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A Short History of Existentialism
English, French (translation)
58 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1949
3 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Jean Wahl
44 books14 followersFrench philosopher. Wahl was educated at the École Normale Supérieure. He was a professor at the Sorbonne from 1936 to 1967, broken by World War II. He was in the U.S. from 1942 to 1945, having been interned as a Jew at the Drancy internment camp (north-east of Paris) and then escaped.
He began his career as a follower of Henri Bergson and the American pluralist philosophers William James and George Santayana. He is known as one of those introducing Hegelian thought in France in the 1930s (his book on Hegel was published in 1929). He was also a champion in French thought of the Danish proto-existentialist Søren Kierkegaard. These enthusiasms, which became the significant books Le malheur de la conscience dans la philosophie de Hegel (1929) and Études kierkegaardiennes (1938) were controversial, in the prevailing climate of thought. However, he influenced a number of key thinkers including Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas and [Jean-Paul Sartre]. In the second issue of Acéphale, Georges Bataille's review, Jean Wahl wrote an article titled "Nietzsche and the Death of God", concerning Karl Jaspers' interpretation of this work. He became known as an anti-systematic philosopher, in favour of philosophical innovation and the concrete.
While in the USA, Wahl with Gustave Cohen and backed by the Rockefeller Foundation founded a 'university in exile', the École Libre des Hautes Études, in New York City. Later, at Mount Holyoke where he had a position, he set up the Décades de Mount Holyoke, also known as Pontigny-en-Amérique, modelled on meetings run from 1910-1939 by French philosopher Paul Desjardins (November 22, 1859 - March 13, 1940) at the site of the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny in Burgundy. These successfully gathered together French intellectuals in wartime exile, ostensibly studying the English language, with Americans including Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevenss and Roger Sessions. Wahl, already a published poet, made translations of poems of Stevens into French. He was also an avid reader of the Four Quartets and toyed with the idea of publishing a poetical refutation of the poem. (See, e.g., his "On Reading the Four Quartets." )
In post-war France Wahl was an important figure, as a teacher and editor of learned journals. In 1946 he founded the Collège philosophique, influential center for non-conformist intellectuals, alternative to the Sorbonne. Starting in 1950, he headed the Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale.
Wahl translated the second hypothesis of the Parmenides of Plato as "Il y a de l'Un", and Jacques Lacan adopted his translation as a central point in psychoanalysis, as a sort of antecedent in the Parmenides of the analytic discourse. This is the existential sentence of psychoanalytic discourse according to Lacan, and the negative one is "Il n'y a pas de rapport sexuel" — there is no such a thing as a sexual relationship.
He began his career as a follower of Henri Bergson and the American pluralist philosophers William James and George Santayana. He is known as one of those introducing Hegelian thought in France in the 1930s (his book on Hegel was published in 1929). He was also a champion in French thought of the Danish proto-existentialist Søren Kierkegaard. These enthusiasms, which became the significant books Le malheur de la conscience dans la philosophie de Hegel (1929) and Études kierkegaardiennes (1938) were controversial, in the prevailing climate of thought. However, he influenced a number of key thinkers including Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas and [Jean-Paul Sartre]. In the second issue of Acéphale, Georges Bataille's review, Jean Wahl wrote an article titled "Nietzsche and the Death of God", concerning Karl Jaspers' interpretation of this work. He became known as an anti-systematic philosopher, in favour of philosophical innovation and the concrete.
While in the USA, Wahl with Gustave Cohen and backed by the Rockefeller Foundation founded a 'university in exile', the École Libre des Hautes Études, in New York City. Later, at Mount Holyoke where he had a position, he set up the Décades de Mount Holyoke, also known as Pontigny-en-Amérique, modelled on meetings run from 1910-1939 by French philosopher Paul Desjardins (November 22, 1859 - March 13, 1940) at the site of the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny in Burgundy. These successfully gathered together French intellectuals in wartime exile, ostensibly studying the English language, with Americans including Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevenss and Roger Sessions. Wahl, already a published poet, made translations of poems of Stevens into French. He was also an avid reader of the Four Quartets and toyed with the idea of publishing a poetical refutation of the poem. (See, e.g., his "On Reading the Four Quartets." )
In post-war France Wahl was an important figure, as a teacher and editor of learned journals. In 1946 he founded the Collège philosophique, influential center for non-conformist intellectuals, alternative to the Sorbonne. Starting in 1950, he headed the Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale.
Wahl translated the second hypothesis of the Parmenides of Plato as "Il y a de l'Un", and Jacques Lacan adopted his translation as a central point in psychoanalysis, as a sort of antecedent in the Parmenides of the analytic discourse. This is the existential sentence of psychoanalytic discourse according to Lacan, and the negative one is "Il n'y a pas de rapport sexuel" — there is no such a thing as a sexual relationship.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 6, 2018
In this short book, Wahl looks at the philosophies of Kierkegaard, Jaspers Heidegger and Sartre.
In Wahl’s description, “existential” is contrasted with the immutable Essence of Plato, Spinoza and Hegel, which is a rising “above the realm of Becoming [to] find a truth universal and external.” The “rising above” reference is to understand the subjective self “within a universal, objective context.”
Laid out this way, it is fair to question whether Kierkegaard and Jaspers were existentialists. Both were after some immutable essence. While Kierkegaard emphasized subjective, “existential” feeling, for example, Wahl writes that “The existent individual…is a kind of incarnation of the infinite in the finite” and, by humbling oneself, we enter God and immutable Being. Jaspers approaches the union of the finite with the infinite in a similar way except, in contrast to Kierkegaard’s focus on Jesus, for Jaspers, it is a more generalized transcendence to the ‘“All-enveloping,’ the other-than-us which encompasses us.”
Heidegger extends the transcendent notion to the less overtly religious, “being of man.” For Heidegger, the “idea of transcendence loses its religious character and acquires,” Wahl writes, “a sort of immanent character; it is a transcendence of immanence.” It is “existence without essence.” This idea was also exemplified in Sartre (through existence we create our essence).
In contrast to Kierkegaard and Jaspers, Heidegger and Sartre seem to be existential because they overtly deny the Essence of Plato, etc. And, in the denial of an eternal world, Heidegger and Sartre’s perspective comes with Anxiety “for the very simple reason that existence is essentially finite.” “I know that my existence is precarious and short,” Wahl writes of this perspective, “and that I can lose it. This is the only thing that I have, and I can lose it at any moment; that is why there is the substratum of anxiety, fear, and anguish.” Or, as alternatively stated by a commentator in this book on Wahl’s presentation, “Can one think the notion of the tragedy of this finitude in itself, if one does not first posit an infinitude or a right to the infinite, a right to immortality?”
Although I believe both Heidegger and Sartre are correct in denying Essence in Plato’s sense, they are both wrong in denying an essence for humans. The need to be part of a group (tribe because this is how we survive, as well as the pursuit and defense of self-interest, constitutes an inborn essence that gives form to our existence.
In Wahl’s description, “existential” is contrasted with the immutable Essence of Plato, Spinoza and Hegel, which is a rising “above the realm of Becoming [to] find a truth universal and external.” The “rising above” reference is to understand the subjective self “within a universal, objective context.”
Laid out this way, it is fair to question whether Kierkegaard and Jaspers were existentialists. Both were after some immutable essence. While Kierkegaard emphasized subjective, “existential” feeling, for example, Wahl writes that “The existent individual…is a kind of incarnation of the infinite in the finite” and, by humbling oneself, we enter God and immutable Being. Jaspers approaches the union of the finite with the infinite in a similar way except, in contrast to Kierkegaard’s focus on Jesus, for Jaspers, it is a more generalized transcendence to the ‘“All-enveloping,’ the other-than-us which encompasses us.”
Heidegger extends the transcendent notion to the less overtly religious, “being of man.” For Heidegger, the “idea of transcendence loses its religious character and acquires,” Wahl writes, “a sort of immanent character; it is a transcendence of immanence.” It is “existence without essence.” This idea was also exemplified in Sartre (through existence we create our essence).
In contrast to Kierkegaard and Jaspers, Heidegger and Sartre seem to be existential because they overtly deny the Essence of Plato, etc. And, in the denial of an eternal world, Heidegger and Sartre’s perspective comes with Anxiety “for the very simple reason that existence is essentially finite.” “I know that my existence is precarious and short,” Wahl writes of this perspective, “and that I can lose it. This is the only thing that I have, and I can lose it at any moment; that is why there is the substratum of anxiety, fear, and anguish.” Or, as alternatively stated by a commentator in this book on Wahl’s presentation, “Can one think the notion of the tragedy of this finitude in itself, if one does not first posit an infinitude or a right to the infinite, a right to immortality?”
Although I believe both Heidegger and Sartre are correct in denying Essence in Plato’s sense, they are both wrong in denying an essence for humans. The need to be part of a group (tribe because this is how we survive, as well as the pursuit and defense of self-interest, constitutes an inborn essence that gives form to our existence.
January 10, 2023
It is a very short book according to its content. When dealing with the history of existentialism, the first from the human species until today, people, nature, society, religion, self, God, in the face of such facts of everyday life is existential psychotherapy existential thinking processes in people with committing at making this nothingness* with the return of the philosophy of resolved/unresolved emotions could provide a much more comprehensive context to the dynamics of the situation explained is a book that quite cursory mention.
Bad? Of course no. Especially the Heidegger- Kierkegaard analysis and comparisons were extraordinary. It's worth reading a lot just for that. However, it's just that. No matter how well the subject is handled in terms of semantic analysis, I can say that it was insufficient because it could not capture the necessary depth in terms of content analysis.
Bad? Of course no. Especially the Heidegger- Kierkegaard analysis and comparisons were extraordinary. It's worth reading a lot just for that. However, it's just that. No matter how well the subject is handled in terms of semantic analysis, I can say that it was insufficient because it could not capture the necessary depth in terms of content analysis.
July 6, 2016
A quick short (as the title eludes to) summary of existentialism up until Sartre. Not covering the absurdism realm of it (Camus, etc.), but primarily relying on Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Hegel, Sartre, and a bit on Husserl. Not a bad brief summary, but a bit too laden with the technical and verbose and jargon of philosophy and not much in the way for the layman. And knowing extensively on existentialism and finding this just primarily covering things I already knew, I found my mind wandering more than need be. The 'debate' at the end of the book was interesting, and possibly the best part of the work.
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January 1, 2024The existentialist ideas of Kierkegaard, Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, and Jean Paul Sartre. "This brings us to one of the fundamental assertions of the philosophy of existence: we are, without finding any reason for our bein, hence, we are existence without essence." p. 13 "The existence of man this being, flung into the world, is essentially finite..... Nevertheless, in this limited world we do accomplish a movement - or rather, movements - of transcendence; not towards God, because God does not exist (this is the principal teaching which Heidegger retains from Nietzsche), but towards the world, towards the future, and towards other people." p. 15 "In Heidegger, who is not an honest thinker, but an able constructor and calculator, bereft of ethics and intellectual scruples - the philosophy of existence has lost its negative sincerity: it has become a mere means to pass from the scholastic philosophy in which he began to the Nazi philosophy." p 39 "We cannot set aside the fact that at the time of the formation and initial triumphs of Nazism, his 'resolute decision' was to follow the lead of the Nazi chiefs. This many not have been an absolutely logical consequence of his philosophy. But we may conclude from this evidence, that the ethics of Heidegger remains purely formal, admits of several interpretations, and finally is not an ethics at all." p. 27
September 24, 2021
This is a really special book. It is a book written about existentialism when many of the major players of that line of thought are living and can respond (and some actually do in the last pages of the book to create a kind of conversation amongst the greats). Jean Wahl was about the same age as Heidegger, Marcel and Jaspers, and only 20 years older give-or-take from Sartre, Levinas, Pointy, and Camus (the baby of the group at 36 in 1949 when this was written; Wahl was 61). I'm glad I picked this up. It is a classic and a collectable. I'm pretty sure my copy came from the 1960s. I gush about it here: https://anchor.fm/hegelandbagels/epis...
September 18, 2023
Somehow existentialism makes me feel better about myself?
May 23, 2020
"Il tempo dell'esistenza comincia dall'avvenire".
April 18, 2011
This was, indeed, a short history. As such, it left me wanting more; nevertheless, it was a good intro -something I needed to help organize threads gathered haphazardly. I especially enjoyed the concluding discussion with comment from philosophers such as Marcel and Levinas. I felt privileged witnessing hot debate (not much has changed among academics, I suppose!) that took place in the 1940s, though I wonder what this would look like now, over 60 years later. :)
December 7, 2015
Reading philosophy always makes me feel ignorant. Not in a bad way, just very aware of everything that I don't know. I want to read this again after learning more about the topic since apparently reading a few novels by Sartre in highschool was inadequate preparation for the subject matter. Also a refresher on reading academic works wouldn't have gone amiss. Still, as a layman, it wasn't inaccessible. Just more work than I'm used to.
April 1, 2010
Read this from a relative of mine (according to geneological records) at the South Pasadena Public Library the other afternoon. A compact comparison esp. between Hegel and Kierkegaard. Easy to follow by lay people like me.
October 17, 2018
yazar kierkegaard ekolüne yakın olduğundan tek yönlü, derinlikten uzak bir çalışma olmuş. kitabın ismine bakınca biraz daha detay bekliyor insan. ilk bölümdeki kierkegaard-heidegger karşılaştırmaları iyiydi, onun dışında yetersiz.
April 1, 2010
Fairly basic stuff going on here. Nothing really groundbreaking, just an interesting read for someone interested in existentialism circa 1950-60's.
February 22, 2013
Good introduction to early existentialism. This book helped to clarify a few concepts for me and introduced me to more questions on the nature of "nothingness."
September 21, 2013
A great introduction. Gives the reader enough info to hit primary sources. For folks with more background, a good refresher. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews