{{hatnote|"Existential" redirects here. For the logical sense of the term see [[Existential quantification]]. For other uses see [[Existence (disambiguation)]]. Not to be confused with [[Essentialism]]}}

[[File:Kierkegaard-Dostoyevsky-Nietzsche-Sartre.jpg|thumb|right|From left to right, top to bottom: [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegaard]], [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky|Dostoyevsky]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre|Sartre]]]]

'''Existentialism''' is a term applied to the work of certain late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences,<ref name=Crowell-SEoP>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/ |title=Existentialism |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |author=Crowell, Steven |date=October 2010}}</ref><ref>John Macquarrie, ''Existentialism'', New York (1972), pp. 18–21.</ref><ref name="Philosophy 1995 p. 259">''Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', ed. Ted Honderich, New York (1995), p. 259.</ref> shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human [[individual]].<ref>John Macquarrie, ''Existentialism'', New York (1972), pp. 14–15.</ref> In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or [[Absurdism|absurd]] world.<ref name="Robert C. Solomon 1974, pp. 1">Robert C. Solomon, ''Existentialism'' (McGraw-Hill, 1974, pp. 1–2).</ref> Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in both style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience.<ref>Ernst Breisach, ''Introduction to Modern Existentialism'', New York (1962), p. 5.</ref><ref>Walter Kaufmann, ''Existentialism: From Dostoyevesky to Sartre'', New York (1956) p. 12.</ref>

[[Søren Kierkegaard]] is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher,<ref name=Crowell-SEoP/><ref>Marino, Gordon. ''Basic Writings of Existentialism'' (Modern Library, 2004, p. ix, 3).</ref><ref name=McDonald2009Stanford>{{cite encyclopedia |last=McDonald |first=William |title=Søren Kierkegaard |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] (Summer 2009 Edition) |editor=Edward N. Zalta |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2009/entries/kierkegaard/}}</ref> though he did not use the term existentialism.<ref>However he did title his 1846 book ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments'', (Subtitle) A Mimical-Pathetic-Dialectical Compilation an Existential Contribution, and mentioned the term on pages 121-122, 191, 350-351, 387ff of that book.</ref> He proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving [[Meaning (existential)|meaning]] to life and living it [[Authenticity (philosophy)|passionately and sincerely ("authentically")]].<ref>Watts, Michael. ''Kierkegaard'' (Oneworld, 2003, pp.4-6).</ref><ref>Lowrie, Walter. ''Kierkegaard's attack upon "Christendom"'' (Princeton, 1969, pp. 37-40).</ref> Existentialism became popular in the years following [[World War II]], and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/?id=NSvRzPye-gEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=psychoanalysis&f=false |last=Guignon and Pereboom, Derk |first=Charles B. |title=Existentialism: basic writings |publisher=Hackett Publishing |year=2001 |page=xiii |isbn=9780872205956}}</ref>

==Definitional issues and background==

There has never been general agreement on the definition of existentialism. The term is often seen as a historical convenience as it was first applied to many philosophers in hindsight, long after they had died. In fact, while existentialism is generally considered to have originated with Kierkegaard, the first prominent existentialist philosopher to adopt the term as a self-description was [[Jean-Paul Sartre]]. Sartre purports the idea that that which "all existentialists have in common is the fundamental doctrine that existence precedes essence", as scholar [[Frederick Copleston]] explains.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Existentialism | journal = Philosophy | first = F.C. | last = Copleston | volume = 23 | issue = 84 | pages = 19–37 | jstor = 4544850 | doi = 10.1017/S0031819100065955 | year = 2009}}</ref> According to philosopher [[Steven Crowell]], defining existentialism has been relatively difficult, and he argues that it is better [[understanding|understood]] as a general approach used to reject certain systematic philosophies rather than as a systematic philosophy itself.<ref name=Crowell-SEoP/>

Although many outside Scandinavia consider the term existentialism to have originated from Kierkegaard himself, it is more likely that Kierkegaard adopted this term (or at least the term "existential" as a description of his philosophy) from the Norwegian poet and literary critic [[Johan Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven]].<ref>Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening, Vol 45, nummer 10, 2008, side 1298-1304, [http://www.psykologtidsskriftet.no/index.php?seks_id=61613&a=2 Welhaven og psykologien: Del 2. Welhaven peker fremover] (in Norwegian)</ref> This assertion comes from two sources. The Norwegian philosopher [[Erik Lundestad]] refers to the Danish philosopher [[Fredrik Christian Sibbern]]. Sibbern is supposed to have had two conversations in 1841, the first with Welhaven and the second with Kierkegaard. It is in the first conversation that it is believed that Welhaven came up with "a word that he said covered a certain thinking, which had a close and positive attitude to life, a relationship he described as existential".<ref>Lundestad, 1998, pp. 169</ref> This was then brought to Kierkegaard by Sibbern.

The second claim comes from the Norwegian historian [[Rune Slagstad]], who claims to prove that Kierkegaard himself said the term "existential" was borrowed from the poet. He strongly believes that it was Kierkegaard himself who said that "Hegelians do not study philosophy 'existentially'; to use a phrase by Welhaven from one time when I spoke with him about philosophy".<ref>Slagstad, 2001, p 89</ref> On the other hand, the Norwegian historian [[Anne-Lise Seip]] is critical of Slagstad, and believes the statement in fact stems from the Norwegian literary historian [[Cathrinus Bang]].<ref>Seip, 2007, p 352</ref>

== Concepts ==

=== Existence precedes essence ===

{{Main|Existence precedes essence}}

A central proposition of Existentialism is that ''existence precedes [[essence]]'', which means that the most important consideration for individuals is the fact that they are an individual—an independently acting and responsible, conscious being ("existence")—rather than what labels, roles, stereotypes, definitions, or other preconceived categories the individual fits ("essence"). The actual life of the individual is what constitutes what could be called their "true essence" instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence others use to define them. Thus, human beings, through their own [[consciousness]], create their own values and determine a meaning to their life.<ref>{{fr icon}} (Dictionary) "L'existencialisme" - see "l'identité de la personne"</ref> Although it was Sartre who explicitly coined the phrase, similar notions can be found in the thought of existentialist philosophers such as [[Heidegger]], and [[Kierkegaard]]:

{{Quotation|"The subjective ''thinker’s form'', the form of his communication, is his ''style''. His form must be just as manifold as are the opposites that he holds together. The systematic ''eins, zwei, drei'' is an abstract form that also must inevitably run into trouble whenever it is to be applied to the concrete. To the same degree as the subjective thinker is concrete, to the same degree his form must also be concretely dialectical. But just as he himself is not a poet, not an ethicist, not a dialectician, so also his form is none of theirs directly. His form must first and last be related to existence, and in this regard he must have at his disposal the poetic, the ethical, the dialectical, the religious. Subordinate character, setting, etc., which belong to the well balanced character of the esthetic production, are in themselves breadth; the subjective thinker has only one setting-existence-and has nothing to do with localities and such things. The setting is not the fairyland of the imagination, where poetry produces consummation, nor is the setting laid in England, and historical accuracy is not a concern. The setting is inwardness in existing as a human being; the concretion is the relation of the existence-categories to one another. Historical accuracy and historical actuality are breadth." Søren Kierkegaard (Concluding Postscript, Hong p. 357-358)}}

It is often claimed in this context that people define themselves, which is often perceived as stating that they can wish to be something—anything, a bird, for instance—and then be it. According to most existentialist philosophers, however, this would constitute an inauthentic existence. Instead, the phrase should be taken to say that people are (1) defined only insofar as they act and (2) that they are responsible for their actions. For example, someone who acts cruelly towards other people is, by that act, defined as a cruel person. Furthermore, by this action of cruelty, such persons are themselves responsible for their new identity (a cruel person). This is as opposed to their genes, or ''human nature'', bearing the blame.

As Sartre writes in his work ''[[Existentialism is a Humanism]]'': "...man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world—and defines himself afterwards." Of course, the more positive, therapeutic aspect of this is also implied: A person can choose to act in a different way, and to be a good person instead of a cruel person. Here it is also clear that since humans can choose to be either cruel or good, they are, in fact, neither of these things essentially.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baird |first=Forrest E. |authorlink= |coauthors=Walter Kaufmann |title=From Plato to Derrida |publisher=Pearson Prentice Hall |year=2008 |location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey |pages= |url= |doi= |isbn=0-13-158591-6}}</ref>

=== The Absurd ===

{{Main|Absurdism}}

The notion of the Absurd contains the idea that there is no meaning in the world beyond what meaning we give it. This meaninglessness also encompasses the amorality or "unfairness" of the world. This contrasts with the notion that "bad things don't happen to good people"; to the world, metaphorically speaking, there is no such thing as a good person or a bad person; what happens happens, and it may just as well happen to a "good" person as to a "bad" person.<ref name="plato.stanford.edu">Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Existentialism, [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/#AnxNotAbs 3.1 Anxiety, Nothingness, the Absurd]</ref>

Because of the world's absurdity, at any point in time, anything can happen to anyone, and a tragic event could plummet someone into direct confrontation with the Absurd. The notion of the absurd has been prominent in literature throughout history. Many of the literary works of Søren Kierkegaard, [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Franz Kafka]], [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], [[Eugène Ionesco]], Jean-Paul Sartre, and [[Albert Camus]] contain descriptions of people who encounter the absurdity of the world.

It is in relation to the concept of the devastating awareness of meaninglessness that Albert Camus claimed that "there is only one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide" in his ''[[The Myth of Sisyphus]]''. Although "prescriptions" against the possibly deleterious consequences of these kinds of encounters vary, from Kierkegaard's religious "stage" to Camus' insistence on persevering in spite of absurdity, the concern with helping people avoid living their lives in ways that put them in the perpetual danger of having everything meaningful break down is common to most existentialist philosophers. The possibility of having everything meaningful break down poses a threat of [[quietism]], which is inherently against the existentialist philosophy.<ref>{{cite web|author=Jean-Paul Sartre |url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm |title=Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre 1946 |publisher=Marxists.org |date= |accessdate=2010-03-08}}</ref> It has been said that the possibility of suicide makes all humans existentialists.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Suicide and Self-Deception|author=E Keen|publisher=Psychoanalytic Review|year=1973|url=http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=PSAR.060.0575A|postscript=<!-- Bot inserted parameter. Either remove it; or change its value to "." for the cite to end in a ".", as necessary. -->}}</ref>

=== Facticity ===

{{main|Facticity}}

Facticity is a concept defined by Sartre in ''[[Being and Nothingness]]'' as the ''[[being-in-itself|in-itself]]'', of which humans are in the mode of not being. This can be more easily understood when considering it in relation to the temporal dimension of past: one's past is what one is, in the sense that it co-constitutes oneself. However, to say that one is only one's past would be to ignore a significant part of reality (the present and the future), while saying that one's past is only what one was, would entirely detach it from oneself now. A denial of one's own concrete past constitutes an inauthentic lifestyle, and the same goes for all other kinds of facticity (having a body—e.g. one that doesn't allow a person to run faster than the speed of sound—identity, values, etc.).<ref>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Existentialism, [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/#FacTra 2.1 Facticity and Transcendence]</ref>

Facticity is both a limitation and a condition of freedom. It is a limitation in that a large part of one's facticity consists of things one couldn't have chosen (birthplace, etc.), but a condition in the sense that one's values most likely depend on it. However, even though one's facticity is "set in stone" (as being past, for instance), it cannot determine a person: The value ascribed to one's facticity is still ascribed to it freely by that person. As an example, consider two men, one of whom has no memory of his past and the other remembers everything. They have both committed many crimes, but the first man, knowing nothing about this, leads a rather normal life while the second man, feeling trapped by his own past, continues a life of crime, blaming his own past for "trapping" him in this life. There is nothing essential about his committing crimes, but he ascribes this meaning to his past.

However, to disregard one's facticity when, in the continual process of self-making, one projects oneself into the future, would be to put oneself in denial of oneself, and would thus be inauthentic. In other words, the origin of one's projection must still be one's facticity, though in the mode of not being it (essentially). Another aspect of facticity is that it entails [[angst]], both in the sense that freedom "produces" angst when limited by facticity, and in the sense that the lack of the possibility of having facticity to "step in" for one to take responsibility for something one has done also produces angst.

What is not implied in this account of existential freedom, however, is that one's values are immutable; a consideration of one's values may cause one to reconsider and change them. A consequence of this fact is that one is responsible for not only one's actions, but also the values one holds. This entails that a reference to common values doesn't excuse the individual's actions. Even though these are the values of the society of which the individual is part, they are also their own in the sense that they could choose them to be different at any time. Thus, the focus on freedom in existentialism is related to the limits of the responsibility one bears as a result of one's freedom: the relationship between freedom and responsibility is one of interdependency, and a clarification of freedom also clarifies that for which one is responsible.<ref>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Existentialism, [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/#FreVal 3. Freedom and Value]</ref><ref>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Existentialism, [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/#IdeVal 3.2 The Ideality of Values]</ref>

=== Authenticity ===

{{main|Authenticity (philosophy)|l1=Authenticity}}

Many noted existentialist writers consider the theme of authentic existence important. Authentic existence involves the idea that one has to "create oneself" and then live in accordance with this self. What is meant by [[authenticity (philosophy)|authenticity]] is that in acting, one should act as oneself, not as "one" acts or as "one's genes" or any other essence requires. The authentic act is one that is in accordance with one's freedom. Of course, as a condition of freedom is facticity, this includes one's facticity, but not to the degree that this facticity can in any way determine one's choices (in the sense that one could then blame one's background for making the choice one made). The role of facticity in relation to authenticity involves letting one's actual values come into play when one makes a choice (instead of, like Kierkegaard's Aesthete, "choosing" randomly), so that one also takes responsibility for the act instead of choosing either-or without allowing the options to have different values.<ref>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Existentialism, [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/#Aut 2.3 Authenticity]</ref>

In contrast to this, the inauthentic is the denial to live in accordance with one's freedom. This can take many forms, from pretending choices are meaningless or random, through convincing oneself that some form of [[determinism]] is true, to a sort of "mimicry" where one acts as "one should." How "one" should act is often determined by an image one has of how one such as oneself (say, a bank manager, lion tamer, prostitute, etc.) acts. This image usually corresponds to some sort of social norm, but this does not mean that all acting in accordance with social norms is inauthentic: The main point is the attitude one takes to one's own freedom and responsibility, and the extent to which one acts in accordance with this freedom.

=== The Other and the Look ===

{{main|Other}}

The Other (when written with a capital "o") is a concept more properly belonging to [[phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] and its account of [[intersubjectivity]]. However, the concept has seen widespread use in existentialist writings, and the conclusions drawn from it differ slightly from the phenomenological accounts. The experience of the Other is the experience of another free subject who inhabits the same world as a person does. In its most basic form, it is this experience of the Other that constitutes intersubjectivity and objectivity. To clarify, when one experiences someone else, and this Other person experiences the world (the same world that a person experiences), only from "over there", the world itself is constituted as objective in that it is something that is "there" as identical for both of the subjects; a person experiences the other person as experiencing the same things. This experience of the Other's look is what is termed the Look (sometimes the [[The Gaze|Gaze]]).<ref>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Existentialism, [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/#Ali 2.2 Alienation]</ref>

While this experience, in its basic phenomenological sense, constitutes the world as objective, and oneself as objectively existing subjectivity (one experiences oneself as seen in the Other's Look in precisely the same way that one experiences the Other as seen by him, as subjectivity), in existentialism, it also acts as a kind of limitation of freedom. This is because the Look tends to objectify what it sees. As such, when one experiences oneself in the Look, one doesn't experience oneself as nothing (no thing), but as something. Sartre's own example of a man peeping at someone through a keyhole can help clarify this: at first, this man is entirely caught up in the situation he is in; he is in a pre-reflexive state where his entire consciousness is directed at what goes on in the room. Suddenly, he hears a creaking floorboard behind him, and he becomes aware of himself as seen by the Other. He is thus filled with shame for he perceives himself as he would perceive someone else doing what he was doing, as a Peeping Tom. The Look is then co-constitutive of one's facticity.

Another characteristic feature of the Look is that no Other really needs to have been there: It is quite possible that the creaking floorboard was nothing but the movement of an old house; the Look isn't some kind of mystical telepathic experience of the actual way the other sees one (there may also have been someone there, but he could have not noticed that the person was there). It is only one's perception of the way another might perceive him.

=== Angst ===

{{main|Angst}}

{{See Also|Living educational theory}}

"Existential [[angst]]", sometimes called dread, anxiety, or [[anguish]], is a term that is common to many existentialist thinkers. It is generally held to be a negative feeling arising from the experience of human freedom and responsibility. The archetypal example is the experience one has when standing on a cliff where one not only fears falling off it, but also dreads the possibility of throwing oneself off. In this experience that "nothing is holding me back", one senses the lack of anything that predetermines one to either throw oneself off or to stand still, and one experiences one's own freedom.<ref name="plato.stanford.edu"/>

It can also be seen in relation to the previous point how angst is before nothing, and this is what sets it apart from fear that has an object. While in the case of fear, one can take definitive measures to remove the object of fear, in the case of angst, no such "constructive" measures are possible. The use of the word "nothing" in this context relates both to the inherent insecurity about the consequences of one's actions, and to the fact that, in experiencing freedom as angst, one also realizes that one is fully responsible for these consequences. There is nothing in people (genetically, for instance) that acts in their stead—that they can blame if something goes wrong. Therefore, not every choice is perceived as having dreadful possible consequences (and, it can be claimed, human lives would be unbearable if every choice facilitated dread). However, this doesn't change the fact that freedom remains a condition of every action.

Angst is often described as a drama an adolescent troubles with during their developmental years. This adolescent trouble or self-loathing is often tied to sexual attractiveness, both males and females often feel this angst and worry that they will not find both a partner or romantic conditional love for who they are. As adolescents face the prospect of adulthood where they must take control of their life the dread of both facing life alone and the fear of freedom and responsibility often lead to depression.

=== Despair ===

{{Main|Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard#Despair|l1=Despair}}

{{See also|Existential crisis}}

Despair, in existentialism, is generally defined as a loss of hope.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tfd.com/despair |title=despair - definition of despair by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia |publisher=Tfd.com |date= |accessdate=2010-03-08}}</ref> More specifically, it is a loss of hope in reaction to a breakdown in one or more of the defining qualities of one's self or identity. If a person is invested in being a particular thing, such as a bus driver or an upstanding citizen, and then finds his being-thing compromised, he would normally be found in state of despair — a hopeless state. For example, a singer who loses the ability to sing may despair if she has nothing else to fall back on—nothing to rely on for her identity. She finds herself unable to be what defined her being.

What sets the existentialist notion of despair apart from the conventional definition is that existentialist despair is a state one is in even when he isn't overtly in despair. So long as a person's identity depends on qualities that can crumble, he is in perpetual despair—and as there is, in Sartrean terms, no human essence found in conventional reality on which to constitute the individual's sense of identity, despair is a universal human condition. As Kierkegaard defines it in ''[[Either/Or]]'': "Let each one learn what he can; both of us can learn that a person’s unhappiness never lies in his lack of control over external conditions, since this would only make him completely unhappy."<ref>Either/Or Part II p. 188 Hong</ref> In ''[[Works of Love]]'', he said: {{Quotation|When the God-forsaken worldliness of earthly life shuts itself in complacency, the confined air develops poison, the moment gets stuck and stands still, the prospect is lost, a need is felt for a refreshing, enlivening breeze to cleanse the air and dispel the poisonous vapors lest we suffocate in worldliness. ... Lovingly to hope all things is the opposite of despairingly to hope [[nothing]] at all. Love hopes all things – yet is never put to shame. To relate oneself expectantly to the possibility of the good is to hope. To relate oneself expectantly to the possibility of evil is to fear. By the decision to choose hope one decides infinitely more than it seems, because it is an eternal decision. p. 246-250}}

==Opposition to positivism and rationalism==

{{See also|Positivism|Rationalism}}

Existentialists oppose definitions of human beings as primarily rational, and, therefore, oppose [[positivism]] and [[rationalism]]. Existentialism asserts that people actually make decisions based on subjective meaning rather than pure rationality. The rejection of reason as the source of meaning is a common theme of existentialist thought, as is the focus on the feelings of [[anxiety]] and [[angst|dread]] that we feel in the face of our own radical [[free will|freedom]] and our awareness of death. Kierkegaard advocated rationality as means to interact with the objective world (e.g. in the natural sciences), but when it comes to existential problems, reason is insufficient: "Human reason has boundaries".<ref>''Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers'' Vol 5, p. 5</ref>

Like Kierkegaard, Sartre saw problems with rationality, calling it a form of "bad faith", an attempt by the self to impose structure on a world of phenomena — "the Other" — that is fundamentally irrational and random. According to Sartre, rationality and other forms of bad faith hinder people from finding meaning in freedom. To try to suppress their feelings of anxiety and dread, people confine themselves within everyday experience, Sartre asserts, thereby relinquishing their freedom and acquiescing to being possessed in one form or another by "the Look" of "the Other" (i.e. possessed by another person — or at least one's idea of that other person).

== Existentialism and religion ==

{{See also|Atheistic existentialism|Christian existentialism|Jewish existentialism}}

An existentialist reading of the Bible would demand that the reader recognize that he is an existing [[subject (philosophy)|subject]] studying the words more as a recollection of events. This is in contrast to looking at a collection of "truths" that are outside and unrelated to the reader, but may develop who lectures on earnest things a meteor's distance from everyday life — or the learner who should put it to use?"<ref>Kierkegaard, Soren. ''Works of Love''. Harper & Row, Publishers. New York, N.Y. 1962. p. 62</ref>

== Existentialism and nihilism ==

{{See also|Existential nihilism}}

Although [[nihilism]] and existentialism are distinct philosophies, they are often confused with one another. A primary cause of confusion is that [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] is an important philosopher in both fields, but also the existentialist insistence on the inherent meaninglessness of the world. Existentialist philosophers often stress the importance of [[Angst]] as signifying the absolute lack of any objective ground for action, a move that is often reduced to a [[Moral nihilism|moral]] or an [[Existential nihilism|existential]] nihilism. A pervasive theme in the works of existentialist philosophy, however, is to persist through encounters with the absurd, as seen in [[Albert Camus|Camus]]' ''The Myth of Sisyphus'' ("One must imagine Sisyphus happy"),<ref>Camus, Albert. "The Myth of Sisyphus". [http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/hell/camus.html NYU.edu]</ref> and it is only very rarely that existentialist philosophers dismiss morality or one's self-created meaning: Kierkegaard regained a sort of morality in the religious (although he wouldn't himself agree that it was ethical; the religious suspends the ethical), and [[Jean-Paul Sartre|Sartre]]'s final words in ''[[Being and Nothingness]]'' are "All these questions, which refer us to a pure and not an accessory (or impure) reflection, can find their reply only on the ethical plane. We shall devote to them a future work."<ref>Jean-Paul Sartre, ''Being and Nothingness'', Routledge Classics (2003).</ref>

== Etymology ==

The term "existentialism" was coined by the French Catholic philosopher [[Gabriel Marcel]] in the mid-1940s.<ref>D.E. Cooper ''Existentialism: A Reconstruction'' (Basil Blackwell, 1990, page 1)</ref><ref name="Thomas R. Flynn 2006, page 89">Thomas R. Flynn, ''Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford University Press), 2006, page 89</ref><ref name="Christine Daigle 2006, page 5">Christine Daigle, ''Existentialist Thinkers and Ethics'' (McGill-Queen's press, 2006, page 5)</ref> At first, when Marcel applied the term to him at a colloquium in 1945, [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] rejected it.<ref>

Ann Fulton, Apostles of Sartre: Existentialism in America, 1945-1963 (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1999) 18-19.

</ref> But later, he changed his mind and, on October 29, 1945, publicly adopted the existentialist label in a lecture to the ''Club Maintenant'' in Paris. The lecture was published as ''[[L'existentialisme est un humanisme]]'' ([[Existentialism is a Humanism]]), a short book that did much to popularize existentialist thought.<ref>''L'Existentialisme est un Humanisme'' (Editions Nagel, 1946); ''English'' Jean-Paul Sartre, ''Existentialism and Humanism'' (Eyre Methuen, 1948)</ref>

Some scholars argue that the term should be used only to refer to the cultural movement in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s associated with the works of the philosophers [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]], and [[Albert Camus]].<ref name=Crowell-SEoP/> Other scholars extend the term to Kierkegaard, and yet others extend it as far back as [[Socrates]].<ref>Crowell, Steven. ''The Cambridge Companion to Existentialism'', Cambridge, 2011, p. 316.</ref> However, the term is often identified with the philosophical views of Jean-Paul Sartre.<ref name=Crowell-SEoP/>

== History ==

=== 19th century ===

==== Kierkegaard and Nietzsche ====

{{Main|Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche}}

{{See also|Søren Kierkegaard|Friedrich Nietzsche}}

[[Søren Kierkegaard]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] were two of the first philosophers considered fundamental to the existentialist movement, though neither used the term "existentialism" and it is unclear whether they would have supported the existentialism of the 20th century. They focused on subjective human experience rather than the objective truths of mathematics and science, which they believed were too detached or observational to truly get at the human experience. Like [[Blaise Pascal|Pascal]], they were interested in people's quiet struggle with the apparent meaninglessness of life and the use of diversion to escape from boredom. Unlike Pascal, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche also considered the role of making free choices, particularly regarding fundamental values and beliefs, and how such choices change the nature and identity of the chooser.<ref>Luper, Steven. "Existing". Mayfield Publishing, 2000, p.4–5 and 11</ref> Kierkegaard's [[knight of faith]] and Nietzsche's [[Übermensch]] are representative of people who exhibit [[Free will|Freedom]], in that they define the nature of their own existence. Nietzsche's idealized individual invents his own values and creates the very terms they excel under. By contrast, Kierkegaard, opposed to the level of abstraction in Hegel, and not nearly as hostile (actually welcoming) to Christianity as Nietzsche, argues through a pseudonym that the objective certainty of religious truths (specifically Christian) is not only impossible, but even founded on logical paradoxes. Yet he continues to imply that a [[leap of faith]] is a possible means for an individual to reach a higher stage of existence that transcends and contains both an aesthetic and ethical value of life. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were also precursors to other intellectual movements, including [[postmodernism]], and various strands of [[psychology]]. However, Kierkegaard believed that individuals should live in accordance with their thinking.

====Dostoyevsky====

{{Main|Fyodor Dostoyevsky}}

The first important literary author also important to existentialism was the Russian [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]].<ref>Hubben, William. ''Dostoyevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Kafka, Jabber-wacky'', Scribner, 1997.</ref> Dostoyevsky's ''[[Notes from Underground]]'' portrays a man unable to fit into society and unhappy with the identities he creates for himself. [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], in his book on existentialism ''[[Existentialism is a Humanism]]'', quoted Dostoyevsky's ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'' as an example of [[existential crisis]]. Sartre attributes Ivan Karamazov's claim, "If God did not exist, everything would be permitted"<ref>Sartre, Jean-Paul. ''Existentialism is a Humanism'' http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm ; Retrieved 2012-04-01.</ref> to Dostoyevsky himself. Other Dostoyevsky novels covered issues raised in existentialist philosophy while presenting story lines divergent from secular existentialism: for example, in ''[[Crime and Punishment]]'', the protagonist Raskolnikov experiences an existential crisis and then moves toward a Christian Orthodox worldview similar to that advocated by Dostoyevsky himself.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}

=== Early 20th century ===

{{See also|Martin Heidegger}}

In the first decades of the 20th century, a number of philosophers and writers explored existentialist ideas. The Spanish philosopher [[Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo]], in his 1913 book ''The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations'', emphasized the life of "flesh and bone" as opposed to that of abstract rationalism. Unamuno rejected systematic philosophy in favor of the individual's quest for faith. He retained a sense of the tragic, even absurd nature of the quest, symbolized by his enduring interest in [[Cervantes]]' fictional character [[Don Quixote]]. A novelist, poet and dramatist as well as philosophy professor at the University of Salamanca, Unamuno wrote a short story about a priest's crisis of faith, ''[[San Manuel Bueno, Mártir|Saint Manuel the Good, Martyr]]'', which has been collected in anthologies of existentialist fiction. Another Spanish thinker, [[Ortega y Gasset]], writing in 1914, held that human existence must always be defined as the individual person combined with the concrete circumstances of his life: "''Yo soy yo y mis circunstancias''" ("I am myself and my circumstances"). Sartre likewise believed that human existence is not an abstract matter, but is always situated, also many thought his plays were absurd ("''en situación''").

Although [[Martin Buber]] wrote his major philosophical works in German, and studied and taught at the Universities of Berlin and [[Frankfurt]], he stands apart from the mainstream of German philosophy. Born into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1878, he was also a scholar of Jewish culture and involved at various times in [[Zionism]] and [[Hasidism]]. In 1938, he moved permanently to [[Jerusalem]]. His best-known philosophical work was the short book [[I and Thou]], published in 1922. For Buber, the fundamental fact of human existence, too readily overlooked by scientific rationalism and abstract philosophical thought, is "man with man", a dialogue that takes place in the so-called "sphere of between" (''"das Zwischenmenschliche"'').<ref>Maurice S. Friedman, ''Martin Buber. The Life of Dialogue'' (University of Chicago press, 1955, page 85)</ref>

Two Ukrainian/Russian thinkers, [[Lev Shestov]] and [[Nikolai Berdyaev]], became well known as existentialist thinkers during their post-Revolutionary exiles in Paris. Shestov, born into a Ukrainian-Jewish family in Kiev, had launched an attack on rationalism and systematization in philosophy as early as 1905 in his book of aphorisms ''All Things Are Possible''.

Berdyaev, also from Kiev but with a background in the Eastern Orthodox Church, drew a radical distinction between the world of spirit and the everyday world of objects. Human freedom, for Berdyaev, is rooted in the realm of spirit, a realm independent of scientific notions of causation. To the extent the individual human being lives in the objective world, he is estranged from authentic spiritual freedom. "Man" is not to be interpreted naturalistically, but as a being created in God's image, an originator of free, creative acts.<ref>Ernst Breisach, ''Introduction to Modern Existentialism'', New York (1962), pages 173–176</ref> He published a major work on these themes, ''The Destiny of Man'', in 1931.

[[Gabriel Marcel]], long before coining the term "existentialism", introduced important existentialist themes to a French audience in his early essay "Existence and Objectivity" (1925) and in his ''Metaphysical Journal'' (1927).<ref name="Samuel M. Keen 1967">Samuel M. Keen, "Gabriel Marcel" in Paul Edwards (ed.) ''The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy'' (Macmillan Publishing Co, 1967)</ref> A dramatist as well as a philosopher, Marcel found his philosophical starting point in a condition of metaphysical alienation: the human individual searching for harmony in a transient life. Harmony, for Marcel, was to be sought through "secondary reflection", a "dialogical" rather than "dialectical" approach to the world, characterized by "wonder and astonishment" and open to the "presence" of other people and of God rather than merely to "information" about them. For Marcel, such presence implied more than simply being there (as one thing might be in the presence of another thing); it connoted "extravagant" availability, and the willingness to put oneself at the disposal of the other.<ref>John Macquarrie, ''Existentialism'' (Pelican, 1973, page 110)</ref>

Marcel contrasted ''secondary reflection'' with abstract, scientific-technical ''primary reflection'', which he associated with the activity of the abstract [[René Descartes|Cartesian]] ego. For Marcel, philosophy was a concrete activity undertaken by a sensing, feeling human being incarnate — embodied — in a concrete world.<ref name="Samuel M. Keen 1967"/><ref>John Macquarrie, ''Existentialism'' (Pelican, 1973, page 96)</ref> Although [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] adopted the term "existentialism" for his own philosophy in the 1940s, Marcel's thought has been described as "almost diametrically opposed" to that of Sartre.<ref name="Samuel M. Keen 1967"/> Unlike Sartre, Marcel was a Christian, and became a Catholic convert in 1929.

In Germany, the psychologist and philosopher [[Karl Jaspers]] — who later described existentialism as a "phantom" created by the public <ref>Karl Jaspers, "Philosophical Autobiography" in Paul Arthur Schilpp (ed.) ''The Philosophy of Karl Jaspers (The Library of Living Philosophers IX (Tudor Publishing Company, 1957, page 75/11)</ref> — called his own thought, heavily influenced by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, ''Existenzphilosophie''. For Jaspers, "''Existenz''-philosophy is the way of thought by means of which man seeks to become himself...This way of thought does not cognize objects, but elucidates and makes actual the being of the thinker."<ref>Karl Jaspers, "Philosophical Autobiography" in Paul Arthur Schilpp (ed.) ''The Philosophy of Karl Jaspers (The Library of Living Philosophers IX (Tudor Publishing Company, 1957, page 40)</ref>

Jaspers, a professor at the University of [[Heidelberg]], was acquainted with [[Martin Heidegger]], who held a professorship at [[Marburg]] before acceding to Husserl's chair at [[Freiburg]] in 1928. They held many philosophical discussions, but later became estranged over Heidegger's support of [[Nazism|National Socialism]]. They shared an admiration for Kierkegaard,<ref>Karl Jaspers, "Philosophical Autobiography" in Paul Arthur Schilpp (ed.) ''The Philosophy of Karl Jaspers (The Library of Living Philosophers IX (Tudor Publishing Company, 1957, page 75/2 and following)</ref> and in the 1930s, Heidegger lectured extensively on Nietzsche. Nevertheless, the extent to which Heidegger should be considered an existentialist is debatable. In ''[[Being and Time]]'' he presented a method of rooting philosophical explanations in human existence (''Dasein'') to be analysed in terms of existential categories (''existentiale''); and this has led many commentators to treat him as an important figure in the existentialist movement.

=== After the Second World War ===

{{See also|Jean-Paul Sartre}}

Following the [[Second World War]], existentialism became a well-known and significant philosophical and cultural movement, mainly through the public prominence of two French writers, [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] and [[Albert Camus]], who wrote best-selling novels, plays and widely read journalism as well as theoretical texts. These years also saw the growing reputation of Heidegger's book ''[[Being and Time]]'' outside of Germany.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}

[[File:Sartre and de Beauvoir at Balzac Memorial.jpg|thumb|left|upright|French philosophers [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] and [[Simone de Beauvoir]]]]

Sartre dealt with existentialist themes in his 1938 novel ''[[Nausea (novel)|Nausea]]'' and the short stories in his 1939 collection ''[[The Wall (book)|The Wall]]'', and had published his treatise on existentialism, ''[[Being and Nothingness]]'', in 1943, but it was in the two years following the liberation of Paris from the German occupying forces that he and his close associates — Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and others — became internationally famous as the leading figures of a movement known as existentialism.<ref name="Ronald Aronson 2004">Ronald Aronson, ''Camus and Sartre'' (University of Chicago Press, 2004, chapter 3 ''passim'')</ref> In a very short space of time, Camus and Sartre in particular became the leading public intellectuals of post-war France, achieving by the end of 1945 "a fame that reached across all audiences."<ref>Ronald Aronson, ''Camus and Sartre'' (University of Chicago Press, 2004, page 44)</ref> Camus was an editor of the most popular leftist (former [[French Resistance]]) newspaper ''[[Combat (newspaper)|Combat]]''; Sartre launched his journal of leftist thought, ''[[Les Temps Modernes]]'', and two weeks later gave the widely reported lecture on existentialism and [[secular humanism]] to a packed meeting of the Club Maintenant. Beauvoir wrote that "not a week passed without the newspapers discussing us";<ref>Simone de Beauvoir, ''Force of Circumstance'', quoted in Ronald Aronson, ''Camus and Sartre'' (University of Chicago Press, 2004, page 48)</ref> existentialism became "the first media craze of the postwar era."<ref>Ronald Aronson, ''Camus and Sartre'' (University of Chicago Press, 2004, page 48)</ref>

By the end of 1947, Camus' earlier fiction and plays had been reprinted, his new play ''[[Caligula (play)|Caligula]]'' had been performed and his novel ''[[The Plague]]'' published; the first two novels of Sartre's ''[[The Roads to Freedom]]'' trilogy had appeared, as had Beauvoir's novel ''[[The Blood of Others]]''. Works by Camus and Sartre were already appearing in foreign editions. The Paris-based existentialists had become famous.<ref name="Ronald Aronson 2004"/>

Sartre had traveled to Germany in 1930 to study the [[phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] of [[Edmund Husserl]] and [[Martin Heidegger]],<ref>Rüdiger Safranski, ''Martin Heidgger — Between Good and Evil'' (Harvard University Press, 1998, page 343</ref> and he included critical comments on their work in his major treatise ''[[Being and Nothingness]]''. Heidegger's thought had also become known in French philosophical circles through its use by [[Alexandre Kojève]] in explicating Hegel in a series of lectures given in Paris in the 1930s.<ref>Entry on Kojève in Martin Cohen (editor), ''The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics''(Hodder Arnold, 2006, page 158); see also Alexandre Kojève, ''Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit'' (Cornell University Press, 1980)</ref> The lectures were highly influential; members of the audience included not only Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, but [[Raymond Queneau]], [[Georges Bataille]], [[Louis Althusser]], [[André Breton]], and [[Jacques Lacan]].<ref>Entry on Kojève in Martin Cohen (editor), ''The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics''(Hodder Arnold, 2006, page 158)</ref> A selection from Heidegger's ''[[Being and Time]]'' was published in French in 1938, and his essays began to appear in French philosophy journals.

[[File:Albert Camus, gagnant de prix Nobel, portrait en buste, posé au bureau, faisant face à gauche, cigarette de tabagisme.jpg|thumb|upright|French-Algerian philosopher, novelist, and playwright [[Albert Camus]]]]

Heidegger read Sartre's work and was initially impressed, commenting: "Here for the first time I encountered an independent thinker who, from the foundations up, has experienced the area out of which I think. Your work shows such an immediate comprehension of my philosophy as I have never before encountered."<ref>Martin Hediegger, letter, quoted in Rüdiger Safranski, ''Martin Heidgger — Between Good and Evil'' (Harvard University Press, 1998, page 349)</ref> Later, however, in response to a question posed by his French follower [[Jean Beaufret]],<ref>Rüdiger Safranski, ''Martin Heidegger — Between Good and Evil'' (Harvard University Press, 1998, page 356)</ref> Heidegger distanced himself from Sartre's position and existentialism in general in his ''Letter on Humanism''.<ref>William J. Richardson, ''Martin Heidegger: From Phenomenology to Thought'' (Martjinus Nijhoff,1967, page 351)</ref> Heidegger's reputation continued to grow in France during the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1960s, Sartre attempted to reconcile existentialism and [[Marxism]] in his work ''[[Critique of Dialectical Reason]]''. A major theme throughout his writings was freedom and responsibility.

Camus was a friend of Sartre, until their falling-out, and wrote several works with existential themes including ''[[The Rebel (book)|The Rebel]]'', ''[[The Stranger (novel)|The Stranger]]'', ''[[The Myth of Sisyphus]]'', and ''Summer in Algiers''. Camus, like many others, rejected the existentialist label, and considered his works concerned with facing the absurd. In the titular book, Camus uses the analogy of the Greek myth of [[Sisyphus]] to demonstrate the futility of existence. In the myth, Sisyphus is condemned for eternity to roll a rock up a hill, but when he reaches the summit, the rock will roll to the bottom again. Camus believes that this existence is pointless but that Sisyphus ultimately finds meaning and purpose in his task, simply by continually applying himself to it. The first half of the book contains an extended rebuttal of what Camus took to be existentialist philosophy in the works of Kierkegaard, Shestov, Heidegger, and Jaspers.

[[Simone de Beauvoir]], an important existentialist who spent much of her life as Sartre's partner, wrote about feminist and existentialist ethics in her works, including ''[[The Second Sex]]'' and ''[[The Ethics of Ambiguity]]''. Although often overlooked due to her relationship with Sartre,<ref name = Bergoffen-SEoP>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauvoir/|title=Simone de Beauvoir|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |author=Bergoffen, Debra|date=September2010}}</ref> de Beauvoir integrated existentialism with other forms of thinking such as feminism, unheard of at the time, resulting in alienation from fellow writers such as Camus.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}}

[[Paul Tillich]], an important existentialist theologian following Kierkegaard and [[Karl Barth]], applied existentialist concepts to [[Christian theology]], and helped introduce [[neo-orthodoxy|existential theology]] to the general public. His seminal work ''The Courage to Be'' follows Kierkegaard's analysis of anxiety and life's absurdity, but puts forward the thesis that modern humans must, via God, achieve selfhood in spite of life's absurdity. [[Rudolf Bultmann]] used Kierkegaard's and Heidegger's philosophy of existence to demythologize Christianity by interpreting Christian mythical concepts into existentialist concepts.

[[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]], an [[existential phenomenology|existential phenomenologist]], was for a time a companion of Sartre. His understanding of [[Husserl]]'s [[phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] was far greater than that of Merleau-Ponty's fellow existentialists.{{vague|date=January 2011}} It has been said that his work ''Humanism and Terror'' greatly influenced Sartre. However, in later years they were to disagree irreparably, dividing many existentialists such as de Beauvoir,{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} who sided with Sartre.

[[Colin Wilson]], an English writer, published his study ''[[The Outsider (Colin Wilson)|The Outsider]]'' in 1956, initially to critical acclaim. In this book and others (e.g. ''Introduction to the New Existentialism''), he attempted to reinvigorate what he perceived as a pessimistic philosophy and bring it to a wider audience. He was not, however, academically trained, and his work was attacked by professional philosophers for lack of rigor and critical standards.<ref>K. Gunnar Bergström, ''An Odyssey to Freedom'' University of Uppsala, 1983, page 92;Colin Stanley, ''Colin Wilson, a Celebration: Essays and Recollections'' Cecil Woolf, 1988, page 43)</ref>

== Influence outside philosophy ==

=== Art ===

==== Film and television ====

The French director [[Jean Genet]]'s 1950 fantasy-erotic film ''[[Un chant d'amour]]'' shows two inmates in solitary cells whose only contact is through a hole in their cell wall, who are spied on by the prison warden. Reviewer James Travers calls the film a, "...visual poem evoking homosexual desire and existentialist suffering," which "...&nbsp;conveys the bleakness of an existence in a godless universe with painful believability"; he calls it "...&nbsp;probably the most effective fusion of existentialist philosophy and cinema."<ref>© James Travers 2005 [http://archive.is/20130122234248/http://filmsdefrance.com/FDF_Un_chant_d_amour_rev.html google search]</ref>

[[Stanley Kubrick]]'s 1957 anti-war film ''[[Paths of Glory]]'' "illustrates, and even illuminates...existentialism" by examining the "necessary absurdity of the human condition" and the "horror of war".<ref name=Holt2007>Holt, Jason. "Existential Ethics: Where do the Paths of Glory Lead?". In ''The Philosophy of Stanley Kubr''ick. By Jerold J. Abrams. Published 2007. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2445-X</ref> The film tells the story of a fictional World War I French army regiment ordered to attack an impregnable German stronghold; when the attack fails, three soldiers are chosen at random, court-martialed by a "kangaroo court", and executed by firing squad. The film examines existentialist ethics, such as the issue of whether objectivity is possible and the "problem of authenticity".<ref name=Holt2007/>

[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]], commonly referred to as Evangelion or Eva, is a Japanese science-fiction animation series created by the anime studio Gainax and was both directed and written by [[Hideaki Anno]]. Existential themes of individuality, consciousness, freedom, choice, and responsibility are heavily relied upon throughout the entire series, particularly through the philosophies of [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] and [[Søren Kierkegaard]]. Episode 16's title, {{Nihongo|"The Sickness Unto Death, And…"|死に至る病、そして|Shi ni itaru yamai, soshite}} is a reference to Kierkegaard's book, ''[[The Sickness Unto Death]]''.

On the lighter side, the British comedy troupe [[Monty Python]] have explored existentialist themes throughout their works, from many of the sketches in their original television show, ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', to their 1983 film ''[[Monty Python's The Meaning of Life]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amazon.com/Films-with-an-Existential-Theme/lm/2XUY93GON1RKW|title=Amazon.com's Films with an Existential Theme|accessdate=2009-02-02}}</ref>

Some contemporary films dealing with existentialist issues include ''[[Fight Club]]'', ''[[I Heart Huckabees|I ♥ Huckabees]]'', ''[[Waking Life]]'', ''[[The Matrix]]'', ''[[Ordinary People]]'', and ''[[Life in a Day (2011 film)|Life in a Day]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.existential-therapy.com/Arts/Movies.htm |title=Existential & Psychological Movie Recommendations |publisher=Existential-therapy.com |date= |accessdate=2010-03-08}}</ref> Likewise, films throughout the 20th century such as ''[[The Seventh Seal]]'', ''[[Ikiru]]'', ''[[Taxi Driver]]'','' [[Toy Story]]'', ''[[Harold and Maude]]'', ''[[High Noon]]'', ''[[Easy Rider]]'', ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)|One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'', ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]'', ''[[Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day]]'', ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'', ''[[Badlands (film)|Badlands]]'', and ''[[Blade Runner]]'' also have existentialist qualities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/BEAUCHEMI/ |title=Existentialism in Film |publisher=Uhaweb.hartford.edu |date= |accessdate=2010-03-08}}</ref>

''The Matrix'' has been compared with another movie, ''[[Dark City (1998 film)|Dark City]]''<ref>http://www.weirdpro.com/?page_id=656</ref> where the issues of identity and reality are raised. In ''Dark City'', the inhabitants of the city are situated in a world controlled by [[demiurge]]s, much like the prisoners in [[Allegory of the Cave|Plato's cave]], in which prisoners see a world of shadows reflected onto a cave wall, rather than the world as it actually is.<ref>http://jaysanalysis.com/tag/demiurge/</ref>

Musician-Popular Film Artist [[John Lennon]]'s ''God'' models existentialist ideals. Lennon says, "God is a concept by which we measure our pain...I just believe in me."

Notable directors known for their existentialist films include [[Ingmar Bergman]], [[François Truffaut]], [[Jean-Luc Godard]], [[Michelangelo Antonioni]], [[Akira Kurosawa]], [[Terrence Malick]], [[Stanley Kubrick]], [[Andrei Tarkovsky]], [[Hideaki Anno]], [[Wes Anderson]], [[Woody Allen]], and [[Christopher Nolan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2005winter/existential.html |title=Existentialist Adaptations - Harvard Film Archive |publisher=Hcl.harvard.edu |date= |accessdate=2010-03-08}}</ref> [[Charlie Kaufman]]'s ''[[Synecdoche, New York]]'' focuses on the protagonist's desire to find existential meaning.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-synecdoche24-2008oct24,0,5252277.story|title=Review: 'Synecdoche, New York'|accessdate=2008-11-17 | work=Los Angeles Times | first=Carina | last=Chocano | date=2008-10-24}}</ref> Similarly, in Kurosawa's ''[[Red Beard]]'', the protagonist's experiences as an intern in a rural health clinic in Japan lead him to an [[existential crisis]] whereby he questions his reason for being. This, in turn, leads him to a better understanding of humanity.

Recently released French film, ''[[Mood Indigo (film)|Mood Indigo]]'' (directed by [[Michel Gondry]]) embraced various elements of existentialism.

==== Literature ====

Existential perspectives are also found in literature to varying degrees since 1922. [[Louis-Ferdinand Céline]]'s ''[[Journey to the End of the Night]]'' (Voyage au bout de la nuit, 1932) celebrated by both Sartre and Beauvoir, contained many of the themes that would be found in later existential literature, and is in some ways, the proto-existential novel. Jean-Paul Sartre's 1938 novel ''[[Nausea (novel)|Nausea]]''<ref name=SartreNausea>{{Cite journal| first= Jean-Paul| last= Sartre| coauthor=(Translated by [[Robert Baldick]])| title= Nausea| place= London| publisher= Penguin| year= 2000. First published 1938| page= | isbn=| postscript= <!--None--> }}</ref> was "steeped in Existential ideas", and is considered an accessible way of grasping his philosophical stance.<ref name=Earnshaw2006>{{Cite book| first= Steven| last= Earnshaw| author-link=| title = Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed| place= London| publisher= Continuum| year= 2006| page= 75| isbn= 0-8264-8530-8| postscript= <!--None-->}}</ref> Between 1910 and 1960, other authors such as [[Albert Camus]], [[Franz Kafka]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[T.S. Eliot]], [[Herman Hesse]] and [[Jack Kerouac]], composed literature or poetry that contained, to varying degrees, elements of existential or proto-existential thought. Since the late 1960s, a great deal of cultural activity in literature contains [[postmodernism|postmodernist]] as well as existential elements. Books such as ''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]'' (1968) (now republished as ''[[Blade Runner]]'') by [[Philip K. Dick]], ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]'' by [[Kurt Vonnegut]], and ''[[Fight Club (novel)|Fight Club]]'' by [[Chuck Palahniuk]] all distort the line between reality and appearance while simultaneously espousing existential themes. Ideas from such writers as [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], [[Michel Foucault]], [[Franz Kafka]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Søren Kierkegaard]], [[Herbert Marcuse]], [[Gilles Deleuze]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], and [[Eduard von Hartmann]] permeate the works of modern novelists such as [[Chuck Palahniuk]], [[Crispin Glover]], [[Andrew Hussie]], and [[Charles Bukowski]], and one often finds in their works a delicate balance between distastefulness and beauty.

==== Theatre ====

[[Jean-Paul Sartre]] wrote ''[[No Exit]]'' in [[1944 in literature|1944]], an existentialist [[play (theatre)|play]] originally published in French as ''Huis Clos'' (meaning ''[[wikt:in camera|In Camera]]'' or "behind closed doors"), which is the source of the popular quote, "Hell is other people." (In French, "L'enfer, c'est les autres"). The play begins with a Valet leading a man into a room that the audience soon realizes is in hell. Eventually he is joined by two women. After their entry, the Valet leaves and the door is shut and locked. All three expect to be tortured, but no torturer arrives. Instead, they realize they are there to torture each other, which they do effectively by probing each other's sins, desires, and unpleasant memories.

Existentialist themes are displayed in the [[Theatre of the Absurd]], notably in [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', in which two men divert themselves while they wait expectantly for someone (or something) named Godot who never arrives. They claim Godot is an acquaintance, but in fact, hardly know him, admitting they would not recognize him if they saw him. Samuel Beckett, once asked who or what Godot is, replied, "If I knew, I would have said so in the play." To occupy themselves, the men eat, sleep, talk, argue, sing, play games, [[Physical exercise|exercise]], swap hats, and contemplate [[suicide]]—anything "to hold the terrible silence at bay".<ref>''The Times'', 31 December 1964. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p 57</ref> The play "exploits several archetypal forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and [[pathos]]."<ref>Cronin, A., ''Samuel Beckett The Last Modernist'' (London: Flamingo, 1997), p 391</ref> The play also illustrates an attitude toward human experience on earth: the poignancy, oppression, camaraderie, hope, corruption, and bewilderment of human experience that can be reconciled only in the mind and art of the absurdist. The play examines questions such as death, the [[Meaning of life (philosophy)#Existentialism|meaning of human existence]] and the place of God in human existence.

[[Tom Stoppard]]'s ''[[Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead]]'' is an [[Theatre of the Absurd|absurdist]] [[tragicomedy]] first staged at the [[Edinburgh Festival Fringe]] in 1966.<ref name="Chrono">{{cite web | author= Michael H. Hutchins | title=A Tom Stoppard Bibliography: Chronology | work=The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide | url=http://www.sondheimguide.com/Stoppard/chronology.html | date=14 August 2006 | accessdate=2008-06-23}}</ref> The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] ''[[Hamlet]]''. Comparisons have also been drawn to [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Waiting For Godot]]'', for the presence of two central characters who appear almost as two halves of a single character. Many plot features are similar as well: the characters pass time by playing [[Questions (game)|Questions]], impersonating other characters, and interrupting each other or remaining silent for long periods of time. The two characters are portrayed as two clowns or fools in a world beyond their understanding. They stumble through philosophical arguments while not realizing the implications, and muse on the irrationality and randomness of the world.

[[Jean Anouilh]]'s ''[[Antigone (Anouilh play)|Antigone]]'' also presents arguments founded on existentialist ideas.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wren|first=Celia |date= 12 December 2007 |title= From Forum, an Earnest and Painstaking 'Antigone' |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/11/AR2007121102254.html |publisher=Washington Post |accessdate=2008-04-07}}</ref> It is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name (Antigone, by Sophocles) from the 5th century BC. In English, it is often distinguished from its antecedent by being pronounced in its original French form, approximately "Ante-GŌN." The play was first performed in Paris on 6 February 1944, during the Nazi occupation of France. Produced under Nazi censorship, the play is purposefully ambiguous with regards to the rejection of authority (represented by Antigone) and the acceptance of it (represented by Creon). The parallels to the French Resistance and the Nazi occupation have been drawn. Antigone rejects life as desperately meaningless but without affirmatively choosing a noble death. The crux of the play is the lengthy dialogue concerning the nature of power, fate, and choice, during which Antigone says that she is, "...&nbsp;disgusted with [the]...promise of a humdrum happiness." She states that she would rather die than live a mediocre existence.

Critic [[Martin Esslin]] in his book ''Theatre of the Absurd'' pointed out how many contemporary playwrights such as [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Eugène Ionesco]], [[Jean Genet]], and [[Arthur Adamov]] wove into their plays the existentialist belief that we are absurd beings loose in a universe empty of real meaning. Esslin noted that many of these playwrights demonstrated the philosophy better than did the plays by Sartre and Camus. Though most of such playwrights, subsequently labeled "Absurdist" (based on Esslin's book), denied affiliations with existentialism and were often staunchly anti-philosophical (for example Ionesco often claimed he identified more with [['Pataphysics]] or with [[Surrealism]] than with existentialism), the playwrights are often linked to existentialism based on Esslin's observation.<ref>Kernan, Alvin B. ''The Modern American Theater: A Collection of Critical Essays''. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: [[Prentice-Hall]], 1967.</ref>

=== Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy ===

{{Main|Existential therapy}}

A major offshoot of existentialism as a philosophy is existentialist psychology and psychoanalysis, which first crystallized in the work of [[Otto Rank]], Freud's closest associate for 20 years. Without awareness of the writings of Rank, [[Ludwig Binswanger]] was influenced by [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]], [[Edmund Husserl]], [[Martin Heidegger|Heidegger]], and [[Jean-Paul Sartre|Sartre]]. A later figure was [[Viktor Frankl]], who briefly met [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]] and studied with [[Carl Jung|Jung]] as a young man.<ref>[http://www.logotherapie-international.eu/Frankl-Jung.English%20summary.pdf?2f569316a8c0d70a23e25e57788725a0=877b85765d9546f605211252412792ec Logotherapie-international.eu]</ref> His [[logotherapy]] can be regarded as a form of existentialist therapy. The existentialists would also influence [[social psychology]], antipositivist micro-[[sociology]], [[symbolic interactionism]], and [[post-structuralism]], with the work of thinkers such as [[Georg Simmel]]<ref>Stewart, Jon. ''Kierkegaard and Existentialism''. p.38</ref> and [[Michel Foucault]]. Foucault was a great reader of Kierkegaard even though he almost never refers this author, who nonetheless had for him an importance as secret as it was decisive.<ref>Flynn, Thomas R. ''Sartre, Foucault, and Historical Reason'', p. 323.</ref>

An early contributor to existentialist psychology in the United States was [[Rollo May]], who was strongly influenced by [[Kierkegaard]] and [[Otto Rank]]. One of the most prolific writers on techniques and theory of existentialist psychology in the USA is [[Irvin D. Yalom]]. Yalom states that

<blockquote>

Aside from their reaction against Freud's mechanistic, deterministic model of the mind and their assumption of a phenomenological approach in therapy, the existentialist analysts have little in common and have never been regarded as a cohesive ideological school. These thinkers - who include Ludwig Binswanger, [[Medard Boss]], [[Eugène Minkowski]], V.E. Gebsattel, Roland Kuhn, G. Caruso, F.T. Buytendijk, G. Bally and Victor Frankl - were almost entirely unknown to the American psychotherapeutic community until Rollo May's highly influential 1985 book ''Existence'' - and especially his introductory essay - introduced their work into this country.<ref name=Yalom1980>{{Cite book| first= Irvin D.| last= Yalom| author-link= Irvin D. Yalom| title = Existential Psychotherapy| place= New York| publisher= BasicBooks (Subsidiary of Perseus Books, L.L.C.| year= 1980| page= 17| isbn= 0-465-02147-6| postscript= <!--None-->}} Note: The copyright year has not changed, but the book remains in print.</ref>

</blockquote>

A more recent contributor to the development of a European version of existentialist psychotherapy is the British-based [[Emmy van Deurzen]].

Anxiety's importance in existentialism makes it a popular topic in [[psychotherapy]]. Therapists often offer existentialist [[philosophy]] as an explanation for anxiety. The assertion is that anxiety is manifested of an individual's complete freedom to decide, and complete responsibility for the outcome of such decisions. Psychotherapists using an existentialist approach believe that a patient can harness his anxiety and use it constructively. Instead of suppressing anxiety, patients are advised to use it as grounds for change. By embracing anxiety as inevitable, a person can use it to achieve his full potential in life. [[Humanistic psychology]] also had major impetus from existentialist psychology and shares many of the fundamental tenets. [[Terror management theory]], based on the writings of [[Ernest Becker]] and [[Otto Rank]], is a developing area of study within the academic study of psychology. It looks at what researchers claim are implicit emotional reactions of people confronted with the knowledge that they will eventually die.

== Criticisms ==

===General criticisms===

[[Logical positivists|Logical positivist]] philosophers, such as [[Rudolf Carnap]] and [[Alfred Ayer]], assert that existentialists are often confused about the verb "to be" in their analyses of "being".<ref name="Carnap, Rudolf 1932 pp.219">Carnap, Rudolf, ''Uberwindung der Metaphysik durch logische Analyse der Sprache'' [''Overcoming Metaphysics by the Logical Analysis of Speech''], Erkenntnis (1932), pp.219–241. Carnap's critique of Heidegger's "What is Metaphysics".

</ref> Specifically, they argue that the verb is transitive and pre-fixed to a [[predicate (grammar)|predicate]] (e.g., an apple ''is red'') (without a predicate, the word is meaningless), and that existentialists frequently misuse the term in this manner.

[[Raymond Aron]] was a leader among those that did not embrace existentialism and considered themselves [[rational humanist]]s.<ref name="Carruth1993p932">Carruth, Gorton (1993) ''The encyclopedia of world facts and dates'', [http://books.google.com/books?id=zHwRAQAAMAAJ p.932]</ref><ref>Aron (1994) ''In Defense of Political Reason'', p.170 as quoted in Brian C. Anderson ''Raymond Aron: the recovery of the political'', [http://books.google.com/books?id=R_pN217buekC&pg=PA170 p.170]</ref>

===Sartre's philosophy===

Many critics argue Sartre's philosophy is contradictory. Specifically, they argue that Sartre makes metaphysical arguments despite his claiming that his philosophical views ignore metaphysics. [[Herbert Marcuse]] criticized ''[[Being and Nothingness]]'' (1943) by [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] for projecting anxiety and meaninglessness onto the nature of existence itself: "Insofar as Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine, it remains an idealistic doctrine: it [[hypostatic abstraction|hypostatizes]] specific historical conditions of human existence into ontological and metaphysical characteristics. Existentialism thus becomes part of the very ideology which it attacks, and its radicalism is illusory".<ref name=Marcuse1972>

Marcuse, Herbert. "Sartre's Existentialism". Printed in ''Studies in Critical Philosophy''. Translated by Joris De Bres. London: NLB, 1972. p. 161

</ref>

In ''Letter on Humanism'', Heidegger criticized Sartre's existentialism:

<blockquote>Existentialism says existence precedes essence. In this statement he is taking ''existentia'' and ''essentia'' according to their metaphysical meaning, which, from Plato's time on, has said that ''essentia'' precedes ''existentia''. Sartre reverses this statement. But the reversal of a metaphysical statement remains a metaphysical statement. With it, he stays with metaphysics, in oblivion of the truth of Being.<ref>Martin Heidegger, "Letter on Humanism", in ''Basic Writings: Nine Key Essays, plus the Introduction to ''Being and Time'' '', trans. David Farrell Krell (London, Routledge; 1978), 208. [http://books.google.com/books?id=kVc9AAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA208&ots=Wd-UQTTzCG&dq=But%20the%20reversal%20of%20a%20metaphysical%20statement%20remains%20a%20metaphysical%20statement.%20With%20it%2C%20he%20stays%20with%20metaphysics%2C%20in%20oblivion%20of%20the%20truth%20of%20Being.&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q=But%20the%20reversal%20of%20a%20metaphysical%20statement%20remains%20a%20metaphysical%20statement.%20With%20it,%20he%20stays%20with%20metaphysics,%20in%20oblivion%20of%20the%20truth%20of%20Being.&f=false Google Books]</ref></blockquote>

== See also ==

{{Columns-list|3|

* [[Abandonment (existentialism)]]

* [[Absurdism]]

* [[Atheist existentialism]]

* [[Christian existentialism]]

* [[Disenchantment]]

* [[Existentiell]]

* [[List of existentialists]]

* [[Meaning (existential)]]

* [[phenomenology (philosophy)|Phenomenology]]

}}

== Notes ==

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== References ==

{{refbegin}}

* {{Cite book|title=Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination|first=Mehdi Amin|last=Razavi|year=1997|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=0-7007-0412-4|postscript=<!--None-->}}

* Albert Camus Lyrical and Critical essays. Edited by Philip Thody (interviev with Jeanie Delpech, in Les Nouvelles litteraires, November 15, 1945). pg 345

{{refend}}

== Further reading ==

{{refbegin}}

* {{cite book|last=Appignanesi|first=Richard|coauthors=and [[Oscar Zarate]]|title=Introducing Existentialism|year=2001|publisher=Icon|location=Cambridge, UK|isbn=1-84046-266-3}}

* {{cite book|last=Appignanesi|first=Richard|title=Introducing Existentialism|year=2006|edition=3rd|publisher=Icon Books (UK), Totem Books (USA)|location=Thriplow, Cambridge|isbn=1-84046-717-7}}

* {{cite book|last=Cooper|first=David E.|title=Existentialism: A Reconstruction|year=1999|edition=2nd|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=0-631-21322-8}}

* {{cite book|last=Deurzen|first=Emmy van|title=Everyday Mysteries: a Handbook of Existential Psychotherapy|year=2010|edition=2nd|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-37643-3}}

* Fallico, Arthuro B. (1962). ''Art & Existentialism''. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

* {{cite book|title=Attack Upon Christendom |year=1855|first=Søren |last=Kierkegaard}}

* {{cite book|title=The Concept of Anxiety |year=1843|first=Søren |last=Kierkegaard}}

* {{cite book|title=Concluding Unscientific Postscript |year=1846|first=Søren |last=Kierkegaard}}

* {{cite book|title=Either/Or |year=1843|first=Søren |last=Kierkegaard}}

* {{cite book|title=Fear and Trembling |year=1843|first=Søren |last=Kierkegaard}}

* {{cite book|title=The Sickness Unto Death |year=1849|first=Søren |last=Kierkegaard}}

* {{cite book|title=Works of Love |year=1847|first=Søren |last=Kierkegaard}}

* {{cite book|last=Luper|first=Steven (ed.)|title=Existing: An Introduction to Existential Thought|year=2000|publisher=Mayfield|location=Mountain View, California|isbn=0-7674-0587-0}}

* {{cite book|last=Marino|first=Gordon (ed.)|title=Basic Writings of Existentialism|year=2004|publisher=Modern Library|location=New York|isbn=0-375-75989-1}}

* {{cite book|title=Phenomenology of Perception |year=1962|first=M. |last=Merleau-Ponty |location=New York |publisher= Routledge and Kegan Paul |trans_title= Colin Smith}}

* {{cite book|title=Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/nihilism.html|last=Rose |first=Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) |authorlink=Seraphim Rose|publisher= Saint Herman Press (1 September 1994) |isbn=0-938635-15-8|year=1994}}

* {{cite book|title=Being and Nothingness |year=1943|first=Jean-Paul |last=Sartre }}

* {{cite book|title=Existentialism and Humanism |year=1945|first=Jean-Paul |last=Sartre }}

* {{cite book|last=Stewart|first=Jon (ed.)|title=Kierkegaard and Existentialism|year=2011|publisher=Ashgate|location=Farnham, England|isbn=978-1-4094-2641-7}}

* {{cite book|last=Solomon|first=Robert C. (ed.)|authorlink=Robert C. Solomon|title=Existentialism|year=2005|edition=2nd|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0-19-517463-1}}

* {{cite book|title=Existentialism: A Beginner's Guide |first=Thomas E. |last=Wartenberg }}

{{refend}}

== External links ==

;Introductions

* {{IEP|existent}}

* {{In Our Time|Existentialism|p00547h8|Existentialism}}

* [http://www.friesian.com/existent.htm Friesian interpretation of Existentialism]

* {{SEP|existentialism|Existentialism|Steven Crowell}}

* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm "Existentialism is a Humanism", a lecture given by Jean-Paul Sartre]

* [http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/ ''The Existential Primer'']

* [http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann/waking_essay.htm Buddhists, Existentialists and Situationists: Waking up in Waking Life]

* [http://philpapers.org/rec/BRATE-2 The Existence, All I know, only I know: the analysis of self-consciousness]

;Journals and articles

* [http://www.stirrings-still.org Stirrings Still]: The International Journal of Existential Literature

* [http://www.existentialanalysis.co.uk Existential Analysis] published by The Society for Existential Analysis

;Existential psychotherapy

* [http://www.existentialpsychotherapy.net International Society for Existential Therapy]

* [http://hpsy.ru/eng/ HPSY.RU — Existential & humanistic psychology] History of existential psychology's development in former Soviet nations

;Videos

* {{YouTube|S7HVfxq4l-8|Existential Theory of Quality Teaching and Learning}}

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