Existentialism

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Existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.

In other words, existentialism is the belief that human beings or agents in a philosophical sense are the ones that define our worth through the will. As Jean-Paul Sartre would say, “existence precedes essence”.

Another view or definition of existentialism could also simply mean that the philosophical thinking or approach to finding the meaning of life should begin with the human subject, and not an idea or anything that could be abstract.

Existentialists believe that out of that realization that we are the determiners of our place in the universe and not a higher power, what would follow is a sense of dread. That was the subject and theme of Sartre’s magnum opus, Nausea.

Other existentialists include Albert Camus, Frederick Nietzsche, Paul Tillich, and Soren Kierkegaard, who is considered to be the first existential philosopher. Even though existentialism is characterized by atheistic thought, there is also Christian existentialism which is what Kierkegaard and Tillich, a German Protestant theologian, subscribed to.

Christian existentialism holds the view that is the self is reliant on God, but also the individual's concept of God is reliant on the self. From Tillich’s point of view, it’s hard to understand God because he is the “Ground of Being” and it’s still up to us to come with the right knowledge for how to have a relationship with Him.

As a philosophy, existentialism has taken the world by storm with the advent of modernism from the 20th century to now and is still a popular way of thinking in academic circles.

 

IT EXPLAINS
 

1. There is no such thing as absolute value or meaning,    humans are free to do whatever they want.
2. Life has no meaning except that meaning which is made through experiencing      one's own experiences.
3. Life is a series of choices. Every time you have a choice you    are free to decide what you want.
4. Because you are free to decide, all these choices create    stress.
5. More stress is created because society puts tremendous    pressure on the individual to conform to its arbitrary, artificial    rules (remember, though, because of #1, the rules are    meaningless).
6. This stress is made greater because very few decisions are    without any negative consequences.
7. If one makes a decision, he or she must follow through,    because by making the decision because life can only be defined by    the individual and the individual's choices are the only things    that are "real."
8. Because of all the above, life causes despair.