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Brief Summary of Existentialism
Existentialism is often described as the belief in "existence before essence" -- that is, that before any structure or form that dictates the nature of the world and humanity, we exist. Existentialists examine what it means to exist as a human being in the world, and existentialists believe that understanding who we are as human beings is the key to understanding the world. The term existentialism is a broad one; the diverse forms it takes generally have some common themes:
Existentialists think about and try to answer the question that Walker Percy asks, "Who am I and why am I here?" I do exist, and what does that mean, if anything? Do I have a purpose in life, or does life have a meaning? One thing that existentialists keep in mind is death -- our existence implies at the same time our imminent non-existence, our impending death. This is also called nothingness -- the nothingness of our life now and then (in the future, and upon our death). Existentialists believe we are aware of this on either a conscious or subconscious level (or a mix of the two). How does that affect our actions, why we act, how we should act? According to Kierkegaard, this brings an underlying sense of anxiety or dread in all that we do.
Most existentialists believe in free will and human freedom and that we create our own reality. Sartre put the three random characters in his play, No Exit, together in their afterlife in a hotel room -- a room they could never exit -- with no purpose, no agenda, no reason. They are free to create a heaven or a hell for the rest of eternity in the (essentially) empty room, just as we are free to create our own "heaven" or "hell" in this world with the life we have been given by the choices we make.
Existentialism is more subjectively oriented than objectively oriented. Objectivity is certainty, material things, actual objects, what physically exists. Subjective truth is concerned with experience, perception, being, relationship, values, and these cannot be verified; they are never certain. In addition, life is constantly a "becoming," never a completed "end," and so always open-ended and uncertain. A subjective viewpoint is also concerned with the "whole" person and relationship to others as whole - for who they are ontologically and unconditionally, not what they can do functionally (that is, not for their "use" to us or to the world). Science (biology, chemistry, physics) and the social sciences (psychology, sociology) can only tell us so much about who man is, but they eventually fail because the scientific method cannot access humanity subjectively and ontologically. To quote Percy, "…man is more than an organism in an environment, more than an integrated personality, more even than a mature and creative individual as the phrase goes. He is a wayfarer and a pilgrim" (Signposts 246).
As a result, existentialists are usually not "systematic" philosophers, but concerned with the perceived experience (phenomenology) of the individual. Because of that, they often use narrative -- stories, novels, plays -- to convey their messages.
There are theistic existentialists and atheistic existentialists. Notable theistic existentialists are Soren Kierkegaard, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Buber. The major atheistic existentialists include Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre. For the atheists, man belongs only in temporality -- the physical world of time and place -- and God or any other kind of transcendence of this world is an illusion. The key to human freedom is freeing ourselves of the illusion of God and something beyond death. Existentialism, when atheistic, often leads to despair; it results in hedonism or nihilism. This is because, if we're all going to die, and there is no other "essence," then what is the point of doing anything? Camus's Merseult in The Stranger calls this the "...benign indifference of the universe." The inevitable conclusion of the reasoning that results from this kind of philosophical premise is "live for the pleasure of the moment" - have fun while you can for tomorrow won't be here. Nihilism results when hedonism fails (as it eventually does, when we become bored with and tired of our pleasures) - then we have nothing left, and no absolutes or universals to tell us how or why to live. It doesn't matter what we do, so do anything - even kill others or ourselves.
Kierkegaard proposes another option besides this nihilistic despair when one bores of the pleasures of life -- a "leap" into a new stage, a leap from the hedonistic sphere of life to the ethical. See Kierkegaard Summary for more discussion of this.
When existentialism is theistic, it then results in freedom and renewed meaning and purpose in life, in "authentic" living and subjective relationships.
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