3, 2007, p. 41-54.

Au cours de la période de douze ans durant laquelle il a publié ses nouvelles et ses romans (1937-1949), Jean-Paul... more Au cours de la période de douze ans durant laquelle il a publié ses nouvelles et ses romans (1937-1949), Jean-Paul Sartre a aussi fait paraître une série de critiques littéraires et de manifestes pour l’engagement de la littérature. Dans ces critiques et ces manifestes, l’auteur des Situations accorde une place centrale au genre romanesque : cette partie de son oeuvre a été un espace où, en prenant position par rapport aux autres écrivains, Sartre a implicitement défini sa conception du genre romanesque, ainsi que les ambitions littéraires, philosophiques et politiques qu’il poursuivait par l’entremise de ses propres fictions narratives. L’ensemble des oeuvres auxquelles Sartre s’intéresse dans ses essais sur la littérature se caractérise par une stricte bipartition. D’un côté, des prédécesseurs et des contemporains français tels que Jean Giraudoux, François Mauriac, Paul Nizan, Albert Camus et Maurice Blanchot sont plus ou moins durement éreintés selon les cas. En contrepartie, des oeuvres écrites par ceux que Sartre appelle indifféremment « les Américains », c’est-à-dire, pour l’essentiel, William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck et Richard Wright, suscitent de l’enthousiasme, reçoivent des éloges et sont considérés comme des modèles dont l’écrivain français devrait idéalement parvenir à s’inspirer. Dans cet article, l’auteur dégage la signification de cette bipartition entre oeuvres américaines et françaises et circonscrit la fonction qu’elle remplit dans le système de la critique littéraire sartrienne.

During the twelve years in which he published short stories and novels (1937-1949), Jean-Paul Sartre also wrote articles of literary criticism and manifestos defending commitment in literature. In these articles and manifestos, the author of Situations focused his reflection on the poetics of fiction. In this part of his work, Sartre situated himself among other writers. He also defined implicitly, with his own conception of the novel, the literary, philosophic and political ambitions he was pursuing at this time. The works of fiction analyzed by Sartre in his articles and manifestos are characterized by a strict bipartition. On the one hand, he subjected his French predecessors and contemporaries like Jean Giraudoux, François Mauriac, Paul Nizan, Albert Camus and Maurice Blanchot to pretty harsh scrutiny, while works by novelists that Sartre lumped together [generally referred to] as the “Americans” (William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and Richard Wright) were enthusiastically praised and heralded as the models to inspire French writers. In this article, Sartre’s system of literary criticism is called forth in elucidating the meaning of this bipartition between American and French fiction.

Un touriste engagé. Jean-Paul Sartre écrit l'Amérique

by Yan Hamel

Dans Menant, Sylvain (dir.), Travaux de littérature — Les Amériques des écrivains français, tome XXIV, 2011, p. 333-343.