Transformational processes within french existentialism development

Abstract

The article reveals both the history of origin and specificity of existentialism philosophical movement development under the terms of French humanistics in the 1940–1980. The author traces the originality of the «European course» of this philosophical system, which, having been formed within the tradition of the Russian worldview between the 19th and 20th centuries, began to transform into philosophical-ideological or philosophical-ethical models in Germany and France. After the Second World War, existentialism was widely accepted among the Spanish and Italian philosophers, occasionally «capturing» the entire European cultural space. The study emphasizes that existentialism has common roots, although each of the existing models requires independent analysis, since they were chronologically formed in an interval of one or two decades, introducing marked changes into the orthodox model. The author finds out that existentialism played an important role in the development of French humanistics because it could rely on intuitivism and personnelism, which contributed to the renewal of philosophical thinking in the 1920–1940s. The paper demonstrates that the French model of existentialism was developed on the basis of inter-scientific approach, organically combining philosophy, natural science, psychology and literary studies, achieving significant success in the development of various types of art, in particular, literature and theater. The aim of the research suggests the following objectives: to reconstruct the history of existentialism formation, to identify the specificity of the French model of this philosophical system and to create the essence of possible transformational processes within the humanistic development based on application of existentialism. Methodology of the research is based on historical and cultural, biographical, analytical and comparative approaches. The scientific novelty of the article is defined by the possibility to use and exploit the potential of inheritance, which exists between existentialism and postmodernism, since, according to the chronology, the former determined by philosophical system in its logical development, came close to the latter in the logical sequencing. The author justifies the significance of the article considering works of French existentialists The obtained results make it possible to conclude: 1) the French model of existentialism should be evaluated as eclectic, because it was formed on the basis of the ideas of S. Kierkegaard and L. Shestov, demonstrating, at the same time, interest to its religious criterion (H. Marcel). 2) J.-P. Sartre's ‘transformational’ philosophical position: «Marxism – existentialism» should be taken into consideration. The article explains both his sympathy to politicalization of existentialism and his interest in the problems of «biographism», which strengthened the literary orientation of the philosopher's views, and his interest in «pathological» experiments of psychoanalysis. 3) The link between theoretical ideas of A. Camus and artistic practice, which enables to transform «philosophy of absurdity» at first into «dramaturgy of absurdity», and – later – into «theater of absurdity» has been established. Within this context, the works of J. Genet, S. Beckett and E. Ionesco are referred to. Theoretical and practical significance lies in the fact that the material of this study promotes further scientific and theoretical comprehension of French humanities at the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries. The results can be used while lecturing aesthetics, philosophy, cultural studies, history and theory of art for students of higher institutions of humanities and rstistic creativity.