Existentialism: Questions OCT 20

Friday, October 16, 2026

Questions OCT 20

Remember the Southern Festival of Books this weekend (Oct 17-18)

Cafe 6-7. Select final report presentation date/topic...

Is fascism better than war? 122 But is this a false dilemma, at least for us, given the plausible prospect of both--and "endless tyranny"-- simultaneously?
Can we really remain "free and individual" while being "swept up by large historical forces"? 124
Why did Sartre consider Stoics and Epicureans "brutal," by contrast with Aristotle?
Are you finding it possible to "carry on" (like Malvine Husserl) as if the current regime does not exist? 126 Should we be trying to do that?
"A sense of being embodied is part of almost every experience..." 130 But is it, though? Are people in general, and philosophers especially, prone to disembodied thinking? Is there a good corrective for that?
"...cross-cultural encounters are generally good, because they stimulate people to self-questioning." 131 Most people? Doesn't it seem to make many even more insular and parochial, at least lately?
What's your attitude towards "the Enlightenment spirit of shared reason and free inquiry"? 132 Why do so many not share it?
Is Stanislav Lem's Solaris a good illustration of Husserl's phenomenology? 133 Can you think of other sci-fi scenarios that effectively embody philosophy?
Any comment on the irony of Edith Stein's fate, in light of her scholarship on empathy? 135
Are we now in a kind of "funny war" (or "strange" or "phony"), temporarily awaiting something more ominous? 137 Or are you more hopeful for the near future?
What do you think of de Beauvoir's "affairs with a couple of her students"? 138
Are Hegel and Kierkegaard a good "combination"? 141
Do we have the balance between submission and resistance right? 144 What would that look like? Should we "force [ourselves] to be rude"? Do we need a more vibrant cafe life?
"We get up, commute, work, eat, work, commute, sleep..." 149 Comment?
What do you think of Kierkegaard's/Abraham's "impossible leap"? 150
Who's right about absurdity, Camus or Sartre/de B? 151
Was Barrett right about B&N? 152
"I am nothing, therefore I am free." 154 Comment? Are you a slave to your alarm clock? 155 Is the waiter really in such bad faith? 156 Is it always bad faith to make excuses? 157
Is it always existentially heroic to act alone? 158
"Human existence means transcendence,' or going beyond..." 160 Comment? Was novelist Peter Ackroyd's "trans-end-dance, going beyond the end, aka the dance of death" a good rendition of this concept?
What would it take for you to feel that “the world and the future had been handed back to us”? 162. Or to be excited to think that “anything could now be done”? 165
Was Camus right about the death penalty?
“Can one actually live with all that technology?” 169
Is existentialism gloomy or optimistic? 173

4 comments:

BrentOctober 16, 2026 at 10:48 AM
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BrentOctober 16, 2026 at 10:55 AM
UPDATED:

1. Sartre's time in the POW camp was a revelation of human connection. The solidarity he experienced with others in dire circumstances was a profound realization of our fundamental need for one another. Does the level of comfort offered in current times enable us to forsake the very interdependence that is characteristic of our humanity? Is It possible to remember our need for one another in an age of convenience or is a 'crisis of existence' necessary to truly appreciate the humanity in one another?

2. In "The Flies," Orestes tells Zeus that 'the gods have no power over a man who has discovered his freedom,' is he dramatizing Nietzsche’s declaration that 'God is dead'? If so, is Orestes Sartre’s version of the Übermensch? Is there a relation between 'will to power' and assuming 'the burden of responsibility'?

3. Simone de Beauvoir said that as the occupation ended, the return of freedom felt like a 'painful tingling.' Is living with agency inherently uncomfortable? Is our culture too motivated to dispense with discomfort? Is the 'painful tingling' of freedom something our culture is trying to "cure" through comfort, and does becoming a consumer of that comfort relegate us to a life of bad faith? What would it even mean if the whole culturescape is in bad faith?
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PhilOctober 17, 2026 at 7:00 AM
1. Possibly possible, but also unlikely. But the "good" news is, our own crises are at hand on multiple fronts.

2-3. Good questions. But the Ubermensch doesn't regard freedom as a horrifying burden or "painful tingling"... I'm not sure the French existential version of freedom is life-affirming in the Nietzschean sense, exactly. And wouldn't he say our culturescape IS in his version of bad faith, i.e., comfortable self-indulgence?
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Aaliyah HendersonOctober 19, 2026 at 5:47 PM
2) Yes, but freedom looks different than we might hope. Sartre’s own war experience shows this: drafted and then held as a prisoner, he saw that his choices were always made inside a situation he never chose. For existentialists, being swept up and being free aren’t opposites. We always start from facticity, the circumstances we didn’t pick, and freedom is what we do with them. Even going along with the current is a choice we’re responsible for. The objection is that this can sound too easy, since overwhelming oppression really does narrow what a person can do. De Beauvoir makes this point, so I’d say we can stay free and individual, but in a limited and costly way, which is why protecting the conditions that make freedom practical matters.

18) For Sartre, consciousness isn’t a thing with a fixed nature. It’s a “nothingness” that can step back from any situation, so nothing about me settles in advance what I will do. That’s the freedom he means, and it’s why it’s dizzying. The alarm clock works the same way: I tend to treat its ring as a command, but I’m the one who decides to get up, so saying “I had no choice” is a way of hiding my freedom from myself. The waiter is in bad faith because his over-precise movements show him trying to be a waiter the way a table is a table, rather than someone who is choosing to play that role. I think the waiter example is a bit unfair, though. Roles are also how we cooperate, and doing a job well isn’t necessarily self-deception. As for excuses, they aren’t always bad faith. Sartre distinguishes facticity from transcendence. Bad faith is leaning on one to deny the other, like “I’m just the kind of person who...” or pretending I have no limits at all. Honestly acknowledging a real constraint is not bad faith.

24) I see it as both, but it’s best described as demanding. The gloomy side comes from anxiety, death, absurdity, and the fact that no God or human nature tells us what to do. The optimistic side is that nothing fixes us either, so we can change and create. Sartre defended it in “Existentialism Is a Humanism” as an optimistic philosophy of action, and Bakewell’s portraits of these thinkers show people who found the idea energizing as well as unsettling, especially in wartime. I’d argue the “gloom” label mostly comes from people reacting to the honesty. Existentialism doesn’t offer comfort, but it does treat people as capable of more than they think.
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Screens down. Engage!

In other words, ATTEND class in more than just the literal sense of the word. Please always direct your attention to whoever is speaking, whether Prof or student, and be prepared to participate--above all by listening thoughtfully, and contributing appropriately to discussion. That, along with presence and posted comments/questions, counts as PARTICIPATION (which can be a difference-maker in terms of the final grade... and far more importantly in the long run, in terms of the quality of your education).

COURSE GOALS (I refuse to use the cliche "Learning Outcomes" lingo favored by academic bureaucrats)

Many self-avowed Existentialists have a not-entirely-undeserved reputation for being sad, solemn, pessimistic, cynical, despairing, and world-weary (and this goes for both the Atheistic and Theistic branches, from Nietzsche to Sartre and Kierkegaard to Jaspers et al). But we must recall what Camus said about Sisyphus: we must imagine him HAPPY. I usually teach a course called The Philosophy of Happiness in the Fall. This is the first time I'm teaching Existentialism instead. But a personal GOAL is to say many of the same things I would have said in that class. To wit: A philosophy that takes human freedom and responsibility seriously really SHOULD pursue and value happiness. On my reading, this is what Existentialists and Pragmatists share: a commitment to free and intelligent action in service of human flourishing. So a primary GOAL of our course is to show that Existentialists can and should be happy. Another GOAL is to show that the best of Existentialism is also the best of Pragmatism. (I call myself, when pressed to produce labels, a pragmatic-stoic/naturalistic/humanistic/democratic and pluralistic epicurean .) More broadly, one of our GOALS is to survey the roots and branches of a philosophy that has long historical antecedents going back centuries, that got its wings from Nietzsche and Kierkegaard (and Emerson and Thoreau, in the space of intersection between it and Pragmatism) in the 19th century, and that gained a name and a following in the 20th century and beyond with Sarte, de Beauvoir, Camus, Husserl, Heidegger, Jaspers, Marcel, Merleau-Ponty and others... while finding common ground with the likes of William James and John Dewey and (later) Richard Rorty. And of course, our constant GOAL is to love learning about all this, and consequently to live better lives. jpo

Texts Fall '26

We'll read surveys and commentaries. But I urge you all to dip into primary sources when presenting and posting your reports. The projected "outcome": you'll learn a lot about Existentialism, you'll come to understand some of the Existentialists' salient connections with other philosophies and traditions, and you'll be motivated to apply the insights thus gained in pursuit of your own and others' well-being. You'll find that philosophy again has enhanced your life. It makes sense that we begin with Nietzsche, and specifically with John Kaag's book: he will be our invited Fall Lyceum speaker on October 2. I'm giving us a day off in early September; I expect you all to repay that by attending the Lyceum and meeting our author at the after-party. That's October 2, 5 PM in COE 164 and at a reception site tba... OUR REQUIRED TEXTS: 1) Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction... 2) John Kaag, Hiking With Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are... 3) Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger,... 4) Mariana Allesandri, Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves through Dark Moods... RECOMMENDED: 5) Irvin Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept...6) The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction... ALSO RECOMMENDED (& on library reserve): Todd May, A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe... Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters... Samuel Scheffler, Death and the Afterlife... Soren Kierkegaard, tba... William James, What Makes a Life Significant; Is Life Worth Living; On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings; tba...

Understood backwards, lived forwards

"Poor Nietzsche's antipathy"

For Nietzsche the saint represents little but sneakingness and slavishness. He is the sophisticated invalid, the degenerate par excellence, the man of insufficient vitality. His prevalence would put the human type in danger. “The sick are the greatest danger for the well. The weaker, not the stronger, are the strong's undoing..." Poor Nietzsche's antipathy is itself sickly enough, but we all know what he means, and he expresses well the clash between the two ideals. The carnivorous-minded “strong man,” the adult male and cannibal, can see nothing but mouldiness and morbidness in the saint's gentleness and self-severity, and regards him with pure loathing. The whole feud revolves essentially upon two pivots: Shall the seen world or the unseen world be our chief sphere of adaptation? and must our means of adaptation in this seen world be aggressiveness or non-resistance? The debate is serious. In some sense and to some degree both worlds must be acknowledged and taken account of; and in the seen world both aggressiveness and non-resistance are needful. It is a question of emphasis, of more or less. Is the saint's type or the strong-man's type the more ideal?" --William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture XV

Spinoza and James on true slave morality: to be free, don't just negate the bad; affirm the good

Spinoza long ago wrote in his Ethics that anything that a man can avoid under the notion that it is bad he may also avoid under the notion that something else is good. He who habitually acts sub specie mali, under the negative notion, the notion of the bad, is called a slave by Spinoza. To him who acts habitually under the notion of good he gives the name of freeman. See to it now, I beg you, that you make freemen of your pupils by habituating them to act, whenever possible, under the notion of a good. Get them habitually to tell the truth, not so much through showing them the wickedness of lying as by arousing their enthusiasm for honor and veracity. Wean them from their native cruelty by imparting to them some of your own positive sympathy with an animal's inner springs of joy. And, in the lessons which you may be legally obliged to conduct upon the bad effects of alcohol, lay less stress than the books do on the drunkard's stomach, kidneys, nerves, and social miseries, and more on the blessings of having an organism kept in lifelong possession of its full youthful elasticity by a sweet, sound blood, to which stimulants and narcotics are unknown, and to which the morning sun and air and dew will daily come as sufficiently powerful intoxicants... And if, in addition, you can also see him sub specie boni, and love him as well, you will be in the best possible position for becoming perfect teachers. --William James, Talks to Teachers XV

The Essence of Humanism (1905)

Humanism is a ferment that has ’come to stay.’ It is not a single hypothesis or theorem, and it dwells on no new facts. It is rather a slow shifting in the philosophic perspective, making things appear as from a new centre of interest or point of sight. Some writers are strongly conscious of the shifting, others half unconscious, even though their own vision may have undergone much change. The result is no small confusion in debate, the half-conscious humanists often taking part against the radical ones, as if they wished to count upon the other side... William James, continues: https://www.authorama.com/meaning-of-truth-6.html

Existentialism is a Humanism (1946)

My purpose here is to offer a defence of existentialism against several reproaches that have been laid against it. First, it has been reproached as an invitation to people to dwell in quietism of despair. For if every way to a solution is barred, one would have to regard any action in this world as entirely ineffective, and one would arrive finally at a contemplative philosophy. Moreover, since contemplation is a luxury, this would be only another bourgeois philosophy. This is, especially, the reproach made by the Communists... J-P Sartre, continues: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm

Essentially everything? Bad Faith!

"Tech billionaires have decided that they should determine our futures for us. According to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and more, the only good future for humanity is one powered by technology: trillions of humans living in space, functionally immortal, served by superintelligent AIs. In More Everything Forever, science journalist Adam Becker investigates these wildly implausible and often profoundly immoral visions of tomorrow—and shows why, in reality, there is no good evidence that they will, or should, come to pass."

Simone and Henry

“Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.” ― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex ///// "By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man’s morning work in this world? I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and I threw them out the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house? I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the grass, unless where man has broken ground." --Henry David Thoreau, Walden

HDT

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”...I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one.”

Revel and Ricard

"Jean Francois-Revel, a pillar of French intellectual life in our time, became world famous for his challenges to both Communism and Christianity. Twenty-seven years ago, his son, Matthieu Ricard, gave up a promising career as a scientist to study Tibetan Buddhism -- not as a detached observer but by immersing himself in its practice under the guidance of its greatest living masters. Meeting in an inn overlooking Katmandu, these two profoundly thoughtful men explored the questions that have occupied humankind throughout its history. Does life have meaning? What is consciousness? Is man free? What is the value of scientific and material progress? Why is there suffering, war, and hatred? They ask each other questions about ethics, rights, and responsibilities, about knowledge and belief, and they discuss frankly the differences in the way each has tried to make sense of his life..." g'r

Existentialism

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