Existentialism

Friedrich Nietzsche is not strictly speaking an existentialist, though some of his ideas are pre-existentialist in tone and meaning and influenced those who would follow. A superficial reading of Nietzsche links him with Kierkegaard, but he is in a different tradition. Nietzsche repudiated Christianity because he saw it as the enemy of reason. Nietzsche was not considered an existentialist until he was re-examined after World War II:

Judged by our initial criteria, Nietzsche might well be called an existentialist. The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, opposition to philosophic systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy as superficial, academic, and remote from life--all this is eminently characteristic of Nietzsche no less than of Kierkegaard, Jaspers, or Heidegger.

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rt some higher destiny. Values are not given and are seen by Sartre as vague at best. He sees human beings as operating best by instinct. Sartre also argues with Marxists and with the collectivism that is their creed. The Marxist relies on others, and Sartre accepts this idea only to a certain extent. Sartre emphasizes the importance of individual action and also the necessity for each individual to shape himself through rational and deliberate choice. Sartre rejected the doctrine of determinism and finds instead that freedom is the condition of mankind, for good or ill: Never let it be said by us that this man. . . had made an arbitrary choice. Man makes himself. He isn't ready made at the start. In choosing his ethics, he makes himself, and force of circumstances is such that he can not abstain from choosing one. For Sartre, there is an absolute truth which can be grasped, and it can be grasped by everyone. Existentialism for Sartre is an atheistic position, though he notes that there is a form of Christian existentialism as seen in Kierkegaard. For Sartre, humanism is the important touchstone for existentialism, and he says that existentialism is nothing more than an attempt to draw all the consequences of a cohe
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Approximate Word count = 2267
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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