Existentialism
The philosophy of radical freedom and individual existence (19th-20th century). Existence precedes essence. Authenticity, anxiety, absurdity, and the burden of choice. From Kierkegaard to Sartre and Camus.
Sub-topics
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Father of existentialism. The leap of faith. Three stages of existence: aesthetic, ethical, religious. Subjectivity is truth. Attacked Hegel's system for ignoring the individual.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). God is dead — and we killed him. Will to power, eternal recurrence, the Ubermensch. Master and slave morality. Demolished comfortable certainties; created the crisis of meaning that defines modernity.
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). Being and Time (1927) asked: what does it mean to be? Dasein (being-there), thrownness, being-toward-death, authenticity. Revolutionized ontology. His Nazi involvement remains deeply troubling.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). Existence precedes essence — we are condemned to be free. Being and Nothingness. Bad faith is self-deception about our freedom. Engaged intellectual, declined the Nobel Prize.
Albert Camus (1913-1960). The Myth of Sisyphus: life is absurd, but we must imagine Sisyphus happy. The Stranger, The Plague. Rejected existentialist label; broke with Sartre over political violence.