Existentialism

framework · philosophy · philosophical-tradition

Existence precedes essence; meaning is created through choice, freedom, and responsibility.

Existentialism is the philosophical tradition emphasizing the priority of individual existence — concrete, situated, freely choosing human existence — over abstract essence or universal nature. Soren Kierkegaard (mid-19th century) and Friedrich Nietzsche (late 19th century) are the principal precursors, with the explicitly named existentialist movement emerging in 20th-century continental philosophy through Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger (Being and Time 1927), Jean-Paul Sartre (Being and Nothingness 1943), Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex 1949), Albert Camus (The Myth of Sisyphus 1942), and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Sartre's slogan 'existence precedes essence' captures the framework's distinctive commitment: humans first exist, encounter themselves, surge up in the world, and only then define themselves through choice, distinguishing humans from objects or natural beings whose essence (purpose, defining nature) precedes existence. Other recurring themes include radical freedom and the responsibility it produces (Sartre's 'condemned to be free'); authenticity vs bad faith (Sartre); being-toward-death and care (Heidegger); the absurd (Camus); and the inherent embodied situatedness of consciousness (Merleau-Ponty). Existentialism has had substantial influence on 20th-century literature, theology (Tillich, Bultmann, Marcel), psychotherapy (Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, Irvin Yalom), and Western culture more broadly.

Originators

Kierkegaard and Nietzsche (precursors); 20th-century existentialists including Heidegger, Jaspers, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, Merleau-Ponty, Marcel high

Year / Decade

Mid-19th century precursors (Kierkegaard); 1927 (Heidegger Being and Time); 1943 (Sartre Being and Nothingness); 1945-60s (cultural peak) high

Primary sources

Kierkegaard, S. (1843, 1844, 1849). Various works, Nietzsche, F. (1883-1888). Various works, Heidegger, M. (1927). Being and Time, Sartre, J.-P. (1943). Being and Nothingness, de Beauvoir, S. (1949). The Second Sex, Camus, A. (1942). The Myth of Sisyphus high

Core components

Existence precedes essence (Sartre)
Radical freedom and responsibility
Authenticity vs bad faith
Being-toward-death (Heidegger)
The absurd (Camus)
Anxiety/angst as encounter with freedom
Embodied situated consciousness (Merleau-Ponty)
Beauvoir's situated ethics and feminist existentialism
Theistic vs atheistic variants (Kierkegaard, Marcel vs Sartre, Camus)

Primary use case

20th-century continental philosophy, with continuing influence; existential psychotherapy (Frankl's logotherapy, Yalom's existential psychotherapy); theology (Tillich, Bultmann); literature (Sartre, Camus, Beckett, Kafka adjacent); cultural framing for individual freedom and authenticity; foundation for some contemporary phenomenology and embodied-cognition work.

Common criticisms

Diverse tradition that resists single definition — Heidegger explicitly rejected 'existentialist' label
Sartre's emphasis on radical individual freedom underweights social, structural, and embodied constraints (de Beauvoir addressed some of this within the tradition)
'authenticity' framing can rationalize self-indulgence and ignore obligation
popular existentialism (1960s cultural moment) often reduced complex philosophical positions to slogans
Heidegger's Nazi engagement raised lasting questions about the ethical implications of his philosophy
Sartre's later Marxism complicated his earlier individualist framing
the tradition's focus on dramatic confrontation with anxiety and freedom may be culturally specific to mid-20th-century European bourgeois experience.

Lineage

Siblings: Phenomenology