existentials
Words asserting being
Existentials are words or constructions that assert or deny the existence of something.
The most common in English is "there is" or "there are": There are three cookies left.
In philosophy and theology, existentials concern questions of existence itself—what exists, how it exists, whether existence precedes essence.
The term appears in linguistics, logic, and existentialist thought, each with slightly different technical meanings.
Existing as something
- HeideggerExistential ontology's founder
- DaseinHuman existence as lived
- authenticityQuality of being genuine
- angstDeep unfocused worry
nothingness · absurdity · Sartre · freedom · dread · finitude · mortality · contingency
What something signifies
- purposeReason something exists
- identityWho someone is
- questioningSeeking answers through inquiry
- mortalityState of eventual death
doubt · anxiety · midlife · uncertainty · disillusionment · searching · reevaluation · emptiness
Supreme spiritual authority
- divineOf or from gods
- faithTrust without proof
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- salvationDeliverance from harm
soul · immortality · creation · providence · grace · redemption · sin · eschatology
Vulgar exclamations
- copulaVerb joining subject and complement
- predicationAttributing property to subject
- presentationalRelating to formal display
- locativeCase indicating place
syntax · semantics · definiteness · indefiniteness · noun phrases · discourse · pragmatics · focus
being
Existing as something
- HeideggerExistential ontology's founder
- DaseinHuman existence as lived
- authenticityQuality of being genuine
angst · nothingness · absurdity · Sartre · freedom · dread · finitude · mortality · contingency · phenomenology
meaning
What something signifies
- purposeReason something exists
- identityWho someone is
- questioningSeeking answers through inquiry
mortality · doubt · anxiety · midlife · uncertainty · disillusionment · searching · reevaluation · emptiness · direction
God
Supreme spiritual authority
- divineOf or from gods
- faithTrust without proof
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
salvation · soul · immortality · creation · providence · grace · redemption · sin · eschatology · mystery
expletives
Vulgar exclamations
- copulaVerb joining subject and complement
- predicationAttributing property to subject
- presentationalRelating to formal display
locative · syntax · semantics · definiteness · indefiniteness · noun phrases · discourse · pragmatics · focus · topic
- existential crisisProfound questioning of life's meaning
- existential threatPeril to survival itself
- existential dreadTerror at meaningless being
- existential angstDistress over life's meaninglessness
- existential crisesTurmoil over life's significance
- existential questionsInquiries about purpose and being