Existentialising existence theory and expanding the sociology of existential milestones

This paper responds to the ‘existence theory’ proposed by Baert, Morgan and Ushiyama. It considers their proposals in light of two main thematics: the general account of human existence, and the more empirical sociology of existential milestones. Both elements are appraised in light of existentialist philosophy and earlier attempts at ‘existentialist sociology’. It is suggested that the authors engage with generational theory, and also give an account of the commodification of significant life-stages by the milestones culture industry.

"The Second Sex" in 1950s American Popular Journals

The Second Sex has been considered one of the most important studies about the women’s question that preceded the so-called second feminist wave in the USA, and the paper deals with the inquiries about the urge to translate The Second Sex into English and for the American audience. Taking into account translation studies, the article approaches the process of translation as not neutral and as one that has far-reaching consequences for the reception of the translated work. In addition, the paper refers to feminist translation studies and the insight that translation invokes questions of power, exclusion, appropriation, and erasure. The rise of periodical studies, on the other hand, gives the opportunity to analyze digitalized journals from the period after the Second World War, and to question on a deeper level the norms and socially accepted ideals of femininity in plural, which, finally, could contribute to a more complex understanding of the position and role of women in postwar America. Having in mind specific the social, political and cultural context in which the first English translation of The Second Sex was published, the paper analyzes the reception of the book in popular journals during 1953, which was highly critical but simultaneously more positive than in France, despite all the problems with the translation that deform Beauvoir’s thought and its existentialist philosophy that underpins her deconstruction of various myths about women. The paper offers deep analysis of thirteen articles published in six American journals with different editorial policies and intended audiences. The analysis of these first published critiques of the book shows that some topics (the structure of the book, Beauvoir as ‘the French’ author, her alleged misunderstanding of the American context and positive stance towards the USSR, feminism, the ‘unscientific’ analysis that the book provides, existentialism, and Beauvoir's critique of the myth of motherhood), gained much more attention than for example the analysis of the quality of the book's translation, which deeply influences all of the above mentioned topics and problems and, in addition, there is no critical stance towards the role and position of women in the United States after the Second World War in any of the published critiques. The article argues that the reception of The Second Sex which was created in part by these critiques influenced both public opinion and feminists, who would quite soon remobilize the massive feminist movement in the 1960s.

Peter Karvaš v kontexte existencializmu

The article reflects dramatic work of Peter Karvaš in the context of existentialist philosophy. It points to the connection between the social situation and the author´s topic choice, emotional engagement and approach to characters. In the article the author defines the basic features of existentialist philosophy in the work of Peter Karvaš providing analysis of selected extracts. In particular the article deals with the issue of how male characters react to the same situation and their motives behind the reaction. The article also reveals subjective view of Karvaš on social events and their impact on people and Karvaš himself.

On the Limitations of Lao Sze Kwang’s “Trichotomy of the Self” in His Interpretation of Kierkegaard

In 1959, Lao Sze-Kwang (1927 – 2012), a well-known Chinese Kantian philosopher and author of the New Edition of the History of Chinese Philosophy, published On Existentialist Philosophy introducing existential philosophers to Chinese readers. This paper argues that Lao misinterpreted Kierkegaard’s ultimate philosophical quest of “how to become a Christian” as a question of ‘virtue completion,’ because he failed to recognize and acknowledge Kierkegaard’s distinction between aesthetic, moral and religious passion. By describing and clarifying Lao’s misinterpretation, the paper then argues that Lao’s trichotomy of the self fails to give due credit to the independence of religiousness from morality and aesthetics in Kierkegaard’s thought.

Freedom as the Antithesis of Commitment in Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Flies (Les Mouches)

In the mid of the twentieth century, French Existentialism was a predominant doctrine that significantly enriched and influenced the literary scene in Europe during the Post-War area. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), the founder of Existentialism, is both a professional philosopher and a talented man of letters whose literary achievements represent a declarative embodiment of his Existentialist philosophy. In his 1943 drama, The Flies (Les Mouches), Sartre puts the Greek myth into a drastically innovative structure, where contemporary issues and values are presented through classical outlines. The current study aims to present a critical analysis of Sartre's depiction of the Electra/Orestes myth in The Flies through demonstrating how Greek mythology becomes an essential substructure of the play's Existentialistic framework, on the one hand, and questioning the credibility of the Sartrean concept of freedom and commitment, as illustrated in the play, on the other hand. The study utilizes the Existentialist philosophy as a theoretical framework in order to elucidate that the Sartrean conception of freedom and commitment is paradoxically antithetical. The research investigates how Orestes has been theoretically free and the extent to which he strives, throughout the drama, to transform this abstract freedom into a concrete experience by committing himself to a specific action: murdering Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. However, as the study proves, this Existentialist freedom becomes an illusion in the sense that Orestes' commitment to the Argives makes him a captive of society; by choosing commitment, he dismisses his freedom. The researcher has chosen "Freedom" and "Commitment" as the main topic of the present study in order to expose Sartre's existentialistic awareness of modern human beings' dilemma under the influence of all forms of aggression and highlight the discrepancy between theoretical philosophy and real-life experiences. The study adopts an interdisciplinary analytical approach where myth, philosophy, and drama are dovetailed and fused in order to expand the scope of the analysis.

Creating Subjects

Self-creation has been held up as the fundamental task of modern man. We are repeatedly encouraged to discover our authentic selves or cultivate our individuality in order to win health, happiness, romantic fulfillment, or career success. It is a task that psychologists have been eager to take on, offering up competing pathways toward self-realization. At the same time, however, critical historians and sociologists have accused the discipline of psychology of fostering the creation of particular kinds of self. This article outlines debates about self-creation among psychologists and their readers from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st. It takes as its focus Western psychology and the ideas developed by its academic practitioners in laboratories and universities across Europe and North America, but it acknowledges that these ideas were often developed in dialogue with, or in reaction to, versions of the self articulated in other cultures and traditions across the globe. The opening section, “Creating Subjects and Making Selves,” discusses the ways that conventional ideas of selfhood have been challenged by developments in anthropology, philosophy, and the history of psychology, before going on to look at the ways that new religious movements and globalization challenged familiar ideas of the self in the 19th century. The first generation of professional psychologists (notably William James; see Section 2, “William James and Late 19th-Century Self Making”) recognized this challenge and used it to ground new theories of self-improvement and self-creation. These projects were deepened by the “discovery” of the subliminal or subconscious mind, which was portrayed to the public as a source of hidden potential (see Section 3, “The Subliminal: New Sources of Self-Creation”) or unconscious restrictions (see Section 4, “The New Psychology and the Discovery of Constraint”) to be unleashed or overcome. By the early 20th century, the discipline of psychology was offering manifold paths to self-creation: Behaviorism (Section 5, “Behaviorism and the Experimental Creation of Selves”), psychoanalysis (Section 6, “Psychoanalysis: New Paths to Self-Creation”), and social psychology (Section 7, “Social Psychology and the Sources of Self-Creation”). The various theories and practices put forward gained enthusiastic adherents but by the middle decades of the 20th century, this pursuit of the self was being met with growing skepticism. Existentialist philosophy (Section 8, “Selves as Prisons: Existentialism and Self-Creation”) claimed that the conventional faith in selfhood and psychology blinded people to their absolute freedom, but by the 1950s and 1960s this critique would be recuperated by psychologists, with existential analysts and humanistic psychologists celebrating the move beyond the everyday identity as a potential foundation for personal growth. At the same time, the rise of information technology and cybernetics supported the idea that the self was little more than a code or pattern of signals, encouraging the belief that it could be transformed through integration into new systems of information. At the beginning of the 21st century, the self-skepticism that had animated 19th-century schemes of self-building had become an academic commonplace. This is celebrated as a radical position, but in fact, this sense that individuals are not subjects but projects undergoing continual revision is the same sense that animates the growth of therapy and the self-help industry in the modern era.

“What is my purpose?” Artificial Sentience Having an Existential Crisis in Rick and Morty

The American television show Rick and Morty, an animated science fiction sitcom, critiques speciesism in the context of bleak existentialist philosophy. Though the show focuses primarily on human characters, it also depicts various forms of artificial sentience, such as robots or clones, undergoing existential crises. It explicitly effaces any distinction between human sentience and artificial sentience, forcefully treating all sentient life with an equivalent respect (or disrespect). The show also problematizes human speciesism in relationship to terrestrial and extra-terrestrial life.

“What is my purpose?” Artificial Sentience Having an Existential Crisis in Rick and Morty

The American television show Rick and Morty, an animated science fiction sitcom, critiques speciesism in the context of bleak existentialist philosophy. Though the show focuses primarily on human characters, it also depicts various forms of artificial sentience, such as robots or clones, undergoing existential crises. It explicitly effaces any distinction between human sentience and artificial sentience, forcefully treating all sentient life with an equivalent respect (or disrespect). The show also problematizes human speciesism in relationship to terrestrial and extra-terrestrial life.

Compulsion Versus Volition in A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 - July 2, 1961) is one of the most widely read American novelist of the 19th century, whose works have been variously interpreted. His fiction was influenced by different sociological, political and psychological trends of the time. The adventures of his personal life inspired some of the fascinating stories in his fiction. A Farewell to Arms projects the concept of individual struggle in the face of stiff resistance. His protagonist helplessly strives to define his existence; he, however, miserably fails in his struggle for actualizing his existence. But ultimately, he learns the secret of a meaningful existence. This study traces these elements of existentialist philosophy and examines its influence on the art of Hemingway. Although his views are also influenced and modified by the trends of the time, the influence of existentialist philosophy is vividly visible in all his writings. The paper analyzes the major works of Hemingway, particularly his famous novel A Farewell to Arms, in the light of existentialism. It specifically focuses on the rise and fall of the hero and heroine in the novel when they try to define their existence in this free and void world.

Exige-stential leadership: exploring the limits of leadership in a crisis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how leadership can better respond to a crisis. It aims to integrate ideas from existentialism into a discussion of how leadership could develop and provoke debate.Design/methodology/approachA review of the literature on leadership, crisis management and existentialism was adopted for the preferred research methodology.FindingsThis paper identified a gap in the literature on leadership in an exigency and offered an alternative to the technical-rationalist conceptions of leadership behaviour.Practical implicationsReference is made to the benefits of counselling for leaders following a crisis.Originality/valueThis paper is an original contribution to the work on leadership. Through the concept of exige-stential leadership, this paper integrates ideas taken from existentialist philosophy, to provide a new way of conceptualising leadership in an exigency.