Existentialism

Existentialism is a chiefly 20th century philosophy that emphasizes existence for its own sake alone, disregarding God and morality and almost anything else. Rene Descartes famously declared, "I think therefore I am"; but an existentialist might exclaim, "I am therefore I think." Arbitrary actions are a favorite of existentialists, as they resist moral codes of behavior.

Although existentialism is often thought as an atheistic philosophy, as described above, it is worth noting that the father of existentialism was a Danish Christain philosohpoer named Søren Kierkegaard. See: Christian Existentialism.

Atheistic Existentialism on the other hand denies the dependency of human existence on God and views human existence as an independent and meaningless form. It asserts that we do not have fundamental attributes, such as morality or a soul, and that humans develop these attributes in a meaningless manner as their lives progress. Beyond that, existentialism means different things to different people and thus can often be the subject of debate by students of atheistic philosophy.

The name derives form one of its central concepts, the notion that a human being's "existence precedes essence."

The four considered the earliest existential writes are Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, and Jean Paul Sartre. Other writers were Karl Jaspers and Martin Heidegger. The movement did not, however, develop its name or popularity until the 20th century when it was popularized by Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

Especially Sartre says, "Existence precedes essence." He asserts that man appeared not from essence (God or an idea) but rather from nothing and then defined himself and gave essence to himself.

The writings of existentialists such as Kierkegaard,Sartre and Camus reflect an epistemology that is not only based upon the criteria of rationalism or empiricism. Theirs is an appeal to the intuitive, as reflected by Sartre’s references to the “nausea” stirred in him by the contradictions and hypocrisy in human behavior. The same appeal to the intuitive can be found in Soren Kierkegaard’s notion of dread and in Albert Camus’ reflections on universal guilt.

Concepts

Existential Angst

Existential angst (or existential crisis, existential despair), is one of the key concepts in existential philosophy, and it means the crisis that one feels when confronted with a seemingly meaningless Universe, along wth the realization that one has free will to make one's own choices. This is illustrated by one standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down, and then realizing that nothing is holding you back from jumping off. The emotions which arise from this revelation is called existential angst.

Existential angst is much more likely to happen in gifted children.