Existentialism

Overview
[|Existentialism]

has many definitions but is mainly focused on the nature of human existence. The basic philosophy of Existentialist thought, as said by [|Jean-Paul Sartre] is that “Essence Precedes existence”. This means that humans are not inherently one way or another, but the decisions that we make create who we are. In this definition one’s personhood is not determined by nature or culture because to use these definitions is to place being in an unchanging format.

Existentialism was believed to begin in 1927 with German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidegger) work //Being and Time//. He established the main formations of later existentialist thought such as the relationship between individual and public, and self definition. Heidegger would go on to say that he was not the founder of Existentialist ideas in 1946. Kierkegaard furthered Heidegger’s research by developing ideas of the individual self. Kierkegaard was not an atheist like later Existentialists. He believed that person making could be found in the balance between what people desired to do and what they thought ought to be. [|Nietzsche] however, claimed that people submit to moral norms in order to be in society. Therefore, the only way to become a fully developed human is to forego otherworldly morals and establish morals based on the natural order of the world [|(science).]

Later existential thinkers such as Sartre and [|Simone De Beauvoir] developed the belief that humans project values and morals onto an indifferent world. They identify with the ideas of personal freedom and self-deception as a way to exist within society.

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