For existentialism, the essence of a person is defined by their own existence.
Existentialism is a philosophical current that pursues knowledge of reality through the immediate experience of one's own existence. In any case, no precise or exact theory has been developed that clearly defines this concept.
What is clear is that this movement in philosophy highlights the individual human being as the creator of the meaning of his life. The temporality of the subject, its concrete existence in the world , is what constitutes the being and not a supposed more abstract essence.
What is existentialism
Existentialists do not believe that the individual is a part of a whole, but rather that each human being is a free integrity in and of itself. A person's own existence is what defines their essence and not a general human condition.
In other words, the human being exists since he is capable of generating any type of thought. Thought makes a person free: without freedom, there is no existence.
This same freedom makes the individual a being responsible for his actions. There is, therefore, an ethic of individual responsibility . The person must take responsibility for the acts they carry out in the exercise of their freedom.
Emergence of this thought
This term was the result of intense philosophical work developed between the 19th and 20th centuries; in a clear search for the reason for existence based on the individuality, emotions, actions and responsibility of each individual.
The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard is considered the father of existentialism . It was he who determined that each individual is the one who must find meaning in his or her existence. And he added that the greatest responsibility of the human being lies in living his or her own life in a passionate and sincere way, despite the thousand obstacles that may arise.
In the field of literature, Fyodor Dostoyevsky is one of the main exponents of existentialism.
In any case, the term was not coined until the 1940s and those who did so were the French Jean-Paul Sartre ( 1905 – 1980 ) and Albert Camus ( 1913 – 1960 ). Considered today as the greatest exponents of existentialism .
As Sartre himself explained, existentialism is a human way of understanding existence . Later, thinkers from previous eras such as Hedegger, Nietzche and Kierkegaard himself were included within this ideology.
This current can be divided into various schools; Among them we can highlight: theistic existentialism (reflects on the existence of God and the Spirit), atheistic existentialism (denies the divine) and agnostic existentialism (considers that the existence of God is irrelevant to human existence).
Existentialism in literature
In literature, surely the greatest allies of this line of thought were Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Franz Kafka .
Among Dostoyevsky's works we could mention "Memories from Underground" as a clear existentialist treatise. It presents the life of a man who feels outside his group, unable to fit into society and find meaning in his existence . Another work by this author that could be nominated as existentialist is "Crime and Punishment."
In Kafka's work there are also several characters that allow us to locate this author's ideology close to that of Dostoyevsky. Most of them are surreal and desperate beings who do not find meaning in their daily breathing and who live condemned to an absurd system that represses them and does not allow them to be happy. His fundamental novels "The Metamorphosis" and "The Process" are considered two magnum opuses within existentialist literature .
It is worth mentioning that Sartre himself also wrote a novel , titled "Nausea" that captures the fundamental ideas of this current. It is recommended as material to approach complicated philosophical reasoning . It is also a reference work that has served as inspiration for many post-French authors, such as Philip K. Dick or Chuck Palahniuk.