Existential Tradition Research Articles

Existential issues in the fictional writing of haruki murakami

AbstractExistential analyses of Murakami's fiction have dealt mostly with identity issues during adolescence and adulthood. This article presents a different existential conceptualization by examining how Yalom's four ultimate life concerns—isolation, meaninglessness, freedom, and death ─ are embodied in the life of some of Haruki Murakami's fictional protagonists. In this work, I will also bring standard diagnostic nomenclature and psychoanalytic conceptualizations into dialog with the existential tradition, by demonstrating how certain mental conditions, which are considered by clinicians as forms of psychopathology, can also be interpreted as modes of existence in an alienated reality, and as non‐conformity.

Enchantresses and Enchanters Through the Personalizing of “Magical Agents”: a historical, ethnographic, sociological and anthropological radiography

The personalized interdisciplinary approach to the enchantresses and enchanters as “magical agents” is intended to highlight the imagological aspects of their lives and work. Multiple stereotypes have become entrenched in society towards enchantresses and enchanters, many of them more related to people’s imaginations than to concrete historical realities. In Romania’s past, the number of enchantresses and enchanters in each locality was quite high, a fact explained by the lack of professional doctors. This gap in health care based on scientific medicine was filled by the work of “magical agents” – enchantresses and enchanters – who offered the sick both remedies of magical medicine and folk treatments, especially based on healing plants. The craft to charm was viewed with mixed appreciation, being both criticized for manipulating naive people and accepted by simple country folk for whom it had become an indispensable part of their existentialist tradition. Contrary to general perceptions, the women who were bewitched were not exclusively old women, but also young and middle-aged women. Another relevant aspect is that in the case of the Basarabian village of Cornova, in 1931, the number of charmers was quite significant, being rather an exception in the whole Romanian area.

Are Igbo (African) thoughts on death Heideggerian? Some critical insights

This article primarily sets out to investigate whether Igbo (African) thoughts on death might be considered Heideggerian or not. It does so by analysing and juxtaposing five key elements of Heidegger’s existentialist analysis of Dasein’s death with some important features of Igbo (African) thoughts on death. This is aimed at challenging an identifiable attempt by scholars like Chukwuelobe and Onwuanibe to couch the Igbo metaphysics of death in Heideggerian terms. Therefore, the main argument of the article is that the important features of Igbo thoughts on death, as outlined by these scholars, substantially conflict with key elements of Heidegger’s existentialist analysis of Dasein’s death. To make this case, the article thoroughly examines the key elements in both the Heideggerian and the Igbo frameworks, showing that they could hardly be reconciled. Though the article identifies some scholars and zeroes in on them, it simultaneously serves a larger pre-emptive purpose of pointing out the many hurdles that may have to be overcome in any attempt to align Igbo thoughts on death with Heidegger’s framework. This pre-emptive aspect is a worthwhile philosophical task in itself, given that the theme of death occupies an important place in both the existentialist tradition and in Igbo philosophy.

Is Existence Intelligible?

Is Existence Intelligible? Taylor Carman Half a century ago, the word “existentialism” referred to an intellectual trend that crossed genre boundaries as it crossed national borders, finding expression in not just philosophy and psychology but also literature, art and popular culture. More recently, philosophers have begun reclaiming the term for their own purposes. A 2017 collection of essays purports to broaden the humanistic reach of cognitive science, ushering in what the editors call “Third-Wave Existentialism” under the rubric, which is the title of the book, Neuroexistentialism (Caruso and Flanagan). Around the same time, Markus Gabriel, who wrote a vigorously critical review of that book, published an essay of his own entitled Neo-Existentialism, in which he invokes the term in support of his own version of Hegelian idealism (Gabriel). Neither attempt to appropriate the label is very convincing, in my view, but what Gabriel and the neuroexistentialists have in common, in spite of their differences, is that both are attempts to invoke the spirit of existentialism in the name of what I shall call “reconciling projects,” borrowing a phrase from David Hume. Neuroexistentialism tries to bridge cognitive neuroscience and the humanities. Neoexistentialism aspires to assimilate large swaths of contemporary philosophy into the grand vision of absolute idealism. A different but related attempt to combine rationalist and existentialist conceptions of human existence can be found in Martin Hägglund’s This Life, which is not explicitly an interpretation of either Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel or Martin Heidegger but appeals to both throughout, if only tacitly, [End Page 931] in its construction of a philosophical reconciliation of freedom and nature, secularism and faith, social theory and theology.1 Here I want to make a case against all such reconciling projects in the name of existentialism. My plea on behalf of what might be called “good old-fashioned existentialism”—or perhaps paleoexistentialism—rests on a reading of existential philosophy as a philosophy of incommensurability and a vision of philosophy itself as concrete, realistic and antisystematic, in contrast to the abstraction, idealism and systematicity of traditional philosophy.2 Another way to put this is to say that existentialism is kind of antirationalism. By “rationalism” I mean the idea, traceable back to Parmenides, that being and thought are somehow identical or coincide. Rationalism defined in that way can also be called idealism—but more the absolute idealism of Hegel’s Logic than the transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, which at least draws a boundary between what he called “things in themselves” and our concepts.3 Robert Pippin has rightly characterized Hegelian absolute idealism as a reiteration of “the founding principle of Greek rationalism,” namely, “that to be is to be intelligible,” that “there is nothing in principle unintelligible” (168). If there is a single idea uniting the existential tradition, not just in philosophy, it is the denial of that claim. Although Søren Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre have interestingly different conceptions of existence, they are united in denying that it is transparent to reason or that it is identical or coincident with intelligibility. 1. That-Being as Facticity One way to understand the rationalist equation of thinking and being—or reason and existence—is to see that intelligibility, at least since Plato, has been understood in terms of the “whatness” or essence (essentia) of things, in contrast to their “thatness” or existence (existentia). [End Page 932] What something is is specified by the concept or category under which it falls. That it is is without determinate content of its own but functions simply as either a kind of volume knob or a mere on/off switch. Plato was not alone among the ancients in supposing that there are degrees of being—in his jargon, degrees to which a thing can be said to “participate” in a form or idea. To many in modern thought, by contrast, it has come to seem self-evident that being is an all-or-nothing affair: either a thing exists or it doesn’t. In either case, the existence of the thing to which a form, idea, concept or predicate (take your pick) applies is a matter of indifference to that form...

The problem of faith and trust in philosophical ideas Martin Buber and Lev Shestov

The article discusses the problem of two images of faith in two aspects: the image of faith as a similarity to a way of life, as a way of thinking, and the image of faith as an experience of the representation of a higher reality. The author appeals to the works of L.I. Shestov and M. Buber, who had a similar blood origin, embodied the existential tradition in philosophy, L.I. Shestov remained in history as a Russian philosopher, M. Buber as a Jewish, while they both left their national, moved into a wider cultural field, enriching it. Both of them in their philosophical quests correlate with both Judaism and Christianity the religious origins of the two ways of thinking in culture. And the phenomenon of minimal faith that has formed in modern times opens up the opportunity for a person to return to the religious experience before, after and outside religions, in direct interaction with the Creator.

Existentialism as Portrayed in Stoner

The purpose of this study is to analyze a novel titled Stoner (1965) written by an American academic and author, John Williams. Stoner follows the life of William Stoner, a professor of English Literature. Stoner comes from an impoverished farming family with a unique existential ethics. He works his way to become a university instructor and learns the magnitude of passion in the success of life. This study uses Lucien Goldmann’s Genetic Structuralist theory. The goals of this research are: 1) to analyze the structure of the literary work; 2) to understand the historical background that influences the novel; and 3) to reveal the author’s world view. The study shows that John Williams captures an existential tradition belonging to American lower-class famers who lived around the late 19th century. Stoner also captures the transformation of the existential tradition following a social, economic, and political transition. Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus is used as a reference to explain the manifestation of the existential idea.

The Poetics of Conversion: Theological Themes in the Poetry of W. H. Auden

Abstract: W. H. Auden's theological readings reveal an interest in the existential tradition of Christian thought. Aspects of his major poems For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio (1944), The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (1947), and Horae Canonicae (1949–1952) reflect theological parallels between the poems and the thought of German theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich. Auden's explicitly Christian poems evince themes of Tillichian ontological theology as he explores the issues of self, displacement, anxiety, Kairos, and conversion—specifically through his focus on the Incarnation. At odds with secular existentialism, Auden suggests the problems of the modern individual are uniquely spiritual problems that are the result of displacement from God.

The patient experience of medically unexplained symptoms: an existentialist analysis.

This article explores the patient experience of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) from an existentialist standpoint. Drawing on the work of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, I explore their concepts of existential situation, existential project, authenticity, and praxis. I then analyze the situation of MUS patients in the current cultural and institutional context, elucidating that a lack of explanation for their symptoms puts MUS patients in an existential bind. I illustrate the effects of the experience of MUS on patients' existential projects. Last, I develop an ethical response in the existentialist tradition from the perspective of patients, providers, and society at large. I argue that there is a collective responsibility to foster conditions more conducive to authentic patient well-being and to improve the experience of patients with medically unexplained symptoms.

Mary Shelley's The Last Man: Existentialism and IR meet the post-apocalyptic pandemic novel

AbstractMary Shelley mined the ideas of international thought to help develop three new subgenres of modern political science fiction (‘poliscifi’): post-apocalyptic, existential, and dystopian. Her two great works of poliscifi, Frankenstein (1818), and The Last Man (1826) – confront the social problems that arise from humanity's technological and cultural interventions in the wider environment. This article recovers The Last Man not only as the first modern post-apocalyptic pandemic novel, but also as an important source for the existentialist tradition, dystopian literature, and their intersections with what I call ‘Literary IR’. Comparing The Last Man with its probable sources and influences – from Thucydides and Vattel to Orwell and Camus – reveals Shelley's ethical and political concerns with the overlapping problems of interpersonal and international conflict. The Last Man dramatises how interpersonal conflict, if left unchecked, can spiral into the wider sociopolitical injustices of violence, war, and other human-made disasters such as species extinction, pandemics, and more metaphorical ‘existential’ plagues like loneliness and despair. Despite these dark themes and legacies, Shelley's authorship of the great plague novel of the nineteenth century also inspired a truly hopeful post-apocalyptic existential response to crisis and conflict in feminist poliscifi by Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, and Emily St. John Mandel.

Why did the butler do it?

AbstractDrawing on contemporary agency theory and the phenomenological–existential tradition, this paper uses Mr. Stevens, the narrator‐butler of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, to examine the interplay and potential tensions between different aspects (and thus different standards) of human agency. Highlighting the problem of mission creep described by John Martin Fischer, in which a notion expands beyond the original purpose, I use Stevens's thoughts on dignity to outline three different ways actions can (or can fail to) trace back to agents—autonomy as self‐control, authenticity as sincerity, and authenticity as ownership. I then propose that the way Stevens embraces and acts consistently within his subservient professional role (autonomy as self‐control) weakens his ability to take responsibility for his life in the sense required by authenticity as ownership. Because the self‐responsibility of authenticity requires normative flexibility (the ability to revise and reshape one's commitments and values), when normatively inflexible agents act in self‐controlled ways according to their roles or welfare standards, they may limit their ability to take responsibility for their lives. In addition to illuminating debates about whether robust human agency is compatible with subservience, the normative flexibility involved in authenticity has implications for human agency more broadly.

Non-classical Intentionality: An Existential View

This paper compares the ideas of intentionality and ‘pure Self ’ in the phenomenological and existential traditions. The purpose of the research is to compare and identify the meaning of these categories that is different from the phenomenological approach. While phenomenology was conceived as an epistemological program, the existential view represented in the paper by Nikolai Berdyaev shows the negative ontological consequences to which it leads. For example, the idea of intentionality (the direction of consciousness toward an object) can lead to the elimination of subject from the life picture of the world, whereas the idea of a ‘transcendental Self ’ leads to the justification of the lack of content in consciousness. Therefore, there is a conflict between these philosophical approaches. The topicality of the problem under study is due to identification of details and specific features of this conflict. The goal of phenomenology is purification of consciousness from subjective premises for achieving objective cognition. The goal of existentialism is the formation of existence of the subject, the actualization of his/her immanent freedom. Thus, the existential approach broadens the ideas on the nature of the consciousness orientation, which can be directed not only toward the phenomenal world, but also to the transcendental one. The scientific value of this study is due to the reconstruction of the existential approach concerning the issue of the direction of consciousness and the ‘pure Self ’ using the example of Berdyaev’s philosophy, as well as the possibility of creating ‘ontology of consciousness’ based on his philosophy. The article is based on the method of theoretical reconstruction and conceptual analysis of the arguments put forward by E. Husserl and N. A. Berdyaev, as well as numerous researchers of their work. The methodological basis of this work is a philosophical reconstruction and a comparative approach. The scientific significance of the research is justifying that the existential approach to ‘intentionality’ does not deny the phenomenological approach but enlarge it adding ontological content in this notion.

On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts by James K. A. Smith

Reviewed by: On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts by James K. A. Smith Thomas Clemmons James K. A. Smith, On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2019. 240 pages. Hardback. $24.99. ISBN: 9781587433894. A philosopher in the existentialist tradition by training, James K. A. Smith is perhaps best known for his involvement with the erstwhile group "Radical Orthodoxy." Smith has gone on to publish numerous popular books (some fifteen since 2006) on Calvinist theology, secularity, and Postmodernity. In recent years, Smith has turned his attention to Augustine or more specifically a kind of Augustinianism, such as is found in his successful book, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (2016). This book, On the Road with Saint Augustine, continues Smith's desire to think with and often through Augustine. On the Road with Saint Augustine is a book aimed at a popular audience. Specifically, it appears that Smith is writing toward struggling Christians who believe that Christianity is either intellectually dogmatic or merely moralizing. Sympathetic to his intended audience, Smith complains that his own initial encounter with Augustine led him to think of the bishop only as a dogmatic theologian. Yet, Smith assures us, there is more to Augustine; indeed, Augustine offers more than the intellectualism of Aquinas or Newman. Augustine, Smith imagines, is like an ancient existentialist. For Smith, this is a very encouraging and promising insight. Smith uses two fundamental approaches to exposit his Augustine. The first is to place Augustine among existentialists such as Camus, Heidegger, Derrida, and Arendt (though the latter only very briefly). Through these figures, Smith highlights the themes of authenticity, being toward death, and even the absurd. To correspond with such themes, Smith lands on "restlessness" and a "refugee spirituality" as a main entry into Augustine. Augustine, like us "late moderns," was concerned with the journey of life. At least in the first few chapters, though abating as the book progress, Smith presents existentialism (and a superabundance of pop culture references) as a way of getting to the wisdom of this Augustine. [End Page 147] The second approach is Smith's psychological reading of Augustine. Though Smith does refer to other works by Augustine, the central and omnipresent text is the Confessions (and not the whole of the Confessions, Smith draws almost exclusively from books 1–9). Stories of Augustine's voyage to Rome, his time in Carthage, his friendships and relationships with his mother, father, and son, and especially Augustine's "mixed" status as Roman and African (which I will discuss below) are examined for psychological impact. In a very simple way, Augustine can journey with us on the road because he has given us stories that we can psychologize. There are numerous problems with Smith's approaches. First, however, it must be said that Smith's book is a popular book for a broad audience. To this end, it may not matter that Smith has read narrowly in Augustine's corpus and has extremely limited knowledge of the immense literature on Augustine, his theology and philosophy, and even studies that have very astutely placed Augustine in conversation with modern thinkers. Indeed, Smith somewhat superficially presents in a loosely genetic fashion Augustine's relation to and appropriation by the existentialists (for example, Camus wrote his dissertation on Augustine or Heidegger gave early lectures on Augustine). However, studies have shown much more definitively, extensively, and clearly the ways that these thinkers draw from and reject Augustine. To this reviewer this raises the question of why Smith lands on existentialism or certain existentialists as the co-pilots on his journey (for which Augustine takes the backseat for the first half of the drive)? Smith at times identifies ways in which Augustine might respond to Camus and especially Heidegger. Yet, Smith also positions himself within Augustine's diagnosis of the agonism of Manichaeism. Perhaps Smith fails to realize this not only because of his focus on select sections of certain books in the Confessions, but also because of his exclusion of Augustine's understanding of the Church. Smith reduces the Church to the...

Отражение экзистенциальной традиции в практике психологического консультирования (на примере психологического консультирования в формате гештальт-подхода)

The article analyzes natural realization of the principles of the existential tradition in psychological counseling. The existential tradition is taking root in the modern psychological science, and more and more researches and practitioners turn to the phenomenological method being the key one. The urgency of the topic has been justified by the analysis of the authoritative scientific sources. The Gestalt method being clearly phenomenological in orientation has been used as an example of for studying the evidence of the existential tradition in psychological counseling. The cycle of contact of psychological counseling in the framework of the Gestalt approach reflects the content of phenomenological reduction. The stages of the interaction of a counseling psychologist with a client prove to be essentially phenomenological (suggest empathy, “presence”, etc.), with the principle of dialogism being the key one. Besides, psychologist’s appealing to the subjective experience of the client is of great importance.

Heidegger and human occupation: An existential perspective

ABSTRACT Human occupation has long been a source of philosophical reflection. This article aims to revisit ideas of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, from the existential tradition, who explored questions around meaning of life and occupations as being central and not a separate entity. Heidegger’s core concept of Dasein, ‘inhabiting the world’, is discussed, having particular links to the richness of networks of meaning through accomplishment of occupations and all its intricacies. It also invites reflection when people face occupational disruptions that challenge living in an automatic way or built by external social “chatter” and diversions. Heidegger’s ideas can inspire occupational scientists to view meaningful occupations as a way of reflecting on one’s world or to embrace an occupational disruption as a journey to making consciously explicit our ‘Being-in-the-world’. Finally, it is a philosophical orientation that supports guiding persons in a transformative process of reconfiguring their occupational self embedded in their contexts.

Being-towards-grief: rethinking death awareness

ABSTRACT In this article I develop the notion of Being-towards-grief as a way of conceptualising the blurred intersection between relationality and finitude. In contrast to an existential philosophical and psychological tradition that has privileged one’s own death in a rationalised fashion, I argue that we become aware of death through the relentless possibility of the other dying and the uncertainty and distress that this implies. Furthermore, I suggest that this encounter is paramount to an inherently ethical process of subjectification. I become who I am through an encounter with the possibility of the death of the other and the responsibility that this implies. Instead of a resolute and future-oriented life affirmation, the death awareness that Being-towards-grief entails, points to an acceptance of and humbleness with regard to human limitations, and gratitude for a common past.

Structural-Content Analysis of Existential Theory and its Value for Psychological Consulting

The present research was based on modern psychological studies. The article features the structure and contents of the existential theory. The structure of the theory is presented in the framework of the concept coined by A. V. Yurevich, while its contents are represented in the context of the existential and phenomenological philosophical traditions. The paper focuses on three elements in the structure of the existential psychological theory. The central one includes a generalized image of psychological reality, its central category, corresponding phenomena, basic concepts, the system of relations between them, basic statements, etc. The peripheral elements are represented by theoretical and empirical components. The third component features the implicit part. The generalized image of the psychological reality is represented by the concept of "Dasein", its central category being "the existence". The author described the basic concepts and auxiliary statements of the theory. The basic statements of the theoretical part of the existential approach are the key provisions and principles of existentialism as formulated by J.-P. Sartre. The auxiliary statements belong to A. Camus and V. Frankl. The authors clarify the conceptual formation of existential theory, starting with E. Husserl’s phenomenology and moving on to modern psychology. The authors believe that the establishment of existential theory contributed to the development of the existential tradition in psychological counseling practice.

Martin Heidegger: embeddedness in tradition. Xenija Zborovska’s interview with Andrii Dakhniy

The work of Martin Heidegger, both in the twentieth and early twentieth centuries, remains the most debated in philosophical discourse, and looking at it through the lens of existential tradition opens up new frontiers for its understanding. This conversation, inspired by the interest in the anthropological issues of the two interlocutors, took place the day after the defense of the doctoral thesis of the historian of philosophy Andrew Dakhni in May 2019, which in itself became a momentous event for national philosophical thought.

Binswanger's Existential Analysis and Dasein Analysis M. Boss: to the History of Formation of the Existential Approach in Psychology

The article is of an overview nature and aims at a preliminary analysis of the origins of the existential tradition in psychology. The author considers the existential analysis of L. Binswanger and the Dasein analysis of M. Boss as concepts that have arisen in contrast to the natural science paradigm in psychology, in particular, psychoanalysis. It shows that the existential approach in psychology arises as an attempt to form a new view of man in science, based on philosophical traditions: the phenomenology of E. Husserl and the fundamental ontology of M. Heidegger. At the same time, Binswanger’s teaching is defined as an anthropological type of scientific research aimed at studying the essence of human existence; the doctrine of M. Boss — as an ontological concept in psychology. Particular attention is paid to the issue of implementing the principles of the teachings under consideration in work of existentially oriented psychotherapists and counseling psychologists. The article shows that the basis of the both concepts is the phenomenological method.

Filozofia życia Meraba Mamardaszwiliego i jej znaczenie dla psychologii

Artykul prezentuje wazne aspekty filozofii zycia Meraba Mamardaszwilego na podstawie jego wykladow z lat 80. W tekście przedstawiono zarowno podobienstwa, jak i roznice idei Mamardaszwilego dotyczące tradycji egzystencjalnej w filozofii i psychologii oraz ich znaczenie dla psychologii osobowości. Istotne wydaje sie rozroznienie dwoch trybow zycia (świadomego i automatycznego). Kluczowy jest rowniez problem czasu, zdobywania doświadczenia z rozmaitych wydarzen i scalania osobowości. W filozofii Mamardaszwilego ujawnia sie nowy wymiar osobowości, ktory nie zostal wyrazony w psychologicznych teoriach osobowości XX stulecia. Wymiar ten wiąze sie ze świadomym poziomem egzystencji wykraczającym poza przyczynowe schematy biologicznego i spolecznego funkcjonowania czlowieka. Przeklad i opracowanie Aleksandra Kondrat Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, Torun, Polska OR CID: 0000-0003-3879-4099 e-mail: moskwa.ros@gmail.com

Phenomenology Experience in the Context of the Existential Approach to Psychological Counseling

The author of the article substantiates relevance of the stated problem, taking into account the analysis of modern literature; the emphasis is made on growing interest from researchers and practical psychologists in the existential tradition. It is proved necessary to turn to the origins of the existential approach formation for a more complete understanding of the methods and techniques that are the basis of psychological counseling today. The influence of the phenomenology of E. Husserl on the existential approach formation in psychology is considered. Phenomenology is presented as the main methodological principle, on the basis of which the foundations of the existential approach are formed, as a tool with the help of which the dualism between subject and object is overcome. The role of eidetic reduction in the formation of the existential approach principles is shown; the origins of the reflection mechanism, which occupies a key place in the practice of existentially oriented counseling are defined. Special attention is paid to the categorial system of criteria borrowed by the existential approach from phenomenology.