Who Is the Real Existentialist? Debunking Sartre's Distinction ...
Talip Karakaya - forthcoming - Felsefe Dünyasi:57-66. Is an Existentialist Ethics Possible?Jonathan Crowe - 2004 - Philosophy Now 47 (Aug ...
Randall S. Firestone, Who Is the Real Existentialist? Debunking Sartre’s Distinction between Christian and Atheistic Existentialists - PhilPapers

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# [Who Is the Real Existentialist? Debunking Sartre’s Distinction between Christian and Atheistic Existentialists](https://philpapers.org/go.pl?id=FIRWIT&proxyId=&u=https%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.4236%2Fojpp.2023.132024)

[Randall S. Firestone](/s/Randall S.%20Firestone "View other works by Randall S. Firestone")

_[Open Journal of Philosophy](https://philpapers.org/asearch.pl?pub=3513)_ 13 (2):342-371 (2023)

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# Abstract

In Sartre’s 1946 article “The Humanism of Existentialism,” Sartre places existentialists into two categories, Christian or atheist, and contends that existentialism works differently for each of them. This paper argues that such a distinction should not have been made because existentialist beliefs, views, and themes do not differ based on one’s religiosity. This paper specifically examines three examples in Sartre’s article which undermine his position, and further argues that Sartre made an equivocation fallacy by conflating two different types of essence, one’s innate essence and one’s character essence. The paper then explores six central existentialist themes to demonstrate that in their existentialist beliefs both the theist and the atheist agree. Those six themes are authenticity, sincerity vs. bad faith, the absurdity of life, the meaning of life, choice, and responsibility. The paper also examines the issue of moral objectivity vs. non-objectivity, and argues that not only is this not an existentialist issue, but even if it were one’s belief on moral objectivity does not cleanly correspond to one’s religious beliefs, so here again there is no basis to distinguish the Christian and the atheist. The paper concludes that any disagreement between existentialists who are Christian and those who are atheist comes down to differences in their religious beliefs, not their existentialist views.

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# References found in this work

[Phenomenology of Perception.](/rec/GURPOP-4) [Aron Gurwitsch](/s/Aron%20Gurwitsch "View other works by Aron Gurwitsch"), [M. Merleau-Ponty](/s/M.%20Merleau-Ponty "View other works by M. Merleau-Ponty") & [Colin Smith](/s/Colin%20Smith "View other works by Colin Smith") \- 1964 \- _Philosophical Review_ 73 (3):417.

[Being and Nothingness.](/rec/OLABAN) [Frederick A. Olafson](/s/Frederick A.%20Olafson "View other works by Frederick A. Olafson"), [Jean-Paul Sartre](/s/Jean-Paul%20Sartre "View other works by Jean-Paul Sartre") & [Hazel E. Barnes](/s/Hazel E.%20Barnes "View other works by Hazel E. Barnes") \- 1958 \- _Philosophical Review_ 67 (2):276.

[Beyond Good and Evil.](/rec/NIEBGA-7) [Friedrich Nietzsche](/s/Friedrich%20Nietzsche "View other works by Friedrich Nietzsche") & [Helen Zimmern](/s/Helen%20Zimmern "View other works by Helen Zimmern") \- 1908 \- _International Journal of Ethics_ 18 (4):517-518.

[The Myth of Sisyphus.](/rec/CAMTMO-5) [Albert Camus](/s/Albert%20Camus "View other works by Albert Camus") \- 1957 \- _Philosophical Review_ 66 (1):104-107.

[On the Genealogy of Morality.](/rec/NIEOTG-6) [Friedrich Nietzsche](/s/Friedrich%20Nietzsche "View other works by Friedrich Nietzsche"), [Keith Ansell-Pearson](/s/Keith%20Ansell-Pearson "View other works by Keith Ansell-Pearson") & [Carol Diethe](/s/Carol%20Diethe "View other works by Carol Diethe") \- 1995 \- _Journal of Nietzsche Studies_ 9:192-192.

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