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The Communist Critics
One group of existentialists Sartre discusses, which includes Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Since Christian existentialists believe (in Dostoyevsky’s words) that, “if God does not exist, everything is permissible,” they decide to believe in God even if they lack concrete evidence for their beliefs just so that there are moral parameters for human life. Sartre is critical of this attitude, since he does not understand how Christian existentialists could decide that the Christian God deserves true faith while other improvable belief systems do not; Sartre expresses this concern when he addresses the story of Abraham and Isaac as Kierkegaard retells it in his book Fear and Trembling.
The Christian Existentialists Quotes in Existentialism Is a Humanism
The Existentialism Is a Humanism quotes below are all either spoken by The Christian Existentialists or refer to The Christian Existentialists. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Existentialism Is a Humanism
Quotes
Dostoyevsky once wrote: “If God does not exist, everything is permissible.” This is the starting point of existentialism. Indeed, everything is permissible if God does not exist, and man is consequently abandoned, for he cannot find anything to rely on—neither within nor without.
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The Christian Existentialists Quotes in Existentialism Is a Humanism
The Existentialism Is a Humanism quotes below are all either spoken by The Christian Existentialists or refer to The Christian Existentialists. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Existentialism Is a Humanism
Quotes
Dostoyevsky once wrote: “If God does not exist, everything is permissible.” This is the starting point of existentialism. Indeed, everything is permissible if God does not exist, and man is consequently abandoned, for he cannot find anything to rely on—neither within nor without.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
