7/29/2019 Appignanesi&Zarate - Intro Exist (2001)
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Richard Appignanesi, Oscar Zarate, Introducing Existentialism,
Totem Books, 2001
1. Nietzsche: a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach
by example. [3]2. Could it be that the residue popularity of
Existentialism today continues
from a legacy of words that still have a power to scandalize?
Anguish,
despair, anxiety, the absurd, authenticity, nothingness, and so
on, are literaryfeatures that have almost have the status of
genuine categories. [14]3. Is no one an Existentialist?
Camus >> I call the Existential attitudephilosophical
suicide. How else to start fromthe worlds lack of meaning and end
up by finding a meaning and depth to it.Sartre >> The only
philosophy today is Marxism. Until now, Existentialism has beena
parasitical ideology of its margin.Heidegger >> Thinking lets
Being be that must be understood as my irrevocabledistance from
Existentialism. [36]
4. I offer a paradox. Existentialism is the false memory
syndrome of philosophy.Existentialism originates by infidelity to
Edmund Husserls phenomenology. [37]5. Husserl, The Crisis of
European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology
(1935) --- here he speaks of the first Existentialists whom he
namesIrrationals [41]
6. Heidegger exalts death, says the Marxist philosopher T. W.
Adorno (1903-69)and transforms it into a professional secret for
academics. [77]
!!! 2 read Sartre Search for a Method (1960)
2 read Papa Pius XII encyclicalHumani generis (1950)
condemns
Existentialism
St. John of the Cross (1542-91) noche obscura dark night of the
soul
7. Speaking of deception
Deception is always possible by the negativity of free
consciousness. Simply, I have thechoice of lying to you. The lie is
the proof that consciousness exists undeceived in me by nature of
its hidden intention from you; and exists for you by an undetected
absenceof truth. The liar does not exist in the consciousness of
his lie, unless he falls victim to it.And here the impossible
problem of self-deception begins. Impossible because giventhe total
translucency of consciousness how can I lie to myself without
seeing throughit at once? [154]
8. if Existentialism gives any promise of rescue from a
postmodern ideologyof relativism. Existentialism is a false memory
syndrome but of philosophyitself awaiting its interminable recovery
from skepticism. [170]
9. Anything which seeks to impose essential meaning on existence
should beunmasked as literature. [171]
