Quote:Ray, in fact there are many existencialisms - Jaspers, Marcel, Sartre, Camus, Merleau-Ponty.
I know better the works of Sartre and Camus. So, speaking of their existencialism, I would say the weakness if the theory is in it's force.
As you know, Sartre said: "L'enfer c'est l'autre" - "Hell is the other". As I pointed in another topic about dominance, Sartre saw the problem of rejecting the others identity. How hard is for all of us to accept that, how hard is to me to accept that you are an "I" like I am an "I".
This said, I think Sartre took that problem too far. Most of his works - "L'être et le néant", "Le mur" - and most of Camus works - "L'étranger" - show a world of several "I", people unable to comunicate (comunication means acceptance that "others" are "others") people closed is the dispair and irony of a chaotic universe. Sartre and Camus forget language as a supra-individual factor, like History, human experience, interaction.
Later, Sartre changed to a marxist position, not quite understandable.
It's my opinion that today, Sartre and Camus existencialism is dead.But we must not forget some aspects they brought to light and are still important.
Well said. Btw, is Srtre's novel any good? I find Camus' novel pointless, which is probably what it's suppose to make us think.
Yes, Ray, it is very good and even amusing.
we must live the life we choose
i think its useless to go against a mind begining to realize that his existence in this world it more important that anything else.
According to Albert Camus, "life is absurd" however we must find meaning in it. we must live the absurdity.
Another is Nietzsche, who said " God is Dead" for us to realize that we must live up our lives here and now.
