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30 - New Existentialism

from Part III - Emerging Ethical Pathways and Frameworks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

Sheron Fraser-Burgess
Affiliation:
Ball State University, Indiana
Jessica Heybach
Affiliation:
Florida International University
Dini Metro-Roland
Affiliation:
Western Michigan University
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Summary

In this chapter the author provides a summary of Colin Wilson’s new existentialism as distinguished from historical existential philosophies. Wilson’s “Outsider” becomes a prototype for freedom, in a heroic and individualistic vein. Next, the author examines Wilson’s emphasis on self-preoccupation and consciousness as a symptom of existentialism in general. Using the work of important Black existentialists, the author offers a relational rather than an individualist interpretation of new existentialism. By being concerned with social justice, the chapter utilizes what are known as pedagogies of discomfort and calls for critical action. In the third section, the chapter presents Whitehead’s rhythms of learning and radical empiricism of “style” as an alternative to Wilson’s outsider, who advances a mistaken Husserlian interpretation of Whitehead’s philosophy. Whitehead, alternatively, holds that experience is richer than consciousness achieved and accrued. Finally, in the last section, the author offers new existentialism’s revolutionary vision for a new university.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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