Background
Zapffe, Peter Wessel was born in 1899 in Tromso.
dramatist essayist humorist literary critic novelist philosopher poet
Zapffe, Peter Wessel was born in 1899 in Tromso.
In his versatility Zapffe may be compared to and perhaps surpasses Sartre. His main philosophical work is the monumental book Om det tragiske [On the Tragic] (1941). One of the author’s goals in this work is to clarify and determine what he calls the structure of the tragic phenomenon or the objectively tragic. The basic for his proposed definition of the tragic is a comprehensive analysis of the human field of interest, especially the part which is marked by defeat and doom. The general definition arrived at in this way may be put as follows: the objectively tragic is characterized by a course of events where the individual is struck by a catastrophe as a consequence of greatness in its unfolding of abilities and interests. However, Zapffe’s errand is not merely to explicate and define the tragic. His deeper aim is to ‘illuminate the only necessary and eternally burning problem, what it means to he human. His account has the force of a general philosophy of human existence and the conditions of its realization. Man has a need for meaning in the specific parts of life. The question of meaning here is the question ‘to what end?', ‘for what purpose?’. Actions may be meaningful or meaningless. If one continues to ask for meaning or purpose, one ends up asking ‘to what end?' in relation to one’s life as a whole. What is the meaning of life? When posing this question, Zapffe seeks an answer that satisfies man’s metaphysical need. He claims that man has a fundamental need for a moral world order, where everything has plan and meaning, where suffering, if it is necessary, is applied after an economic principle, where the destinies are adequate to the needs, in short, where everything occurs justly according to each individual’s evaluation, or according to an evaluation to which everybody can ascend by their own means. Thus, he formulates man’s metaphysical need as a quest for a just world order. This quest must not be conflated with the need for a loving god and a life after one’s bodily death. The religious feeling is a means, and in his view an illusory means, to satisfy the metaphysical quest which, as human conditions are, cannot be satisfied. Zapffe considers the metaphysical need for a moral world order as the essential mark of the human being. Mans metaphysical need is a surplus endowment that finds no adequate answer in reality. Thus, a discrepancy arises between the most essential need of man and the world in which he finds himself. In this conflict man can experience the tragic in his own form of existence. And this experience may be stronger the more he seeks to realize his need for meaning and justice. An increasing demand is met by a correspondingly categorical veto. In this sense man is doomed to fail, to suffer an irremediable defeat in the utmost realization of his nature. The reception of Zapffe’s philosophy has been somewhat mixed. In Norway some have felt that his writings on Jesus and his discussion of the problem of evil are offensive to Christian beliefs. However, there has been a growing recognition of him as a major existential philosopher. Arne Naess's words herald this recognition: ‘P. W. Zapffe has a unique position in Nordic philosophy of life. He has in his main work, Om del tragiske, created a philosophical structure that takes up for clarifying analysis a series of the central questions of our time, and he does it with an originality and intensity of involvement reminiscent of Soren Kierkegaard’.