Existentialism
A philosophy holding that existence precedes essence — we are not born with a fixed purpose but must create meaning through our choices.
Existentialism centres on the individual confronting a world without given meaning, and the freedom — and anxiety — that follows. Anticipated by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and developed by Sartre, Camus, and de Beauvoir, it insists that we are "condemned to be free": responsible for who we become. Themes include authenticity, the absurd, dread, and the refusal of bad-faith excuses. Where Stoicism seeks alignment with a rational nature, existentialism stresses radical freedom and self-creation.
Core tenets
- Existence precedes essence — you are born with no fixed purpose and create your essence through what you choose and do.
- Radical freedom — we are "condemned to be free"; even refusing to choose is a choice you own.
- Authenticity — living by freely-chosen values rather than inherited roles and expectations.
- The absurd — the clash between our hunger for meaning and a universe that supplies none in itself.
- Anxiety (angst) is not a malfunction but the felt experience of freedom — the dizziness of possibility.
In practice today
Lived existentialism means owning your choices without alibi — no blaming nature, society, or circumstance for who you become. It asks you to face the absurd honestly (Camus) and revolt by creating meaning anyway, and to catch "bad faith": the small self-deceptions by which we pretend we had no choice.
Key thinkers
Core ideas
- Eternal Recurrence — Nietzsche's thought-experiment: if you had to live your life over and over, identically, forever — could you affirm it?
Contrasts with
Compare Existentialism
Frequently asked
- What does "existence precedes essence" mean?
- That humans have no predetermined purpose. Unlike a tool built for a function, you exist first and define what you are through your choices — you author your own essence.
- Is existentialism pessimistic?
- Not necessarily. It begins with a meaningless universe and the anxiety of freedom, but most existentialists treat that freedom as the ground of dignity — Camus ends in revolt and affirmation, not despair.
- What is "bad faith"?
- Sartre’s term for self-deception in which we deny our own freedom — pretending our roles, feelings, or circumstances forced our hand, to dodge the responsibility of choosing.
Summary synthesised from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Wikipedia (CC-BY-SA).