Existentialism: characteristics, authors and works

Existentialism is a philosophical and literary current oriented to the analysis of human existence. It emphasizes the principles of freedom and individual responsibility, which must be analyzed as independent phenomena of abstract categories, whether rational, moral or religious.

According to Philosophy Dictionary by Nicola Abbagnano, existentialism groups together various tendencies that, although they share their purpose, diverge in assumptions and conclusions. That is why we can speak of two fundamental types of existentialism: religious or Christian existentialism and atheist or agnostic existentialism, to which we will return later.

As a historical current of thought, existentialism began in the 19th century, but only towards the second half of the 20th century did it reach its peak.

Characteristics of existentialism

Despite the heterogeneous character of existentialism, the tendencies that have manifested share some characteristics. Let's get to know the most important ones.

Existence precedes essence

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For existentialism, human existence precedes essence. In this, he takes an alternate path from Western philosophy, which until then explained the meaning of life by postulating transcendental categories or metaphysical (such as the concept of the Idea, the gods, reason, progress or morality), all of them external and prior to the subject and its existence concrete.

Life is imposed on abstract reason

Existentialism is opposed to rationalism and empiricism, centered on the valuation of reason and knowledge as a transcendent principle, whether it is postulated as the starting point of existence or as its orientation vital.

Existentialism opposes the hegemony of reason as the foundation of philosophical reflection. From the perspective of existentialists, human experience cannot be conditioned to the absolutization of one of its aspects, since rational thought as an absolute principle denies subjectivity, passions and instincts, as human as consciousness. This also gives it an anti-academic character in opposition to positivism.

Philosophical gaze on the subject

Existentialism proposes to focus the philosophical gaze on the subject himself and not on supra-individual categories. In this way, existentialism returns to the consideration of the subject and its way of existing in front of the universe as an individual and individualized experience. Therefore, he will be interested in reflecting on the motive for existence and how to assimilate it.

Thus, it understands human existence as a situated phenomenon, which is why it intends to study the very condition of existence in terms of its possibilities. This includes, according to Abbagnano, "the analysis of the most common and fundamental situations in which man finds himself."

Freedom over external determination

If existence precedes essence, the human being is free and independent of any abstract category. Freedom, therefore, must be exercised from individual responsibility, which would derive in a solid ethic, although independent of a previous imaginary.

Thus, for existentialism freedom implies full awareness that decisions and personal actions influence the social environment, which makes us jointly responsible for the good and the wrong. Hence the formulation of Jean-Paul Sartre, according to which freedom is total responsibility in absolute solitude, namely: "Man is condemned to be free".

This claim of the existentialists rests on the critical reading of historical wars, whose crimes have been justified from of abstract, superhuman, or supra-individual categories, such as the concepts of nation, civilization, religion, evolution, and tell.

Existential anguish

If fear can be defined as the fear of a concrete danger, anxiety is, instead, the fear of oneself, the concern before the consequences of the consequences. own actions and decisions, the fear of an existence without consolation, the fear of uttering irreparable damage because there are no excuses, justifications or promises. Existential anguish is, in a way, the closest thing to vertigo.

Types of existentialism

We have said that, according to Abbagnano, the different existentialisms share the objective of analyzing human existence, but differ in assumptions and conclusions. Let's look at this in more detail.

Religious or Christian existentialism

Christian existentialism has as its precursor the Danish Søren Kierkegaard. It is based on the analysis of the existence of the subject from a theological perspective. For Christian existentialism, the universe is paradoxical. He understands that subjects must relate to God independently of moral prescriptions, in full use of their individual freedom. In this sense, the human being must face decision-making, a process from which existential anguish derives.

Among its most important representatives, in addition to Kierkegaard, are: Miguel de Unamuno, Gabriel Marcel, Emmanuel Mounier, Karl Jaspers, Karl Barth, Pierre Boutang, Lev Shestov, Nikolai Berdyaev.

Atheist existentialism

Atheistic existentialism rejects any kind of metaphysical justification for existence, therefore Therefore, it conflicts with the theological perspective of Christian existentialism and with the phenomenology of Heidegger.

Without metaphysics or progress, both the exercise of freedom in Sartre's terms, and the existence, generate uneasiness, much in spite of their ethical aspiration and the valuation of human relationships and social. In this way, atheistic existentialism opens the doors to the discussion about nothingness, to the feeling of abandonment or helplessness and restlessness. All this in the context of the existential anguish already formulated in Christian existentialism, although with other justifications.

Among the representatives of atheist existentialism, the most prominent figures are: Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.

You may also like: Simone de Beauvoir: who she was and her contributions to feminism.

Historical context of existentialism

The emergence and development of existentialism is closely related to the process of Western history. Therefore, to understand it, it is worth understanding the context. Let's see.

Antecedents of existentialism

The 18th century witnessed three fundamental phenomena: the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and the development of the Enlightenment or Enlightenment, a philosophical and cultural movement that advocated reason as a universal principle and foundation of life horizon.

The Enlightenment saw in knowledge and education the mechanisms to liberate humanity from fanaticism and cultural backwardness, which implied a certain ethical rearmament advocated from the universality of the reason.

However, since the nineteenth century in the western world it was already notorious that those flags (reason, progress industrialization, republican politics, among others) failed to prevent the moral decline of West. For this reason, the nineteenth century saw the birth of many critical movements of modern reason, both artistic, philosophical and literary.

See also Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

The 20th century and the formulation of existentialism

The rearrangement of the economic, political and thought systems of previous centuries, which augured a rational, moral and ethical world, did not give the expected results. In their place, the world wars followed, unmistakable signs of the moral decadence of the West and all its spiritual and philosophical justifications.

Existentialism, from its inception, already noted the inability of the West to order that violent transformation. The existentialists of the 20th century who lived through the Second World War had in front of them the evidence of the decline of moral and ethical systems founded on abstract values.

Most representative authors and works

Existentialism began very early, in the 19th century, but little by little it was modifying its tendencies. Thus, there are different authors from different generations, who start from a different point of view, partly as a consequence of their historical time. Let's see the three most representative in this section.

Søren Kierkegaard

Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher and theologian born in 1813 and died in 1855, is the author who opens the way to existentialist thought. He will be the first to postulate the need for philosophy to look from the individual.

For Kierkegaard, the individual must find the truth in himself, outside the determinations of social discourse. That, then, will be the necessary journey to find his own vocation.

Thus, Kierkegaard moves toward subjectivity and relativism, even when he does so from a Christian perspective. Among his most outstanding works are The concept of anguish Y Fear and trembling.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher born in 1844 and died in 1900. Unlike Kierkegaard, he will reject any Christian and religious perspective in general.

Nietzsche proclaims the death of God by analyzing the historical development of Western civilization and its moral decline. Without god or gods, the subject must find for himself the meaning of life, as well as the ethical justification for it.

Nietzsche's nihilism relativizes the transcendence of a single absolute value in the face of his inability to give a unified response to civilization. This constitutes a conducive ground for inquiry and search, but it also entails existential anguish.

Among his most famous works are: Thus speaks Zarathustra Y The birth of tragedy.

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was a philosopher, writer, and teacher. She stood out as a promoter of 20th century feminism. Among the most representative works of her are The second sex Y The broken woman.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre, born in France in 1905 and died in 1980, is the most emblematic representative of 20th century existentialism. He was a philosopher, writer, literary critic, and political activist.

Sartre defined his philosophical approaches as humanistic existentialism. He was married to Simone de Beauvoir and received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1964. He is known for having written the trilogy The paths of freedom and the novel Nausea.

Albert camus

Alberta Camus (1913-1960) stood out as a philosopher, essayist, novelist, and playwright. Among his most important works, the following can be noted: Abroad, Plague, The first man, Letters to a German friend.

You may also like: The Stranger by Albert Camus

Miguel de Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) was a philosopher, novelist, poet and playwright of Spanish origin, known as one of the most important figures of the generation of 98. Among his most important works we can mention Peace in war, Fog, Love and pedagogy Y Aunt Tula.

Other authors

There are many authors who are considered existentialists by critics, both on a philosophical and literary level. Many of them can be seen as ancestors of this line of thought according to their generation, while others have emerged from Sartre's approaches.

Among other important names in existentialism we can mention the writers Dostoyevsky and Kafka, a Gabriel Marcel, the Spaniard Ortega y Gasset, León Chestov and Simone de Beauvoir herself, Sartre's wife.