Soren Kierkegaard (1983-1855), a Danish thinker is generally regarded as the “father” of the existentialist movement….

Table of Contents

• Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) as an Existentialist Philosopher.
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) as an Existentialist Philosopher.
• Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) as an Existentialist Philosopher.
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) as an Existentialist Philosopher.

The principal representatives of German existentialism in the 20th century were Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers; those of French personalistic existentialism were Gabriel Marcel and Jean-Paul Sartre; that of French phenomenology were Maurice Merleau-Ponty; that of Spanish existentialism was José Ortega y Gasset; that …

Themes in Existentialism

• Importance of the individual.
• Importance of choice.
• Anxiety regarding life, death, contingencies, and extreme situations.
• Meaning and absurdity.
• Authenticity.
• Social criticism.
• Importance of personal relations.
• Atheism and Religion.

Terms in this set (9)

• Existence before Essence. people are born as a blank slate create essence through unique experiences.
• Impotence of Reason. Passion and emotion.
• Alienation or Estrangement from.
• Despair or Anxiety.
• Nothingness or Death.
• Awful Freedom.
• The Absurd.
• Cope.

Here are examples: You identify yourself as an athlete and have a promising career. Then you have a severe injury and your career is over. At that point, you would have an existential crisis because you have defined yourself as an athlete.

Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. It holds that, as there is no God or any other transcendent force, the only way to counter this nothingness (and hence to find meaning in life) is by embracing existence.

The basic principle of existentialism is that existence precedes essence for human beings. Essence precedes existence for objects. Objects always have a definite purpose and this purpose is known prior to the creation of the object. On the other hand, humans are not born with a definite purpose.

It believes in the nihility of life, the absurdity of the world, and maintains that helpless and solitary humans beings cast into this absurd world will find no assistance and will find themselves in a state of “homelessness,” of indecision and depression. This is the first principle of existentialism.

Ontology, the philosophical study of being in general, or of what applies neutrally to everything that is real. It was called “first philosophy” by Aristotle in Book IV of his Metaphysics.

Nietzsche is a self-professed nihilist, although, if we are to believe him, it took him until 1887 to admit it (he makes the admission in a Nachlass note from that year). No philosopher’s nihilism is more radical than Nietzsche’s and only Kierkegaard’s and Sartre’s are as radical.

Existential nihilism is the philosophical theory that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism suggests that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence.

“Some people veer toward nihilism here. They decide nothing matters, so there’s no point to anything. We’ll never know the answers, so why bother trying?” Joseph says….Reaffirm your values

1. community.
2. compassion.
3. honesty.
4. optimism.
5. kindness.
6. respect.
7. wealth.
8. status.

The meaning of life is to pursue human flourishing through communication, understanding and service. In order to have meaningful lives, we can also see that certain things will need to be in play.

The number 42 is, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything,” calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years.