Existentialism

Existentialism is a philosophical movement, and later a literary current, centred on concrete human existence: the individual's condition, freedom, responsibility, emotions and the question of life's meaning in the face of anguish and the apparent absurdity of the world. Its best-known thesis holds that existence precedes essence: human beings are not born with a fixed nature that determines them, but define themselves through their actions and choices.

The term has a complicated history. Its origins are usually traced to Søren Kierkegaard, who in the nineteenth century criticised systematic rationalism and asserted subjective experience and the personal search for truth. Friedrich Nietzsche, with his critique of traditional morality and his call to create one's own values, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, with his novels on guilt, freedom and faith, are also cited as forerunners. The word itself, however, did not become widespread until the mid-twentieth century, when Gabriel Marcel applied it to Jean-Paul Sartre, who first rejected it and then publicly adopted it in 1945 to describe his own philosophy. Many of the thinkers linked to the term, such as Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers or Albert Camus, did not always accept the label.

The current is better understood as a general approach, opposed to abstract systematic philosophies that drift away from lived experience, than as a closed doctrine. This is why it is divided into Christian existentialism (Kierkegaard, Marcel), agnostic existentialism (Jaspers, Camus) and atheist existentialism (Sartre, Beauvoir). Its central virtue is authenticity: accepting one's own freedom and responsibility rather than hiding behind roles, customs or norms imposed from outside. A typical example is someone who chooses a profession merely because it is expected of them; for existentialists this is bad faith, whereas a consciously assumed decision is the path to an authentic existence.

The movement influenced literature, theatre, art, theology and psychology. Its reach remains debated: some regard it as a sensibility present throughout human history, others as a phenomenon of postwar Europe, and some question whether the absolute freedom it proclaims is compatible with the social, historical and biological conditions that limit people's lives.