Rethinking Existentialism

244 Pages·2018·1.48 MB·English

by  Jonathan Webber

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Rethinking Existentialism
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Rethinking
Existentialism
Jonathan Webber
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Preface
This book argues for a new conception of existentialism through com-
parative analyses of the works of Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus,
Frantz Fanon, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre published
between1942and1952.ThetermwasfirstgivenadefinitionbyBeauvoir
andSartreinautumn1945,whentheyappropriateditasabrandname
for their shared philosophy. It has since been applied very widely,
naming an extensive and loosely associated assortment of thinkers and
artists. By returning to the original definition and analysing closely the
worksthatitdescribes,aswellassomerelatedworkspublishedbytheir
friends and colleagues, we can articulate a precise understanding of
existentialism that allows us to identify new contributions it can make
tophilosophy,psychology,andpsychotherapy.
The first chapter presents the book’s overall argument. The second
advancesanewanalysisofTheOutsideraspremisedonaconceptionof
humannaturethatshowsCamustoalreadybeopposedtoexistentialism
in this novel. The third argues that Merleau-Ponty’s argument against
Sartre’stheoryoffreedomfails,inpartbecausehedoesnotidentifyhis
target precisely enough. The fourth argues that Beauvoir’s novel She
Came To Stay dramatizes her disagreement with Sartre over the meta-
physical structure of human freedom. Beauvoir considers freedom to
require that projects gather inertia as they are pursued, whereas Sartre
considersittorequirethatprojectsneverhaveinertiaoftheirown.The
fifthdevelopsthisdisagreementthroughreconsideringFreud’sinfluence
onthedevelopmentofexistentialismandthedistinctionbetweenBeau-
voir’sformofexistentialpsychoanalysisinTheSecondSexandSartre’sin
Being and Nothingness. The sixth argues for a new interpretation of
Sartre’splayHuisClos,arguingthatitdramatizesSartre’sviewthatitis
bad faith, the commitment to a specific mistaken view of human exist-
ence, that condemns interpersonal relations to being fundamentally
conflictual.
At this point, the book turns from the theory of human being at the
core of existentialism to its cultural and ethical aspects. The seventh
chapter argues that Sartre’s first attempt to ground a cultural theory in
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viii PREFACE
his existentialism fails because it inevitably relies on an entirely unex-
plainable coincidence. For this reason, the chapter argues, Sartre aban-
doned his initial theory of freedom in favour of accepting Beauvoir’s
theory,firstdetailinghisrevisedformofexistentialisminSaintGenetin
1952. The eighth chapter argues that Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks,
published in the same year, is fundamentally a work of existentialism
that rests on the sedimentation of projects. The ninth outlines Fanon’s
andSartre’seudaimonistethicalargumentsfortheexistentialistvirtueof
authenticity,whichistherecognitionofandrespectforthetruestructure
of human existence. The tenth argues that Beauvoir has presented an
importantargumentforacategoricalimperativeofauthenticity.
These details and intricate interrelations of these central texts of
twentieth-century European thought have been obscured by the loose
classificationofamuchbroaderrangeofthinkersandartistsasexisten-
tialists.Uncoveringthesedetailsallowsustopinpointmorepreciselythe
philosophical theories that Beauvoir and Sartre indicated as defining
existentialism in 1945, the differences between them, and the reason
why Sartre had adopted Beauvoir’s within a few years. The theory that
theybothsettleduponandthatFanonalsoarticulatedin1952,therefore,
should be considered definitive of existentialism. The final chapter
sketches some contributions that existentialism so understood can
maketoourunderstandingofthefunctioningofthemind,thedevelop-
mentofpersonalcharacterandculturalidentity,thegroundingofethical
andmoralvalues,andthepurposesandpracticeofpsychotherapy.
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Contents
Acknowledgements xiii
1. WhatIsExistentialism? 1
1.1 ExistencePrecedesEssence 2
1.2 FreedomandSedimentation 4
1.3 ExistentialismandtheMind 7
1.4 TheInfluenceofOtherPeople 9
1.5 ExistentialismIsAHumanism 11
1.6 ExistentialismandExistentialPhilosophy 14
1.7 RethinkingExistentialism 16
2. WhyMeursaultisanOutsider 20
2.1 Meursault’sEmotionalStrangeness 21
2.2 MeursaultasaHeroofAbsurdity 24
2.3 Meursault’sProgress 26
2.4 TheOriginofMeursault’sEstrangement 29
2.5 ALiteraryMoralCogito 32
2.6 WhyCamusisnotanExistentialist 33
2.7 HumanNatureandPoliticalViolence 35
3. FreedomandtheOriginsofReasons 39
3.1 Freedom,Reasons,andProjects 40
3.2 TheFieldofMeaning 42
3.3 TheFieldofReasons 45
3.4 ThePhenomenologyofReasons 47
3.5 FreedomWithoutReasons 50
3.6 ProjectsasCommitments 52
3.7 Sartre’sProgress 54
4. WhyXavièreisaThreattoFrançoise 57
4.1 AMetaphysicalNovel 58
4.2 TheSedimentationofProjects 60
4.3 WhyXavièreisaThreattoFrançoise 63
4.4 Beauvoir’sCritiqueofSartre 65
4.5 TheWeightofSituation 67
4.6 WhyBeauvoirisanExistentialist 70
4.7 TheAmbiguityofInfluence 73
5. PsychoanalysisandtheExistentialistMind 76
5.1 ThePuzzlesofRepressionandResistance 77
5.2 IntheShadowofDescartes 79