Beyond Kierkegaard

This discussion will get back to Kierkegaard, but existentialism is a little hard to sum up quickly, so I'd like to elaborate a little. There are little catchphrases that help explain certain aspects of it, such as "reality viewed from the perspective of the actor,' 'existence precedes essence,' and the like. But it might help to look at the history of existentialism since Kierkegaard. This little sketch is, of course, incredibly brief. But it should help.

There were two main groups that followed Kierkegaard: theistic existentialists and atheistic existentialists. The existence of the atheistic existentialists, sometimes called the 'Black existentialists' is one small part of why I disagree with Kierkegaard. C.S. Lewis said somewhere that people who champion certain ideas or philosophies should follow those ideas down the road to the 'ruddy end' (paraphrased). Ideas do have consequences (I don't know what Lewis thought about Kierkegaard specifically, but that would be interesting to find out). And these ideas often have more than a grain of truth in them. But the consequences of some ideas are difficult to anticipate. Unfortunately, an idea may seem appropriate at the time, under certain conditions, but then other people start to live them out. The 'ruddy end' of the existential road is the atheistic existentialist. It actually doesn't stop there, because there are trails that lead from existentialism to postmodernism, etc.

Two of the most well known existentialists in this camp are the French philosophers Camus and Sartre. They wrote novels such as The Stranger and Nausea, respectively. The gist of these books is that humans are alienated from the universe we live in because it is a meaningless place. So people have to create their own meaning, and it really doesn't matter what meaning you decide to create. Physical pleasures can be indulged in wantonly. If that doesn't do it for you try whatever you want. But at the end of the day all that is left is a sickness, or nausea, that is the meaningless human condition. The only question that is left is, when to commit suicide.

Sartre is an interesting case because he was very active in the French resistance during WWII. There is a story that someone once asked him why he was so vehemently against the Nazis. If his philosophy was true and things were meaningless it shouldn't matter whether the Nazis were in charge or not. Why not be one of the Vichy French who cooperated with the Nazis. His response was that sometimes you just need to take a 'leap of faith.'

The link between this brand of existentialism and Kierkegaard is clear. Please pardon the quick reference from the Wikipedia page on existentialism, but this is what it says (compare this to Jeremiah 29, for example, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord..."):

"The early 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, posthumously regarded as the father of existentialism,^[5][6] maintained that the individual solely has the responsibilities of giving one's own life meaning and living that life passionately and sincerely,^[7][8] in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation, and boredom.^[9]