Lecture Twenty-Four ExistentialismSartre and de Beauvoir

Scope: Using as its focus Sartres popular lecture, Existentialism Is a Humanism, in which he offers a defense of the philosophical movement he championed, this lecture probes the transformed image of heroic virtue that emerges from Sartres call for total responsibilit ! "he lecture examines the uni#ue character of Sartres famed atheism, which does not so much argue that $od does not exist, but rather that $ods existence is irrelevant to human freedom! It also examines what Sartre spells out as the conse#uences in human experience of this condition of total freedom and total responsibilit , namel the anguish, abandonment, and despair that are the condemnation which freedom necessaril carries with it! %inall , we consider the contribution to existentialism made b Simone de &eauvoir, who opens up a new front in exploring the conse#uences of world war' the repression of women b patriarchal societ as the conse#uence of a pervasive flight from freedom, a view which she argues methodicall and exhaustivel in her influential wor(, The Second Sex!

Outline
I. "his lecture focuses on existentialism as one of the earliest and clearest indications of the adaptive survival response triggered in human cultural identit b the eruption of totalitarianism! A. )e have seen how the outbrea( of world war brought about the realistic possibilit of the death of histor through violence which was capable not *ust of (illing vast numbers of people, but of violating humanit as a whole+the possibilit of crimes against humanit itself! B. ,s a response to the threat of total war, emphasis on the singular existing individual, as seen in -ier(egaard and .iet/sche, undergoes a radical mutation to reemerge in the 0123s and 43s in %rance under the guise of existentialism! C. Existentialism is an extremel imprecise term, which can be as misleading as it is useful! Even a limited association such as shall be made in this lecture and the next among three %rench thin(ers+Sartre, de &eauvoir, and 5amus+ would be disputed b the protagonists themselves! D. )e focus on how the all manifest one shared adaptive trait in the evolutionar development of heroic identit ' an insistence on ta(ing total responsibilit for ones own personal identit as the onl authentic possibilit for human existence in regard to the search for a meaningful life! E. )e shall characteri/e these three thin(ers as proposing the most radical form of heroism we have et encountered as the most basic characteristic of human existence! II. 6ean78aul Sartre is the most influential figure for the popular conception of existentialism and who was most directl responsible for giving its image a primaril countercultural movement! A. Sartres earl wor( prior to and during )orld )ar II, especiall his novels, pla s, and philosophical wor(s present an undeniabl blea( and isolated image of human existence characteri/ed b total resistance to ever thing which is other than the self! B. &efore considering the Sartrean conception of the self in specific detail, it is helpful to notice the wa in which Sartres views correspond closel to the worldview of #uantum mechanics which we examined in the last lecture! C. "he essential spirit of this Sartrean conception of the self clearl shows that, far from being an abstract philosophical speculation, it arose directl from the struggle for survival waged b personal freedom in the face of totalitarianism! D. "his total responsibilit for humanit as a whole helps us understand the real basis for Sartres notorious atheism! E. "he hero, for Sartre, is the person of self7(nowledge and self7master , who (nows that he is nothing except what he achieves and who ta(es total responsibilit for the achievement of an identit through choice, action, and commitment that constitutes the onl meaning that existence can or does have! F. Ironicall , Sartre claims that this isolated self, which arises from the original choice to sa no to the absolute otherness of all that is not the self, is the onl basis for an authenticall affirmative humanism!

III. Simone de &eauvoir, along with Sartre, was at the center of the %rench existentialist movement, during and after )orld )ar II! %rom their time at universit , the two were life companions and both encouraged and critici/ed one anothers wor(! A. &eauvoir shared Sartres conception of human freedom as originall being nothing, recogni/ed in consciousness as an impersonal spontaneit without identit of its own!
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B. <i(e Sartre, she asserted that human identit began originall with the act of negation, of sa ing no to the other, thereb asserting and maintaining itself as free, undetermined b an relationship or meaning except its own, and therefore as capable of ta(ing total responsibilit for its own identit ! C. It is from the perspective of freedoms necessar re*ection of otherness that Simone de &eauvoir begins her epochma(ing deconstruction of the histor of patriarch in the )est! In 0121, she published her best7(nown philosophical wor(, The Second Sex! D. 8atriarchal oppression of women b men is not a deterministic structure of consciousness as free! It is, however, shaped b instinctual biological drives that must first be recogni/ed and accepted as sub*ect to choice before the can be responsibl mediated within human identit ! E. &eauvoir offers no specific program to restructure gender identit ! Her wor( stands at the beginning of contemporar feminist thought, not *ust in a historical sense, but in a philosophical sense as well! Suggested Reading: &arrett, Irrational Man, chap! 03! de &eauvoir, The Second Sex! Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism! Questions to Consider: 1. "he word antihero is sometimes used to describe the protagonists in Sartres wor(s! How does the concept of an antihero fit in with our conception of the figure of the hero= >ust we adapt our conception of the hero to include this t pe of antihero= 2. 5onsider the relationship of de &eauvoirs wor( to Sartres! How do the complement each other=

Lecture Twenty-Five Camus and the Absurd ero

Scope: 5ontinuing our stud of existentialism as a transformation of the classical humanistic hero ideal into the traumatic context of the ;3th centur , this lecture considers the uni#ue contribution of ,lbert 5amus to %rench existentialism! In his first and most unsettling novel, 5amus offers a portrait of contemporar human existence in a state of culturall induced alienation and desensiti/ation in his portra al of The Stranger! In the title character >ersault, we catch a glimpse of all that is left of human identit when a person refuses either to affirm or den the cultural conventions of meaning except as validated in ones own immediate experience! "hen, in The Myth of Sisyphus, 5amus uses the $ree( hero who loved life and scorned death to portra an affirmation of personal existence that does not re#uire meaning, but la s claim to dignit and even a (ind of happiness through revolt against the absurdit of human condition!

Outline
I. 8roviding another perspective on existentialism, ,lbert 5amus asserts that the heroic worldview is best characteri/ed as absurd! A. 5amus did not consider himself an existentialist! B. )e will utili/e 5amus emphasis on rebellion to focus our attention on what might emerge as the most radical element in heroic identit as a pathwa in the human search for meaning! C. "hat most fundamental element for 5amus is a willingness to face the #uestion 5ould human existence possibl be genuinel and altogether absurd= and to face it without an of the avenues of escape which societ provides? in other words, with the integrit of self7master ! II. ,lbert 5amus life sheds some light on his singular emphasis on rebellion as an authentic pathwa in the search for meaning! A. "hroughout his life 5amus experienced identit conflict resulting from colonialism, caught between distinct nationalisms, religious sensibilities, and cultural identities! B. $ifted intellectuall , 5amus was dependent on scholarships to pursue his education in a climate of uncertaint ! C. 5amus was stric(en with tuberculosis at age 0@? the disease afflicted him throughout his life! D. His personal relationships were troubled and unstable through two marriages and several intense affairs! E. ,s a oung man he saw communism as a wa of contesting colonial oppression, but re*ected part orthodox and moved toward anarchism, *oining the resistance during ))II! III. In his first novel, The Stranger, 5amus as(s us to imagine living a human life convinced that ones existence were a matter of indifference to the universe! IV. "he novel imagines a hero who is alone although he has a mother, a lover, friends, an enem , a *udge, a priest, and a crowd of witnesses to his execution! "he hero goes to his death with a (ind of certaint , a (ind of happiness, and a (ind of fellowship with the witnesses of his execution! He is an absurd hero! A. >ersaults heroism consists of nothing more than this, but of no less than this either' He refuses to lie, or to do what he does not feel or see the reason for! B. >ersault enters life disarmed, we do not (now wh ! He lac(s the armor of the social conventions and ideologies that characteri/e normal living! C. >ersault is a hero because he does not rel on an one but himself or on an thing that is not his own to avoid facing

the possibilit that the universe might be genuinel indifferent! D. "he absurdit of existence which 5amus portra s is not a claim about realit ? it is not a truth claim! Aather the absurdit is the possibilit that our attitudes toward realit , our faith in meaning, our solidarit , compassion, and love, even our forgiveness might be simpl beside the point, even though it feels as if we could not possibl live without them! V. In the Myth of Sisyphus, 5amus imagines another, more m thic version of the absurd hero, again as(ing' 5an one actuall imagine living happil without meaning= A. "he essa asserts that there is reall onl one philosophicall important #uestion' whether to commit suicide! B. 5amus ma(es the point that the heroism of the absurd has its arete in a #ualit of lucidit and self7certaint !
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Suggested Reading: 5amus, The Myth of Sisyphus! +++, The Plague! +++, The Stranger! <ottman, Albert Camus! Questions to Consider: 1. )ere ou surprised b 5amus comment on Saint %rancis= )h or wh not= 2. How might 5amus portra al of human existence as absurd relate to -ier(egaards notion of the leap of faith=