What is existentialism?
Existentialism is a way of thinking about the life of a single, real person. It asks: Who am I? What should I do with my life? Does life have meaning?
It grew in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. Key thinkers:
- Søren Kierkegaard (Denmark): each person must choose for themselves, a "leap" that no one can make for you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche (Germany): create your own values instead of copying old ones.
- Martin Heidegger: humans are "being-in-the-world"; we often lose ourselves in "the they" (what people say).
- Karl Jaspers: limit situations.
- Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir (France): freedom, responsibility, bad faith. De Beauvoir also said a woman is not born with a fixed role but is shaped by society.
- Albert Camus: the world gives no ready answer (the "absurd"), yet we can live fully anyway.
Existentialism is close to other movements of the time: phenomenology (describe experience as it is lived), personalism and the philosophy of dialogue (Buber: a person becomes fully human in an "I–You" meeting with others). Pragmatism (James, Dewey) also looks at real life, but it judges ideas by whether they work in practice.
Existence before essence
Essence means "what a thing is for", its nature or purpose. Existence means simply "being there".
A knife-maker first has the idea of a knife (cut things), then makes it. For a knife, essence comes first.
Sartre said a human is different. We are born first, with no fixed purpose written for us. Then, through our choices, we make ourselves. So for humans existence comes before essence. "You are nothing else but what you make of yourself."
This means: your past, your family or your marks do not decide your whole future. Each new choice can change who you become.
Freedom, anxiety and responsibility
- Freedom: Sartre said we are "condemned to be free". Even not choosing is a choice.
- Anxiety (anguish): the dizzy feeling when we see that nobody else can decide for us. Kierkegaard called it "the dizziness of freedom". It is normal; it shows we are free.
- Responsibility: because I choose, I answer for the result. Sartre added that when I choose, I also show what I think a person should be, so my choice speaks for everyone.
- Despair here means: we act without guarantees. We cannot control everything, so we rely only on what we can do.
Limit situations and the meaning of life
Karl Jaspers named some situations we can never escape or fix: death, suffering, struggle (conflict) and guilt. He called them limit (boundary) situations.
In daily life we hide from them. But when they hit us, for example when a grandparent dies, or we fail badly, they shake us. Jaspers said this is where real philosophy starts: we stop living on autopilot and ask What really matters? Who do I want to be?
Existentialists do not give one meaning of life. They say each person must create meaning through commitment: to work, to people, to a cause. Camus used the myth of Sisyphus, pushing a rock up a hill for ever, and said: "one must imagine Sisyphus happy", because he owns his task.
Indian link: the Bhagavad Gita also places a person (Arjuna) in a limit situation, a hard choice in conflict, where he must decide and act. The answer there differs (duty and detachment), but the starting point, a crisis that forces a choice, is similar.
Authenticity and bad faith
- Bad faith (Sartre): lying to yourself that you have no choice. "It's my nature", "Everyone does it", "My boss made me". Sartre's example: a waiter who acts like a robot waiter, as if he were only a role.
- Inauthentic life (Heidegger): living by "what one does", following the crowd without thinking.
- Authenticity: seeing your freedom, choosing on purpose and owning the result.
Authentic does not mean selfish or rebellious. You can authentically choose to follow a tradition, as long as you really choose it.
Existentialism in Spanish thought
- Miguel de Unamuno: the "tragic sense of life", the struggle between reason and the hunger for meaning and immortality.
- José Ortega y Gasset: "I am I and my circumstance." Life is a task we must do; vital reason means thinking that starts from real lived life, not abstract rules.
- María Zambrano: poetic reason, a way of knowing that includes feeling, images and the heart, not only cold logic.
Criticism and exam tips
- Critics say people are not totally free: body, culture, money and history limit us. (Later Sartre and de Beauvoir accepted that situations matter.)
- Some say "create your own values" can lead to anything goes. Sartre replied that choosing for yourself means choosing for humanity too.
- Exam tip: explain "existence precedes essence" with the tool example; link freedom → anxiety → responsibility; name one limit situation; define bad faith with an example.
Key formulas and definitions
- Object: essence (purpose) → existence
- Human: existence → essence (made by choices)
- Freedom → anxiety → responsibility
- Limit situations (Jaspers): death, suffering, struggle, guilt
- Bad faith = denying your freedom; authenticity = owning it
Worked examples
1. Explain "existence precedes essence" with an example.
A chair is designed (purpose: sitting) before it exists, so essence comes first. A baby is born without a written purpose; she becomes a doctor, artist or farmer through her choices. So for humans existence comes first, essence later.
2. A student says, "I cheated because everyone in class does it." What would Sartre say?
That is bad faith: he hides his free choice behind the crowd. He chose to cheat and is responsible. An authentic student would admit "I chose it" and decide again.
3. How can a limit situation change a person? Give an example.
A boy whose father falls very ill (suffering, and the thought of death) stops wasting time and asks what matters. He starts caring for the family and chooses a career in nursing. The crisis woke him up to choose his own path, as Jaspers said.
4. Is following family tradition always inauthentic?
No. If Arun becomes a farmer only because "that is what we do" without thinking, it is inauthentic. If he thinks about other options and freely chooses farming because he values it, it is authentic. Authenticity is about how you choose, not what you choose.
Common mistakes
- Thinking existentialism says life has no meaning. It says meaning is not given ready-made; we create it.
- Mixing up the order: for humans existence comes BEFORE essence, not after.
- Thinking freedom means doing whatever you like with no consequences. Freedom comes with full responsibility.
- Thinking authentic means rebellious. It means choosing consciously and owning your choice.