existentialism

   A diverse philosophical movement, existentialism is characterised by a stress on the individual, freedom of choice and, in many cases, the 'absurdity' of the universe. Kierkegaard is usually thought of as the first existentialist; he led a reaction against the abstract rationalism of Hegel's philosophy - instead of focusing on the 'absolute consciousness' Kierkegaard wanted to focus on the subjective and personal side of the life of the individual. The movement is called 'existentialism' because of the special use of the word existenz ('existence') to describe a 'distinctively human mode of being'. Existentialism also involves the rejection of the view that humans have pre-existing essences; existentialists insist that existence is ours to work out how we wish - in Sartre's slogan, 'existence precedes essence'. Existentialism developed in two separate directions, one atheistic and one religious. The best-known atheistic existentialists were Heidegger (though he denied the label 'atheist'), Sartre and Camus. The last two were also great stylists, both being offered the Nobel Prize for Literature. The bestknown religious existentialists are Kierkegaard, Marcel, Jaspers and Buber, though many theologians, most famously Bultmann, were also influenced by existentialist thought.

   See Buber, Martin; Bultmann, Rudolf Karl; Heidegger, Martin; Jaspers, Karl Theodor; Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye; Marcel, Gabriel; Sartre, Jean-Paul

   Further reading: Blackham 1997; Guignon and Pereboom 2001; Sartre 1948