Table Of ContentJAMES COLLINS
o
GATEWAY EDITKlN '-"S
THE
Existentialists
A Critical Study
BY
JAMES COLLINS
Professor of
Philosophy at St. Louis University
A GATEWAY EDITION
HENRY REGNERY COMPANY-CHICAGO
Copyright 1952
HENRY REGNERY COMPANY
Chicago 4, Illinois
Fourth Gateway Printing, 1963
IVlanufactured in the United States of America.
This Gateway Edition
is dedicated to my sister
Elinor Collins
Contents
PREFACE xi
I EXISTENTIAL BACKGROUNDS: KIERKE-
GAARD, NIETZSCHE, HUSSERL 1
1. S¢ren Kierkegaard 3
a. The Individual versus the Crowd
h. The Existent versus the Speculative
System
c. The Illumination of Existence by
Christian Faith
2. Friedrich Nietzsche 17
a. New Morals for Old
h. New Gods for Old
3· Edmund Husserl 27
a. Philosophy as a Rigorous Science
h. Radical Transcendental Idealism
II SARTRE'S POSTULATORY ATHEISM 40
1- Phenomenology, Ontology, and Meta-
physics 42
2. The Myth of Being In-Itself 48
a. Phenomenal Realism
h. Description of the In-Itself
3· Consciousness, the Power of Negativity 60
4. The Will to Atheism 69
5. Human Freedom 77
III JASPERS' QUEST OF TRANSCENDENCE 88
l. The Present Situation 90
2. Becoming Aware of Existence 98
3· Transcendence and the Transcendent 110
4· Religious and Philosophical Faith 123
IV MARCEL'S CONCRETE PHILOSOPHY OF
128
P ARTICIP A TION
l. Restoring the Ontological Weight 133
2. Mystery and Problem 146
3· Being and Having 155
4· Creative Fidelity 160
V HEIDEGGER'S RECALL OF MAN TO BEING 168
H eidegger and His Critics 168
l.
2. The Destruction of the History of
Ontology 176
3· God's Absence and Man's Home-
coming 185
4· Man, the Horizon of Being 195
5· Being and God 204
VI FIVE EXISTENTIAL THEMES 211
l. The Vellture of Philosophizing 212
2. Descriptive Metaphysics 220
3· Man in the \Vo rld 226
4· Man and Fellow Man 235
5· Man and God 244
NOTES 253
BIBLIOGRAPHY 279
INDEX 295
Acknowledgments
Personal permission to quote from their books is
very kindly given me by Professors Martin Heidegger
and Karl Jaspers.
I am also grateful to the following publishers for
permission to make quotations from their books: The
Beacon Press (Marcel's Being and Having); A.
Francke Ag. (Heidegger's Platons Lehre von der
Wahrheit); Librairie Gallimard ( Marcel's Du Refus
a
l'invocation and Sartre's L'Etre et Ie neant); Walter
De Gruyter & Co. (Jaspers' Descartes und die Phi
losophie and Existenzphilosophie) ; Harper and
Brothers (Wilder's The Ides of March); Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc. (Sartre's No Exit and The Flies); Max
Niemeyer Verlag (Heidegger's Sein und Zeit) ; Philo
sophical Library (Jaspers' The Perennial Scope of
Philosophy and Sarb"e's Existentialism); R. Piper &
Co. Verlag (Jaspers' Von der Wahrheit); Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Gilson's Being and
Some Philosophers); Springer-Verlag (Jaspers' Phi
losophie).
Pl'eface
My own acquaintance with the existentialists came
about indirectly, as an extension of studies in Kier
kegaard and phenomenology. It js always an inter
esting and profitable question in the history of phi
losophy to inquire about the consequences of given
doctrines. Although the results of Kierkegaard and
Husser! lead in many divergent directions, there is
one point of convergence in existentialism. This doc
trine is an aftermath of the joint impact of these two
thinkers (along with Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche)
upon Western thought. It was from this perspective
that I began to examine the writings of the leading
existentialists.
From a study of the sources, existentialism is seen
to be a challenging and instructive philosophy. It
embodies a legitimate continuation of several im
pOl'tant European traditions and addresses itself to
vital problems of the greatest contemporary moment
for both philosophy and life. Yet it is still slow work
to establish some effective lines of communication
and discussion between this movement and the pre
vailing philosophies in America and Britain. A first
glance seems to reveal no common ground between
existentialism and positions which are predominantly
analytic, scientifically molded, and imbued with
some form of naturalism. However, a patient com
parative study shows that at least there is a common
aim of examining and interpreting man's condition
in the world and the possibilities open to human
freedom.
xii PREFACE
For their part, the existentialists have had a good
deal to say about the movements fashionable today
in English-speaking countries. They are quite aware
of what is passing for sound philosophical currency
in other circles and have given these tendencies con
siderable attention, usually of a highly critical sort.
But to disagree intelligently with logical empiricism,
analytic philosophy, and naturalism is not the same
as to dismiss them unheard or to be blissfully ig
norant of their main contentions. Common courtesy,
if not prudent openmindedness, recommends that
we give the existentialists, in tum, a fair hearing.
It is at this point that even the well-disposed
reader is apt to get discouraged, because of the vast
ocean of existentialist literature. One cannot reason
ably be expected to devote a lifetime to the study
of this philosophy, and yet the heap of books would
seem to demand just that. In this predicament, most
people sensibly tum to some introductory work that
can serve as a guide to existentialism, its major ex
ponents, and its' underlying theses. Unf0rtunately,
consultation of popular guides must be listed as one
of the deterrent causes preventing an intelligent ap
preciation of existentialism among English-speaking
readers. There are some excellent accounts, but there
is also an unconscionably large number of super
ficial and even inaccurate surveys. This is the price
inevitably paid for achieving a certain amount of
fame and literary success.
The present book does not pretend to open up
an easy path to understanding existentialism, nor is
it an exhaustive analysis; there are several different
ways of approaching this matter, all of them re
warding. But the procedure followed here does at
tempt to mcet certain needs that are not satisfied
elsewhere. For one thing, it avoids a premature
scttlement about the meaning of existentialism. Too
often, an arbitrary abstraction or a wholly one-sided
definition is set up as the pattern by which to judge
PREFACE xiii
the entire movement. Yet nothing is clearer, from
even a preliminary acquaintance with these think
ers, than that they admit the most radical differ
ences of opinion among themselves. Consequently,
I have thought it better to proceed at first upon a
merely nominal definition and to postpone until the
final chapter any extended attempt to draw general
conclusions about the significance of existentialism
as a whole. The picture that does emerge is drawn
more in terms of methods and problems than of a
common fund of doctrinal content. This gives suffi
cient latitude to domestic quarrels as well as to
tenets they undoubtedly share.
In a word, emphasis has been placed upon the
existentialists rather than upon existentialism. The
latter conception is formulated only gradually and
inductively, to the extent that the individual think
ers do exhibit some shared traits. But first of all,
sufficient opportunity is given to each existentialist
to present his own distinctive views. The four repre
sentatives chosen here-Sartre, Jaspers, Marcel, and
Heidegger-are acknowledged to be the most orig
inal and comprehensive minds in this group. This
is not to deny, of course, the valuable work done by
less well-known existentialists, especially in France
and Italy. But it is upon the shoulders of these four
men that the main burden of existential inquiry
squarely lies.
I have not followed the conventional division into
French and German schools. Interpreters of exis
tentialism often confine their main attention to, say,
Sartre and Marcel, and then make a hurried com
parison with Heidcgger and Jaspers. Or the latter
pair is taken as prototypal, thus forcing Sartre and
Marcel to conform with a preconceived formula. It
has seemed much more natural and in accord with
the actual content of their thought to make another
arrangement that cuts entirely across national lines.
I have treated Sartre and Jaspers first, sinoe they
