Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the individual. It maintains that each individual makes choices and possesses the freedom to make those choices despite their environment. This freedom comes with personal responsibility for the choices the individual makes. The consequences of making these choices results in consequences that can be positive or negative (Burnham and Papandreopoulus 2015).
The existentialist movement is representative of a loosely knit group of philosophers and writers who emerged in the nineteenth century and twentieth century. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a Danish philosopher and writer promoted the idea that truth is personal. Truth is different for different people (Burnham and Papandreopoulus 2015). Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) introduced the idea that humans give meaning to their existence and the existence of the world around them. Humans decide the morals that occur in different situations, morals are personal not societal (Burnham and Papandreopoulus 2015).
Martin Heidigger (1889-1976) published the book, Being and Time (1927) which defined several ideas associated with existentialism. Humans define their being through their actions. The sciences look to describe things such as man but cannot adequately do so. Despite his contributions to the movement, he did not consider himself an existential philosopher (Burnham and Papandreopoulus 2015).
Existentialism grew in popularity in the mid twentieth century due to the work of Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and Albert Camus (1913-1960). Sartre is the most famous of the existentialist. His book, Being and Nothingness (1943) and his play, No Exit (1944) brought the movement to popular culture. Camus was a writer and did not consider himself a philosopher, but many of his works exemplify the ideas associated with existentialism. In The Myth of Sisyphus (1946), he retells the story of the Greek myth. Sisyphus is forced to spend eternity rolling a rock up a mountain and it rolls back down every time. Despite the seeming futility of this endeavor, he finds meaning in his life (Burnham and Papandreopoulus 2015).
References
Burnham, D. & Papandreopoulus. Existentialism. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Retrieved: 1 July 2015, http://www.iep.utm.edu/existent/.
