JASPERS (1883-1969)
Karl Jaspers was a German philosopher. He is known for his work in the fields of existential philosophy, psychology and philosophy of religion. Jaspers argues that philosophical thought should be used as a tool in man's efforts to understand the world and himself and science cannot offer a holistic understanding of the world. He calls the self in a continuous process of becoming Existence, and the objectified temporal and spatial human being Dassein. He discusses individuals' search for meaning and the difficulties they encounter in this process. He examines the freedom to make choices, love and being able to transcend Dassein and become existence. He rejects atheism, theism, pantheism and religions based on revelation, according to him, absolute existence is beyond materialism, positivism, naturalism and idealism.
SARTRE (1905-1980)
Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher. He is considered one of the pioneers of existentialism and presents his thoughts on human freedom, responsibility and the meaning of existence in his philosophical and literary works. In his most important work, Critique of Dialectical Reason, he synthesizes phenomenology (especially a phenomenology close to Heidegger) with Marx.
Intentionality is transcendence, that is, the movement of consciousness outward. The philosophical problems that should be eliminated with the discovery of intentionality are the problems of the existence and knowability of the external world. According to Sartre, intentionality, in addition to the answer it gives to the question of how the world appears to consciousness, also allows us to prove existence in itself by starting from intentionality.
In his work Transcendence of the Ego, Sartre rejects Descartes' understanding of 'I think, therefore I am'. Consciousness cannot grasp itself independently of its relationship with things. According to Sartre, Husserl's phenomenological reduction is a sign of phenomenology's return to idealism.
In his work Being and Nothingness, Sartre makes a distinction between being-for-itself (consciousness) and being-in-itself (reality outside consciousness). Intentionality is consciousness's access to the world. The emergence of the world into consciousness is not the manifestation of a world of phenomena, but the emergence of a human world, the opening of human reality. Reality is established based on the intentional relationship between being-for-itself and being-in-itself. Consciousness chooses what kind of world it will live in. Being-for-itself is free by definition. The synthesis of being and nothingness is the reality of man.
Sartre analyzes the relationship with the other within the framework of a phenomenology of the gaze. When I become the subject of the gaze, I objectify the other. Objectification enables one to establish power over someone, to take away their freedom, and their phenomenology becomes a phenomenology of oppression.
In his book Critique of Dialectical Reason, Sartre does not accept Marx's teleological logic and mechanism that realizes universal freedom by destroying capitalism based on the exploitation of labor through the common praxis of the working class, and investigates how common liberation is possible. As a political phenomenology, he proposes to analyze the complexity of a singular phenomenon both horizontally and vertically. Horizontal analysis is the analysis of the conditions under which a phenomenon appears, which Sartre calls back analysis. There is also a project to overcome the given conditions in the phenomenon, and analyzing this project is a vertical analysis. The project dimension of action should not be neglected.
Sartre defines two basic social forms as serial and fused group. As an example of a fused group, he shows the common resistance of people living in a neighborhood invaded by occupying forces. In the beginning, those living in that neighborhood for their own singular reasons are a serial community. He says that common liberation will occur through fused groups.
Sartre, as an existentialist and atheist philosopher, refuses to explain transcendent values on theological grounds. Values enter human reality through my choosing them, my freedom to assume them, my attachment to them. Sartre is not a philosopher of uncalculated and arbitrary freedom. Sartre's responsible subject must establish the intelligibility of history and take responsibility for it.
Man is condemned to freedom. Sartre emphasizes that man is responsible for what he does and can never deny it. To exist means to create his own existence.
CAMUS (1913-1960)
Albert Camus was a French writer and philosopher. He is known for his thoughts on absurdism, existentialism and questioning the meaning of life.
Camus addresses the absurd (absurd, irrational) situation that emerges when the meaning of life is questioned. According to him, while people are trying to understand the world, they realize that the universe is a place without meaning. The mechanical nature of life, the transience of time, the loneliness of man, his alienation and the idea of death are the situations that give rise to the absurd. This absurd situation leads to nihilism. The belief in the afterlife that one escapes to be saved from the absurd is philosophical suicide. Suicide shows that we have submitted to the absurd. Rebellion, freedom and passion are the three basic virtues on the path to salvation from the absurd. I rebel, therefore I exist.
SİMONE DE BEAUVOIR (1908-1986)
Simone de Beauvoir was one of the most influential feminist thinkers of the 20th century and an important representative of existential philosophy. Beauvoir's best-known work is The Second Sex. This work examines the place of women in society, gender roles, and what it means to be a woman, and argues that women should have an equal place in society. She has left a lasting impact on the field of feminist philosophy and social criticism with her thoughts and works, and her thoughts on women's rights and social equality are still important today. As part of existential philosophy, it focuses on freedom, choice, and responsibility.