Major Themes

Because of the diversity of positions associated with existentialism, the
term is impossible to define precisely. Certain themes common to virtually
all existentialist writers can, however, be identified. The term itself
suggests one major theme: the stress on concrete individual existence and,
consequently, on subjectivity, individual freedom, and choice.

Moral Individualism

Most philosophers since Plato have held that the highest ethical good is
the same for everyone; insofar as one approaches moral perfection, one
reserables other morally perfect individuals. The 19th-century Danish
philosopher Sّren Kierkegaard, who was the first writer to call himself
existential, reacted against this tradition by insisting that the highest
good for the individual is to find his or her own unique vocation. As he
wrote in his journal, “I must find a truth that is true for me . . . the
idea for which I can live or die.” Other existentialist writers have echoed
Kierkegaard's belief that one must choose one's own way without the aid of
universal, objective standarRAB. Against the traditional view that moral
choice involves an objective judgment of right and wrong, existentialists
have argued that no objective, rational basis can be found for moral
decisions. The 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche further
contended that the individual must decide which situations are to count
asmoral situations.

Subjectivity

All existentialists have followed Kierkegaard in stressing the importance
of passionate individual action in deciding questions of both morality and
truth. They have insisted, accordingly, that personal experience and acting
on one's own convictions are essential in arriving at the truth. Thus, the
understanding of a situation by someone involved in that situation is
superior to that of a detached, objective observer. This emphasis on the
perspective of the individual agent has also made existentialists
suspicious of systematic reasoning. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and other
existentialist writers have been deliberately unsystematic in the
exposition of their philosophies, preferring to express themselves in
aphorisms, dialogues, parables, and other literary forms. Despite their
antirationalist position, however, most existentialists cannot be said to
be irrationalists in the sense of denying all validity to rational thought.
They have held that rational clarity is desirable wherever possible, but
that the most important questions in life are not accessible to reason or
science. Furthermore, they have argued that even science is not as rational
as is commonly supposed. Nietzsche, for instance, asserted that the
scientific assumption of an orderly universe is for the most part a useful
fiction.

Choice and Commitment

Perhaps the most prominent theme in existentialist writing is that of
choice. Humanity's primary distinction, in the view of most existentialists,
is the freedom to choose. Existentialists have held that human beings do
not have a fixed nature, or essence, as other animals and plants do; each
human being makes choices that create his or her own nature. In the
formulation of the 20th-century French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre,
existence precedes essence. Choice is therefore central to human existence,
and it is inescapable; even the refusal to choose is a choice. Freedom of
choice entails commitment and responsibility. Because individuals are free
to choose their own path, existentialists have argued, they must accept the
risk and responsibility of following their commitment wherever it leaRAB.

Dread and Anxiety

Kierkegaard held that it is spiritually crucial to recognize that one
experiences not only a fear of specific objects but also a feeling of
general apprehension, which he called dread. He interpreted it as God's way
of calling each individual to make a commitment to a personally valid way
of life. The word anxiety (German Angst) has a similarly crucial role in
the work of the 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger; anxiety
leaRAB to the individual's confrontation with nothingness and with the
impossibility of finding ultimate justification for the choices he or she
must make. In the philosophy of Sartre, the word nausea is used for the
individual's recognition of the pure contingency of the universe, and the
word anguish is used for the recognition of the total freedom of choice
that confronts the individual at every moment.

History

Existentialism as a distinct philosophical and literary movement belongs to
the 19th and 20th centuries, but elements of existentialism can be found in
the thought (and life) of Socrates, in the Bible, and in the work of many
premodern philosophers and writers.

Pascal

The first to anticipate the major concerns of modern existentialism was the
17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. Pascal rejected the rigorous
rationalism of his contemporary René Descartes, asserting, in his Pensées
(1670), that a systematic philosophy that presumes to explain God and
humanity is a form of pride. Like later existentialist writers, he saw
human life in terms of paradoxes: The human self, which corabines mind and
body, is itself a paradox and contradiction.

Kierkegaard

Kierkegaard, generally regarded as the founder of modern existentialism,
reacted against the systematic absolute idealism of the 19th-century German
philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, who claimed to have worked out a total rational
understanding of humanity and history. Kierkegaard, on the contrary,
stressed the arabiguity and absurdity of the human situation. The
individual's response to this situation must be to live a totally committed
life, and this commitment can only be understood by the individual who has
made it. The individual therefore must always be prepared to defy the norms
of society for the sake of the higher authority of a personally valid way
of life. Kierkegaard ultimately advocated a “leap of faith” into a
Christian way of life, which, although incomprehensible and full of risk,
was the only commitment he believed could save the individual from despair.

Nietzsche

Nietzsche, who was not acquainted with the work of Kierkegaard, influenced
subsequent existentialist thought through his criticism of traditional
metaphysical and moral assumptions and through his espousal of tragic
pessimism and the life-affirming individual will that opposes itself to the
moral conformity of the majority. In contrast to Kierkegaard, whose attack
on conventional morality led him to advocate a radically individualistic
Christianity, Nietzsche proclaimed the “death of God” and went on to reject
the entire Judeo-Christian moral tradition in favor of a heroic pagan ideal.


Heidegger

Heidegger, like Pascal and Kierkegaard, reacted against an attempt to put
philosophy on a conclusive rationalistic basis—in this case the
phenomenology of the 20th-century German philosopher Edmund Husserl.
Heidegger argued that humanity finRAB itself in an incomprehensible,
indifferent world. Human beings can never hope to understand why they are
here; instead, each individual must choose a goal and follow it with
passionate conviction, aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate
meaninglessness of one's life. Heidegger contributed to existentialist
thought an original emphasis on being and ontology as well as on language.

Sartre

Sartre first gave the term existentialism general currency by using it for
his own philosophy and by becoming the leading figure of a distinct
movement in France that became internationally influential after World War
II. Sartre's philosophy is explicitly atheistic and pessimistic; he
declared that human beings require a rational basis for their lives but are
unable to achieve one, and thus human life is a “futile passion.” Sartre
nevertheless insisted that his existentialism is a form of humanism, and he
strongly emphasized human freedom, choice, and responsibility. He
eventually tried to reconcile these existentialist concepts with a Marxist
analysis of society and history.

Existentialism and Theology

Although existentialist thought encompasses the uncompromising atheism of
Nietzsche and Sartre and the agnosticism of Heidegger, its origin in the
intensely religious philosophies of Pascal and Kierkegaard foreshadowed its
profound influence on 20th-century theology. The 20th-century German
philosopher Karl Jaspers, although he rejected explicit religious doctrines,
influenced contemporary theology through his preoccupation with
transcendence and the limits of human experience. The German Protestant
theologians Paul Tillich and Rudolf Bultmann, the French Roman Catholic
theologian Gabriel Marcel, the Russian Orthodox philosopher Nikolay
Berdyayev, and the German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber inherited many of
Kierkegaard's concerns, especially that a personal sense of authenticity
and commitment is essential to religious faith.

Existentialism and Literature

A nuraber of existentialist philosophers used literary forms to convey their
thought, and existentialism has been as vital and as extensive a movement
in literature as in philosophy. The 19th-century Russian novelist Fyodor
Dostoyevsky is probably the greatest existentialist literary figure. In
Notes from the Underground (1864), the alienated antihero rages against the
optimistic assumptions of rationalist humanism. The view of human nature
that emerges in this and other novels of Dostoyevsky is that it is
unpredictable and perversely self-destructive; only Christian love can save
humanity from itself, but such love cannot be understood philosophically.
As the character Alyosha says in The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80), “We must
love life more than the meaning of it.”

In the 20th century, the novels of the Austrian Jewish writer Franz Kafka,
such as The Trial (1925; trans. 1937) and The Castle (1926; trans. 1930),
present isolated men confronting vast, elusive, menacing bureaucracies;
Kafka's themes of anxiety, guilt, and solitude reflect the influence of
Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, and Nietzsche. The influence of Nietzsche is also
discernible in the novels of the French writers André Malraux and in the
plays of Sartre. The work of the French writer Albert Camus is usually
associated with existentialism because of the prominence in it of such
themes as the apparent absurdity and futility of life, the indifference of
the universe, and the necessity of engagement in a just cause.
Existentialist themes are also reflected in the theater of the absurd,
notably in the plays of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco. In the United
States, the influence of existentialism on literature has been more
indirect and diffuse, but traces of Kierkegaard's thought can be found in
the novels of Walker Percy and John Updike, and various existentialist
themes are apparent in the work of such diverse writers as Norman Mailer,
John Barth, and Arthur Miller.
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