René Le Senne

Dialectic of Contradiction

Le Senne's Existentialism is the inverse of the Idealism of Homelin, his teacher. Homelin taught that philosophy is a dialectic of categories acting according to the rhythm of "con-relation." That is, every category is limited and insufficient, and hence must be in relation to another which is higher and richer, and this with another, until we reach the absolute Consciousness, which is the perfect personality.

Le Senne (1882-1954) inverts this dialectic in the sense that the last category of Homelin is for him the first. According to Le Senne, philosophy must take its initial rise from the existent, for no category can have real value unless it is in relation to a personal consciousness.

At the start of his philosophical research Le Senne observes that "the existent" for all is "freedom"; this is a fact of immediate experience and of psychological observation. Moreover, he observes that freedom supposes a "rupture" in the being, and in relation to this rupture man must accept his existence in the world as implying a "duty" to reestablish in his consciousness being it its unity.

In doing so, the existent will become a true person. By the rupture of being, Le Senne means any "contradiction" which is in our own existence, e.g., doubt in the intellectual life, suffering in the sensitive life. In performing the duty of overcoming such obstacles, the existent may be discouraged; this is the case of the existent who will be enfolded by the world of nature and become a "thing among things." Thus he will become really "sub-ject," i.e., "thrown under" or subjected by obstacles.

But if the existent take the "contradictions" as a means of enriching his own existence, then the obstacles will be considered as a "value," and by overcoming them he will be on the way to achieving his personal end. Hence it depends upon us as to whether we become a thing or a person. And since the obstacles and contradictions will rise over and over again, there must be in the existent a never-exhausted courage and energy for constructing his personality.

This ascent from value to value will find its final term in God, at which point we can say: "God is with us." Since God is the Value of values, He gives value to the life of the existent; since He is the Person, He wills that the existent become a person by means of his reason and his freedom. In short, God puts the existent in the rupture of being, i.e., in the state of contradiction and warfare, with the intention that existent should recompose all things in peace.