Existentialism holds that philosophy grows out of concrete lived experience
Evidence
Sartre’s experiences and quirks found their way even into his most serious philosophical treatises. This could make for strange results, given that his personal take on life ranged from bad mescaline flashbacks and a series of embarrassing situations with lovers and friends to bizarre obsessions with trees, viscous liquids, octopuses and crustaceans. But it all made sense according to the principle first announced by Raymond Aron that day in the Bec-de-Gaz: you can make philosophy out of this cocktail. The topic of philosophy is whatever you experience, as you experience it. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 54
Categorization
- DEFINE: Encapsulates the existentialist/phenomenological commitment to grounding philosophy in the raw texture of experience.
- XREF: Expressed in Husserl’s ‘back to the things themselves’ and connects to phenomenology’s rejection of abstract theorizing. — connects to: Existential psychoanalysis decodes behavior to reveal each person’s fundamental choice of being. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1346; Existentialism is accused of teaching passive despair and quietism — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 2; Phenomenology rediscovers philosophy by describing lived things rather than questioning reality — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 12 (+23 more)
Broader Connections
- Existentialism sought lived experience rather than explaining it away through abstract systems
#corroborates(0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1025 - Existentialism is by nature applied to real individual lives
#corroborates(0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 687 - Existentialist philosophy demands literary form to convey embodied lived experience
#expands(0.80) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 37 - Existentialist philosophy values active engaged form over abstract speculation
#corroborates(0.80) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 38