Existentialism: a Philosophy of Hope or Despair?

Existentialism: Hope or Despair? 25
cal level, for then ambiguity becomes equivocation, if not
pure and simple charlatanism; and it is small wonder that
Sartre himself has been attacked in France with equal feroc-
ity by those at the Center and those at the Left, and that he
has alternately attacked and flirted with both opponents. For
surely not the smallest of the inconsistencies to which the
student of existentialist doctrine is exposed is the belief that
one can “be” an existentialist in the same way, for example,
as one can be a vegetarian, a Rosicrucian, or a Democrat. One
can, perhaps, live “existentially,” that is to say, lucidly, freely,
and courageously, but because existentialism itself is situated
at some indefinable point between philosophy and life, its
position is no position at all. Nietzsche used to say that the
charm of a theory is that it can be refuted. The bewildering
thing about existentialism is that to the objection, “But my
dear fellow, what you are saying is completely absurd,” its
apologists reply: “Precisely. Now we are beginning to under-
stand each other.”

Lester Mansfield

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