The Beauty of Existentialism

Existentialism has a bad rap for those who refuse to study it for what it is. If you have ever picked up Camus' "The Stranger" or Sartre's "Being and Nothingness", it is easy to conclude that an existentialist view is nothing more than the negation of the self in a world that refuses to give solid answers. It is far more difficult to understand what they are actually saying. The absurdity of existence and the elusive character of meaning are among the critiques people bring to existentialist thinking. They conclude that it has little or no place as meaning is all around us in abundance. You just have to live your life with what you've got, they say. Not only are they grossly incorrect concerning what existentialism tries to be, but their approach to life can be shown to be even more absurd, even more empty and even more unnecessary.

Simone de Beauvoir, among others, is whose thoughts I am directly drawing upon for this posting. I highly recommend her take on an existentialist ethics (The Ethics of Ambiguity) and the latest group of her philosophical writings, just translated in 2004 (Philosophical Writings) for anyone. A literary writer who refused to call herself a philosopher, her narrative is eloquent and perfectly stated. She may be ambiguous at times, but that only lends to her brilliance as an existentialist thinker.

Life is more bizarre than we would like to comprehend. Shrouded in the comforts of science and technology, our approach to knowledge has led us to exponential growth as a thinking creature. It has also left us standing further and further behind ourselves as an individual. The use of both science and technology is unquestioned and nor do I think it a bad move to continue studying that which we do not know. One hurricane later, one earthquake and all our inventions fall as easily as we do. Considering our place in the earth, we are remarkably frail for how much we have accomplished. We would like to say that reason has afforded us this ability and that we possess it much like we possess a car or hammer. The fact is, and science backs me up here, that we create meaning through our bodies. Our reason is not an extra-special part of our brains that activates when we need it to. On the contrary, reason is informed by our bodies in an immensely complex set of operations that neuroscience has just begun to scratch the surface of. I digress.

What breaks us first as individuals is the realization in adolescence that adults are not god-like. They are as infallible as we are and with our new found insight, we find ways to test those waters. Regardless of the fact that one comes from a "stable" home or not, children do not see their care-givers to be as human as they truly are. This is just how we are raised and, if you ask me, it's a fantastic coping mechanism for a quickly-developing brain. However, that all comes into question when we first face the absurdity of our existence, that adults are just people. So, what do we do now?

According to Beauvoir, and I totally agree, we find ways to cement ourselves. Through school, religion, work, friends among any number of options, we help ourselves settle in some sort of social identity. Again, this is not to call into question the emotional necessity of such an act. The adolescent is much like a new born baby. This time, their entrance into the world is through the gripping fact that they are surrounded by others who won't protect them and who won't have their best interests in mind and just what should I do anyway?

We are, each of us, free beings. I do not mean freedom in the sense that we can just do whatever we want to do. Our actions, though we profess them to be free, are undeniably bound to others and their freedom. To kill a person is to kill their body, it is not to take away their freedom. As the only thing we can never give away nor take from someone else, freedom exists as our core condition. We would not be human without it. The problem lies in the fact that we have projects and we need others to help complete them. By projects, I mean disclosing our being into the world such that we transcend ourselves and come to new and more amazing insights. For Beauvoir, freedom was not about thrusting yourself on others and trampling them in an attempt to realize your goals. Freedom is about sharing other's projects as they share theirs with you. It is about realizing our situation together and moving beyond, above, and transcending the ordinary.

Existentialism is not individualistic. It may begin that way, but it's intention is to unite humanity in such a way as never conceived before. It is also not blind to the fact that this project sounds almost impossible and certainly difficult. But that's the point - of course it's difficult. Of course you will have hardships as you wrestle with yourself and others as you try to express your freedom. We have refused to deal with the ambiguity of life because we refuse to take it on. Instead, we make values, religion, work, others, or whatever else our reason to be. At a most base level, as something everyone has and no one can rid themselves of, our shared freedom binds us, moves us and if realized, will sustain us.

An existentialist ethics searches meaning through actions more vivaciously and tenaciously than any other I have studied. Roll up your sleeves and get to work, for there are no easy answers. Even today, even tomorrow, even forever we will be realizing and transcending. Our paths may be unknown but if we share in this existence together and all begin from nothing, ours will be a more enlightened life than we could have ever accomplished alone.