Existentialism

 Existentialism may be described as a modern youngest philosophy. It is very difficult to find its roots in any of the ancient philosophies. It is modern twentieth century’ philosophy.

Existentialism is an area in philosophy that deals with human freedom. Existentialism itself is a revolt against traditional philosophy; it has been labelled a philosophy but a definition is difficult as its proponents have a marked difference in outlook. Existentialist thought concerns itself with trying to understand fundamentals of the human condition and its relation to the world around us. Basic questions include, 'what is it like to be a human in the world?' and 'what is the nature of human freedom?'.

Existentialism can be seen as a philosophical movement that rejects that life has an inherent meaning, but instead requires each individual to posit his or her own subjective values. Existentialism, unlike other fields of philosophy, does not treat the individual as a concept, and values individual subjectivity over objectivity. As a result, questions regarding existence and subjective experience are seen as being of paramount importance, and initially above all other scientific and philosophical pursuits.

There are several philosophical positions, all related to existential philosophy, but the main identifiable common proposition is that existence precedes essence, i.e. that a human exists before his or her existence has value or meaning. Humans define the value or meaning of both his or her existence and the world around him or her in his or her own subjectivity, and wanders between choice, freedom, and existential angst. Existentialism often is associated with anxiety, dread, awareness of death, and freedom. Famous existentialists include Sartre, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Camus, Fanon, Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo, and Simone de Beauvoir.

Existentialism emphasizes action, freedom, and decision as fundamental to human existence; and is fundamentally opposed to the rationalist tradition and to positivism. That is, it argues against definitions of human beings as primarily rational. More generally it rejects all of the Western rationalist definitions of "being" in terms of a rational principle or essence, or as the most general feature that all existing things share in common. Camus posits, in his essay "An Absurd Reasoning," that society and religion falsely teach humans that "the other" (i.e. the world of observable phenomena outside the self) has order and structure. In fact, all attempts by the individual, termed "consciousness," to attempt to map an order or purpose onto "the other" will be met with failure, as "the other" is non-rational and random. When "consciousness" longing for order collides with "the other's" lack of order, a third element is born, "the absurd."

It then follows that, Existentialism tends to view human beings as subjects in an indifferent, objective, often ambiguous, and " absurd" universe, in which meaning is not provided by the natural order, but rather can be created, however provisionally and unstably, by human beings' actions and interpretations

 

Its main exponents are: (i) Soren Kierkegaard the Danish Philosopher (1813-1835), (ii) Jean Paul Sartre, a French Writer, (iii) Karl Jaspess, a German Philosopher, (iv) Reinholf Niebuhr, a leading protestant theologian.

Contemporary existentialist philosophy views man as participating in a world of things and events, and encountering other men. The meaning of human Existence is that it is man’s nature to exist “to stand out into reality, to participate in being, to be present to all that is.” Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, described the dilemma of the individual man more than a century ago, with keen psychological insight.