Ernst T opitsch
THE SOCIOLOGY OF EXISTENTIALISM
No contemporary philosophical movement has unleashed
such passionate controversy as Existentialism. While its supporters de–
fend it as a new doctrine of salvation, its opponents have attacked
it either as a kind of philosophically adorned lyric, or as the product
of conscienceless intellectual sensationalism-romanzi
gialli,
thrillers,
as Guido de Ruggiero, in the spirit of Benedetto Croce, called the
works of the existential philosophers-or even as a nihilistic attack
on the foundations of western thought and western morality. For the
stereotyped thinking of the East it is a significant symptom of decay,
a last outcropping of bourgeois decadence. All these emotional out–
pourings demonstrate that what is here in question is not primarily a
problem of knowledge, but of the interpretation of living human
situations.
All
this
demands a cultural-sociological analysis of this peculiar
phenomenon. However, we must beware, here as everywhere, of a
mere "unmasking" or "reduction" such as still clings, in part, to cul–
tural sociology because of the controversial social position of its ori–
gins. The relations between existential philosophy and the fate of
certain social groups in western Europe are indeed long and publicly
known, but they neither exhaust the problem raised here nor justify
prejudging its outcome. Yet a careful historical and sociological scru- •
tiny may lead to that sober evaluation of the meaning and limits of
existentialist thought, which is necessary in view of the passion of
both sets of combatants.
In its essential points, existential philosophy appears as the out–
come of a long and logical development of great philosophical scope.
Its strongly modish style and often scarcely bearable affectation should
not mislead us in this respect. It is a result of the progressive dissolu-
