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Existentialism For Dummies. Existentialism is a term applied to some late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who may not have agreed about much, but who all believed that each person must define themselves in an absurd, illogical world. The following are the core figures of existentialist philosophy. Søren Kierkegaard(1813–1855): The Danish ...
- Key Themes of Existentialism
- Key Existentialist Philosophers
- The Influence of Existentialism
- References and Further Reading
Although a highly diverse tradition of thought, seven themes can be identified that provide some sense of overall unity. Here, these themes will be briefly introduced; they can then provide us with an intellectual framework within which to discuss exemplary figures within the history of existentialism.
a. Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) as an Existentialist Philosopher
Kierkegaardwas many things: philosopher, religious writer, satirist, psychologist, journalist, literary critic and generally considered the ‘father’ of existentialism. Being born (in Copenhagen) to a wealthy family enabled him to devote his life to the pursuits of his intellectual interests as well as to distancing himself from the ‘everyday man’ of his times. Kierkegaard’s most important works are pseudonymous, written under fictional names, often very obviously fictional. The issue of pseud...
b. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) as an Existentialist Philosopher
“I know my lot. Some day my name will be linked to the memory of something monstrous, of a crisis as yet unprecedented on earth…” (Nietzsche 2007:88). Remarkably, what in 1888 sounded like megalomania came some years later to be realized. The name ‘Nietzsche’ has been linked with an array of historical events, philosophical concepts and widespread popular legends. Above all, Nietzsche has managed somehow to associate his name with the turmoil of a crisis. For a while this crisis was linked to...
c. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) as an Existentialist Philosopher
Heideggerexercised an unparalleled influence on modern thought. Without knowledge of his work recent developments in modern European philosophy (Sartre, Gadamer, Arendt, Marcuse, Derrida, Foucault et al.) simply do not make sense. He remains notorious for his involvement with National Socialism in the 1930s. Outside European philosophy, Heidegger is only occasionally taken seriously, and is sometimes actually ridiculed (famously the Oxford philosopher A.J. Ayer called him a ‘charlatan’). In 1...
a. The Arts and Psychology
In the field of visual arts existentialism exercised an enormous influence, most obviously on the movement of Expressionism. Expressionism began in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. With its emphasis on subjective experience, Angst and intense emotionality, German expressionism sought to go beyond the naiveté of realist representation and to deal with the anguish of the modern man (exemplified in the terrible experiences of WWI). Many of the artists of Expressionism read Nietzsche...
b. Philosophy
As a whole, existentialism has had relatively little direct influence within philosophy. In Germany, existentialism (and especially Heidegger) was criticised for being obscure, abstract or even mystical in nature. This criticism was made especially by Adorno in The Jargon of Authenticity, and in Dog Years, novelist Gunter Grass gives a Voltaire-like, savage satire of Heidegger. The criticism was echoed by many in the analytic tradition. Heidegger and the existentialist were also taken to task...
a. General Introductions
1. Warnock Mary. Existentialism(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970) 2. Barrett William. Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy(New York: Anchor House, 1990) 3. Cooper E. David. Existentialism(Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1999) 4. Reynolds Jack. Understanding Existentialism(Stocksfield: Acumen, 2006) 5. Earnshaw Steven. Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Continuum, 2006)
b. Anthologies
1. Kauffman Walter. Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre(New York: Penguin, 1975) 2. Paul S. MacDonald. The Existentialist Reader –An Anthology of Key Texts(Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press, 2000) 3. Solomon C. Robert.Existentialism(USA: Oxford University Press, 2004)
c. Primary Bibliography
1. Beauvoir de Simone. The Ethics of Ambiguity(New York: Citadel Press, 1976) 2. Beauvoir de Simone. The Second Sex(London: Jonathan Cape, 2009) 3. Camus Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus(London: Penguin, 2000) 4. Camus Albert. The Rebel(London: Penguin, 2000b) 5. Camus Albert. The Fall, (London: Penguin, 2006) 6. Heidegger Martin, Introduction to Metaphysics(New Heaven & London: Yale University Press,2000) 7. Heidegger Martin. Letter on Humanism: in Heidegger Martin. Basic Writings, (London: Rout...
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- Phenomenology. Phenomenology is a philosophical movement developed by Edmund Husserl in the early 20th century and later adapted by Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, and others.
- Freedom. If the principle of phenomenology gave existentialism its basic shape — i.e. a technique for getting at how things really are, for going behind the stale categorizations of common sense and natural science to describe human existence for what it really is — then the principle of freedom gave existentialism its founding value.
- Authenticity. Finally, once we’ve acknowledged the importance of the first-person perspective, and recognized the ultimate freedom we have in our lived existence moment-to-moment, we come to another core principle of existentialist philosophy: adopting a stance of authenticity.
Jan 6, 2023 · 1. Nihilism and the Crisis of Modernity. We can find early glimpses of what might be called the “existential attitude” (Solomon 2005) in the Stoic and Epicurean philosophies of antiquity, in the struggle with sin and desire in St. Augustine’s Confessions, in the intimate reflections on death and the meaning of life in Michel de Montaigne’s Essays, and in the confrontation with the ...
Jun 8, 2018 · Thus some key figures who might be considered existentialist, Camus and Friedrich Nietzsche, for example, are sometimes excluded because they are not sufficiently Sartrean. Existentialism can be defined as a philosophy that puts special emphasis on personal existence, on the problems and peculiarities that face individual human beings.
Apr 27, 2023 · Development of existentialism: key figures. The questions that concern existentialism can be traced throughout history (such as in Hamlet’s famous “to be or not to be” speech). But existentialism as a cohesive philosophy began to develop in the nineteenth century before taking full form in the twentieth century.
Abstract. ‘Existentialism’ is a difficult term to define. Historically, it has been used in a wide variety of contexts and for diverse purposes. As far back as the ancient Greeks, one can find examples of texts that could today be described as existentialist, though it was not until the twentieth century that existentialism emerged as a ...
