existential philosophy
Meaning-of-life thought
Existential philosophy examines human existence through themes like freedom, choice, meaning, and mortality.
It holds that individuals must create their own purpose in an indifferent universe, and that authentic living requires confronting anxiety, absurdity, and death rather than retreating into comforting illusions.
Associated with Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus.
Also called existentialism.
- solitudeState of being alone
- being-in-the-worldExistence as already situated
- authenticityQuality of being genuine
- authentic selfOne's genuine identity
- freedomAbsence of constraint
Albert Camus · angst · phenomenology · Jean-Paul Sartre · alienation · absurdist theater · anxiety · Simone de Beauvoir · Franz Kafka · dread · mortality · Friedrich Nietzsche · lived experience · Kierkegaard · leap of faith · fear and trembling · existential dread · meaninglessness
existential philosophyscientism
Overvaluing empirical methods alone
positivism · behaviorism · rationalism · formalism · formal logic
existential philosophyessentialism
Doctrine of fixed natures
scholasticism · determinism · rationalism · fatalism · predestination