Rise of Individualism in the 20th Century

This research examines the political philosophy of individualism that emerged in the 20th century-namely, existentialism-and discusses its significance for political institutions and the polity as a whole. The objective of political philosophy in general is analyzed and the methodology used in existential thought for impacting the world is scrutinized.

Existentialism, more than any other contemporary political philosophy, has recognized the opportunities for developing a sophisticated democratic order and has demanded in a very uncompromising way that individuals become aware of their freedom and assume responsibility for the future. Even after nearly three-quarters of a century after first being developed into a cohesive theory, existentialism is alive with historical relevance.

Western political thought offers a great diversity of philosophic viewpoints other than existentialism. Virtually every shade of phi

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be able to "posit an hypothesis of unreality' (Sartre, 1964, p. 265). In other words, we must be able to recognize certain objects of consciousness as not being part of the real world. In order to do this, we must also be able to realize our consciousness as intentionally directed at the real world. As Sartre explains: "For the centaur to emerge as unreal the world must be grasped as a world-where-the-centaur-is-not, and this can only happen if consciousness is led by different motivations to grasp the world as being exactly the sort in which the centaur has no place" (Sartre, 1964, p. 268). Lastly, and most importantly, consciousness must be able to transcend reality toward some non-existent, imaginary situation. We can imagine that which does not yet exist only if our minds are not bound to comprehend only that which does exist. For the existential school of thought, this ability of the mind to transcend reality is the "essence" of imaginative consciousness and the "apodectic intuition of freedom" (Sartre, 1964, p. 270). This essence to change the current situation is the existentialists' proof that individuals are free. The idea of a goal for all actions makes what otherwise would be merely an existing state of affairs
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Approximate Word count = 3095
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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