Existentialism
Freedom-and-dread school
Existentialism is a philosophical movement emphasizing individual existence, freedom, and choice.
It holds that humans are not defined by any preset essence or nature but must create meaning through their own decisions and actions.
The movement flourished in mid-20th-century Europe, associated with thinkers like Sartre and Camus.
Existentialist themes—alienation, authenticity, the absurdity of existence—pervade modern literature and film: The novel has a bleak, existentialist tone.
Deep unfocused worry
- dreadIntense anticipatory fear
- despairTotal absence of hope
- alienationState of being isolated
- absurdityWildly illogical quality
freedom · responsibility · choice · commitment · bad faith · being-in-the-world · leap of faith · authentic self
Philosophy embracing existence's irrationality
- nihilismRejection of objective meaning
- phenomenologyStudy of subjective experience
- ontologyStudy of existence's nature
- metaphysicsPhilosophy of existence's nature
authenticity · essence · being · nothingness · consciousness · subjectivity · individualism · humanism
French existentialist philosopher
- CamusFrench absurdist author-philosopher
- KierkegaardDanish existentialist theologian
- HeideggerExistential ontology's founder
- NietzscheGerman philosopher of will
Beauvoir · Marcel · Dostoevsky · Kafka · Merleau-Ponty
What something signifies
- purposeReason something exists
- identityWho someone is
- mortalityState of eventual death
- isolationComplete separation from others
anxiety · depression · questioning · searching · disillusionment · emptiness · void · confrontation
Unknown arriving person
- The TrialAbsurdist legal persecution story
- Waiting for GodotAbsurdist drama about fruitless expectation
- The MetamorphosisNovella about human-to-insect change
- RhinocerosLarge horned ungulate
angst
Deep unfocused worry
- dreadIntense anticipatory fear
- despairTotal absence of hope
- alienationState of being isolated
absurdity · freedom · responsibility · choice · commitment · bad faith · being-in-the-world · leap of faith · authentic self · lived experience
absurdism
Philosophy embracing existence's irrationality
- nihilismRejection of objective meaning
- phenomenologyStudy of subjective experience
- ontologyStudy of existence's nature
metaphysics · authenticity · essence · being · nothingness · consciousness · subjectivity · individualism · humanism · atheism
Sartre
French existentialist philosopher
- CamusFrench absurdist author-philosopher
- KierkegaardDanish existentialist theologian
- HeideggerExistential ontology's founder
Nietzsche · Beauvoir · Marcel · Dostoevsky · Kafka · Merleau-Ponty
meaning
What something signifies
isolation · anxiety · depression · questioning · searching · disillusionment · emptiness · void · confrontation · awakening
The Stranger
Unknown arriving person
- The TrialAbsurdist legal persecution story
- Waiting for GodotAbsurdist drama about fruitless expectation
- The MetamorphosisNovella about human-to-insect change
- Cultural MovementsRenaissance, Baroque, Romanticism, Harlem Renaissance, Enlightenment
Existentialismrationalism
Reason as knowledge source
positivism · scientism · Scholasticism · structuralism · Platonism
Existentialismessentialism
Doctrine of fixed natures
predestination · teleology · Platonism · determinism · fatalism
Existentialismcollectivism
Group primacy doctrine
Marxism · structuralism · communitarianism · functionalism · historicism