existentialism

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ex·is·ten·tial·ism

(ĕg′zĭ-stĕn′shə-lĭz′əm, ĕk′sĭ-)

A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.

ex′is·ten′tial·ist adj. & n.

existentialism

(ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛnʃəˌlɪzəm)

(Philosophy) a modern philosophical movement stressing the importance of personal experience and responsibility and the demands that they make on the individual, who is seen as a free agent in a deterministic and seemingly meaningless universe

ˌexisˈtentialist adj, n

ex•is•ten•tial•ism

(ˌɛg zɪˈstɛn ʃəˌlɪz əm, ˌɛk sɪ-)

n.

a philosophical movement, esp. of the 20th century, that stresses the individual's position as a self-determining agent responsible for his or her own choices.

[1940–45; < German Existentialismus (1919)]

ex`is•ten′tial•ist, adj., n.

ex`is•ten`tial•is′tic, adj.

ex`is•ten`tial•is′ti•cal•ly, adv.

existentialism

1. the doctrine that man forms his essence in the course of the life resulting from his personal choices.
2. an emphasis upon man’s creating his own nature as well as the importance of personal freedom, decision, and commitment. Also called philosophical existentialism. Cf. essentialism. — existentialist, n., adj.

existentialism

A practical philosophical tendency centered on the concrete realities of human life, rather than generalized abstractions.

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Noun

existentialism - (philosophy) a 20th-century philosophical movement chiefly in Europe; assumes that people are entirely free and thus responsible for what they make of themselves

existential philosophy, existentialist philosophy

philosophy - the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics

philosophical doctrine, philosophical theory - a doctrine accepted by adherents to a philosophy

depersonalisation, depersonalization - (existentialism) a loss of personal identity; a feeling of being an anonymous cog in an impersonal social machine

Translations

وجودية

existencialismus

Existentialismus Existenzialismus

existencialismo

existentialisme

egzistencijalizam

esistenzialismo

実存主義

egzystencjalizm

экзистенциализм

existentialism

existentialism

[ˌegzɪsˈtenʃəlɪzəm] N → existencialismo m

existentialism

[ˌɛgzɪˈstɛnʃəlɪzəm] n → existentialisme m

existentialism

n → Existenzialismus m, → Existentialismus m

existentialism

[ˌɛgzɪsˈtɛnʃəˌlɪz/əm] n → esistenzialismo

References in periodicals archive ?

What Sarah Bakewell has produced is a book on existentialists and existentialism that cuts through our jadedness, our I'm-not-worthy awe, and our collective inferiority complex about the lofty, superhuman intellectual heights that we assume these thinkers must have occupied.

At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails

This paper is divided into two broad sections; the first section is aimed at in depth analysis of the relationship between the theories of existentialism and positivism in the light of views held by major existentialists.

EXISTENTIALISM HAS INDEED A STRONG UNDERTONE OF POSITIVISM: THE REALITY HAS THE LAST WORD (HERBERT MARCUSE)

In this thorough, conversational history, British biographer Sarah Bakewell strives to define (sort of) the philosophy of existentialism, give it context, describe its characters and their ideas, and explain why these ideas are important, both to the world and the author.

At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails

Working from his own translations of the original French texts, the author engages Fanon from dialectics, ethics, existentialism, and humanism to philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and political theory as well as psychiatry and psychoanalysis.

Gordon, Lewis R.: What Fanon Said: A Philosophical Introduction to His Life and Thought

The majority of educated people embrace mutually exclusive schools of thought: a vulgar sort of 19th-century determinism on one hand, and the existentialism of Camus and Sartre on the other.

Alan Mittleman's New Study of Jewish Philosophy

Existentialism is said to have begun in 1932 when three young philosophers sat in the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue du Montparnasse in Paris, getting caught up on each other's lives and drinking the house specialty, apricot cocktails.

At The Existentialist Cafe

His novel philosophy is his humanistic existentialism where he over-emphasized the theme of human freedom.

Implications of Sartre's humanistic existentialism

Mailer and Nabokov drew extensively on these contemporary discourses of psychopathy, criminality, and existentialism.

The Roving Psychopath in Love: "TheWhite Negro" and Lolita

95--Aho's Existentialism offers readers an excellent new overview of a movement that is "by no means a moribund or outdated mode of thinking," but one that remains "fresh and vital" in our secular world today.

Aho, Kevin. Existentialism: An Introduction

More than perhaps any other Thomistic philosopher of his generation, Josef Pieper (1904-1997) attempted to understand and engage (rather than caricature and evade) the early philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, especially Sartre's famous definition of existentialism as the "belief that existence precedes essence.

Existentialism and Christian humanism: Josef Pieper's critque of Sartre revisited

Indeed, it is the great single achievement of Marcel Antonio to have emerged not from the exaggerated emotional parameters of Expressionism but from a rational coherence of thinking which in fact engendered Existentialism.

Marcel (Antonio) meets (Gabriel) Marcel in 'Garden of Acedia'

Critique: Existentialism is a term applied to the work of certain late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject--not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.