Existentialism and Naturalism

Many people associate or identify existentialism with naturalism owing to some

superficial similarities, like a complete absence of any idealizations. Indeed, both artistic
trains do not close eyes before human ugliness and vulgarity. In his book La Terre (The
Earth) Zola mercilessly denounced the old myth of "the simple goodness of the peasant"
by showing how callous and oblivious peasants (all too often idealized) could be in
pursuing the insatiable lust for land. Sartre admits that Zola gives a very disquieting
picture of human conduct and that his own novels are not much more rosy. But he notices
that despite all moral indignation Zola's story inevitably arouses it still stirs less
uneasiness in the public mind than existentialist novels. Why? Because Zola depicts his
negative characters as products of their heredity and social environment that could not be
changed, while Sartre portrays his weak individuals as creators of their own weaknesses
and ultimately responsible for their failures. Surprisingly, the former grim picture is
accepted readily, although it does not leave any room for different outcome of human
efforts (only the latter allows some prospect that things could be different).

Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself." Sartre calls this "the first principle of
existentialism". The import of this principle is that nothing else, God or other external
instances, determines what man is. What the principle says is a direct implication of the
priority of human existence now described as a dynamic entity that evolves into a self-
made creation. Man is what he does, what he is becoming, and what he makes of himself.
If man is only what he actively makes of himself, and not what he inherits or gets from
without (or above), then it makes sense to say that this principle is tantamount to "what is
also called subjectivity".
The term "subjectivity" could be understood in two ways:
(a) negatively, as a charge to the effect that existentialism overlooks the objective factors
of human condition, namely that what man's heritage and circumstances make of him, or
(b) positively, as an affirmation of human subjectivity against some false objectifications:
man is not a mere outcome of anonymous natural and social forces (object) but the
creator of his self and the subject of human history.
If we accept existence as the starting point then the life of
subjectivity comprises the following stages or better to say
moments (they are not temporally ordered):

Status Implication
Nature Indefinable
Thrust Nothing
Plan Awareness
Will Defining
Subjectivity Auto-Creation
Future Dignity 1
Feeling Responsibility
Choice Value
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