MAIN characteristics of philosophical EXISTENTIALISM

Do you know what the philosophical existentialism? Do you know its main characteristics? In this lesson from a TEACHER, we will dedicate it to explaining the fundamental aspects of this train of thought centered on the study of the human being from the concepts of existence, freedom, choice, individual, emotion... This movement arises as a result of the historical changes that occurred during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which favor that scientific and philosophical research take a new course, now focusing its study on the analysis of being, of human knowledge and giving primacy to the subject over to the object. If you want to know more about philosophical existentialism, continue reading this lesson from a PROFESSOR where we discover the characteristics of philosophical existentialism.

The existentialism was born in Germany in the nineteenth century and lasts until the middle of the twentieth century, and was a current very well received in the rest of Europe and was subsequently adopted by thinkers from all over the world. world. It arises as a result of

social, economic, political changes Y cultural of the moment. Europe had lived through great wars and once they were over, people find themselves without work, without a home, without power acquisitive, without firm values ​​to lean on... in short, abandoned to their fate, like castaways to the drift.

The main features philosophical existentialism are the following:

Conceptionpesimist of life and of the human being

Pessimism is a fundamental feature of existentialist thinking. A) Yes, kierkegarrd will speak of anguish, Sartrand from nausea or Heidegger of nothing. Life has no meaning, it is not directed at anything, it only consists of existing.

Primacy of subjectivity over objectivity

Existentialism is characterized by its tendency to delve into the deepest aspects of the human being, being the concept of Liberty and of choice keys in this movement. Thus, he will analyze the human being's relationship with God, the concept of to be, from weather Or the nothing… And their experiential character, associated with each individual's own subjectivity.

Influence in the world of art

The existentialism current has influenced the history of art in many ways, and from literature to cinema, there have been manifestations of this movement, highlighting “Nausea" from Sartre, “Metamorphosis" from Kafka, “Crime and Punishment" from Dostoyevsky or The Unbearable Lightness of Being, from Milan Kundera. As for the cinema, they are especially representative of existentialism, the films of Ingmar Bergman, What The Seventh Seal or Fanny Y Alexander. And in painting, the works of Francis Bacon, What Crucifixions, Lying Nude or Figure Leaning on a Mirror. The protagonists of these great works of art are social misfits, disturbed and dark. Happiness is conspicuous by the absence of him and as a general rule, his stories end badly.

Concept of freedom and from choice

Freedom is an essential trait in the human being, which is condemned to choose, being unable to stop being free, and therefore, he is solely responsible for his acts, decisions that he makes, he is the master of his own destiny and he himself has to build his own scale of values. God, he can't help you. In this sense, human life becomes distressing, empty, devoid of all meaning and purpose, since, as free, human existence has no purpose or purpose.

Man is condemned to be free, because once in the world, he is responsible for everything he does.. Jean-Paul Sartre

Lto ehuman existence

According to existentialist thought, it is the human being that the gives meaning to its own existence With each choice, with each decision, and I feel fulfilled as he builds his own life. Existing does not consist solely of being in the world. Human existence goes further, it is a relationship with the world and with "the other", and in this way, each person builds their own world from their own experiences.

No existence can be validly realized if it limits itself. Simone de Beauvoir.

Individualism

The human being is a complete whole, an individual who is defined by his free character and not by his humanity or by his belonging to a world. The fact of being free makes him responsible for his own actions, his own decisions and his own value system. There is no more ethics than the individual.

The emotion

This is a fundamental concept to understand this current, which understands the human being as an independent entity that maintains a complicated relationship with his environment, and whose basic emotion is The anguish, which causes the endless obligation to choose.

Questioning the existence of god

In this sense, it is possible to speak of 3 schools: the atheist, which denies the existence of God, the agnostic, which denies the importance of question and the theist, who defends the existence of God, as creator of the world, and as such, the existence of him is important in the life of being human.