3. History of Existentialism
In one article , it gave a summary or mode of what existentialism is. It presented a brief description of what existentialism is according to different philosophers. Examples of the philosophers included are Sartre, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Camus, and Jaspers. Existentialism here is accused as being a mere reflection of the mood of times, thus a characteristic of existentialism is its contemporaneity. This contemporaneity is what makes the message of existentialism so urgent, as said in the article. Existentialism served as an answer to the philosophy of ‘today’ that deals with categories, essence, and abstract ethical systems, or systems in general. It is more attuned with classical philosophy, which is concerned
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And this has repercussions, according to Bro. Abulad, “something of this nihilistic tendency in the air, making it difficult for our time to decide which is good and which is evil.” Thus if this is the case, existentialism serves as a response towards nihilistic tendency. Existentialism is a problematic term to define. It is in the very nature of existentialism to be open-ended and undefinable. For existentialist philosophers, though classified under the same school, still have major differences in their ideologies, yet not contradictory to the existentialist movement. An underlying property of existentialism is its acknowledgement of man’s freedom. There are key terms also in existentialism, which helps in the description of the movement. These concepts are concept of facticity, authenticity, alienation, angst, nothingness and absurdity. Existentialism maybe a response to the on problem of technology. For, according to Sartre, “existentialism is a humanism.” That is further analyze by Don Ihde, and he notes that “existentialism is a humanism which calls for the re-interpretation of our existence in such a way that our actual experience is not disregarded or belied. Man is the measure who transcends himself- only on this basis is existentialism possible.” Humanism a “term freely applied to a variety of beliefs, methods, and philosophies that place central emphasis on the human