Existentialism is accused of teaching passive despair and quietism

Evidence

First, it has been reproached as an invitation to people to dwell in quietism of despair. For if every way to a solution is barred, one would have to regard any action in this world as entirely ineffective, and one would arrive finally at a contemplative philosophy. Moreover, since contemplation is a luxury, this would be only another bourgeois philosophy. This is, especially, the reproach made by the Communists. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 2

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the charge of ‘quietism of despair’ that Sartre will rebut — key to understanding what existentialism is NOT.
• XREF: connects to: Existentialist despair means relying only on what lies within one’s own will and action — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 16; Existentialism sought lived experience rather than explaining it away through abstract systems — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 1025; Existentialism is by nature applied to real individual lives — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 687 (+6 more)

Related

• Accusations of existentialist pessimism mask anxiety about real choice (similarity 0.87)
• Existentialist despair means relying only on what lies within one’s own will and action (similarity 0.86)
• Existentialism’s critics rightly saw it could be misused as an excuse doctrine (similarity 0.83)
• Existentialist philosophy values active engaged form over abstract speculation (similarity 0.83)
• Existentialism holds that philosophy grows out of concrete lived experience (similarity 0.81)
• Existentialism sought lived experience rather than explaining it away through abstract systems (similarity 0.81)
• Existentialism is by nature applied to real individual lives (similarity 0.80)
• Existentialist ethics demand acting as if the fate of humanity rests on each choice (similarity 0.80)
• Existence precedes essence and carries a subjective quality in human reality. (similarity 0.79)
• Wilson created an optimistic version of existentialism that rejected its gloomier assessments of life (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Existentialism’s critics rightly saw it could be misused as an excuse doctrine #corroborates (0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 651
• Accusations of existentialist pessimism mask anxiety about real choice #responds-to (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 5
• Existentialism sought lived experience rather than explaining it away through abstract systems #complicates (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1025
• Existentialism is by nature applied to real individual lives #complicates (0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 687
• Existentialism holds that philosophy grows out of concrete lived experience #complicates (0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 54
• Existentialist philosophy values active engaged form over abstract speculation #complicates (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 38