Olly asked:

What is the difference between existentialism and phenomenology?

============

Phenomenology obviously has its precursors, but these only become visible as such in retrospect,
after Husserl's Logical Investigations(2 Vols) 1900—01. The maxim of phenomenology was 'to the
matters themselves!'. The matter itself is the phenomenon: that which shows itself. The phenomena is
the totality of that which shows itself. Thought is to direct itself to these matters and be structured
according to them. In phenomenology then, entities or things are not seen 'as such', but as a
'manifestation'. Phenomenology wants to see what is manifest in and by things. It is a bit like the old
idea of 'speculative' thought, where thinking tries to 'mirror' (speculum) what is.

Existentialism springs from phenomenology because it asserts that the prime phenomenon (or matter
at stake) is that being for whom the world is phenomenal, who sees the world as such. This strange
phenomenon is involved in all phenomenology, but is itself unclarified. Hence, Heidegger says, at the
beginning of Being and Time(1927): "We are ourselves the entities to be analysed. The Being of any
such entity is in each case mine." Sartre's existentialism takes another course to Heidegger's, but
both philosophers hold that existence comes before essence. That means that one always already
exists and that existence is always already mine before there is any question of 'the matters
themselves'. First we must wonder, "what is it to exist?'

Matthew Del Nevo

www.sicetnon.com