Aesthetics is the philosophical study of beauty and taste, but few philosophical systems or trends take aesthetics quite as seriously as does existentialism. Aesthetics has traditionally been part of other philosophical pursuits like the investigation of epistemology or ethics. In existentialism, however, art is in some ways the very medium through which philosophy is expressed and communicated.
Because existentialism is treated as a "lived" philosophy that is understood and explored through how one lives their life rather than a "system" that must be studied from books, it is not unexpected that much existentialist thought can be found in literary form (novels, plays) rather than in the traditional philosophical treatises. Indeed, some of the most important examples of existentialist writing are literary rather than purely philosophical.
Heidegger argued that poetry is the highest, most expressive form of art, while Merleau-Ponty argued that painting holds that honor. Ultimately, though, the forms of art most used by existentialists have been novels and plays. The most famous existentialists — Sartre, De Beauvoir, Camus, and Gabriel Marcel — were playwrights and the first three were also novelists.
Sartre, for example, didn't simply write technical works for the consumption of trained philosophers. He was unusual in that he wrote philosophy both for philosophers and for lay people. Works aimed at the former were typically heavy and complex philosophical books while works aimed at the latter were plays or novels.
One common pursuit of existentialists has been journalism. The reason for this is not difficult to discern: a journalist is actively engaged with the world when they write. Indeed, a journalist can even make a difference in the world by reporting on injustices and encouraging action to remedy problems. Because existentialism is treated as a philosophy of living, any pursuit that engages one with life itself will be valued.
It is this "engaged freedom" that is the foundation of existentialist aesthetics. Words are not signs that are isolated from life. Words are images which communicate ideas, thoughts, and feelings. They are tools for exploring and explaining the world around us — not simply to understand it in the abstract, but to engage it concretely and, hopefully, to change it as well.
Sartre wrote in "What is Literature" that “The writer has chosen to reveal the world and particularly to reveal man to other men so that the latter may assume full responsibility before the object that has been thus laid bare." We, the readers, are made responsible for what is revealed to us in text. We may not be held responsible for an injustice we are unaware of, but once made aware of it in text we are faced with choosing to act or not to act. Either way, the writer makes us responsible for what happens next.
Thus, a work of art is a product of the artist's freedom which calls out for more freedom on the part of others. It is, moreover, a moral act which calls out for more morality. According to Sartre and other existentialists, good art is always political because it explores a moral issue, assumes a moral position, and demands that viewers or readers do likewise.
Arguably, the world itself is a work of art from the existentialist perspective. It is, after all, a product of human imagination and full of symbols communicating meaning. Unlike traditional works of art, however, the world is never "finished" or completed. It is forever a "work in progress," something which calls out for us to improve. Traditional art is supposed to get us to wake up and doing something in the world around us; seeing the world for what it is should also do the same.
« Existentialism and Darwinism | Existentialism and Philosophy »
