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Revision as of 17:15, 3 October 2002 by Jeronimo (talk | contribs) (de-link old version)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Existentialism is a philosophical movement primarily identified by common themes.
Primary amongst these themes is Sartre's notion that "existence precedes essence," which is generally taken to mean that there is no pre-defined moral or spiritual essence to humanity, except that which we make for ourselves.
Existentialism was a 'light' philosophical movement of the mid-20th century, inspired by the 'heavy' German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Martin Heidegger and propounded by the French writer and would-be philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and others, including the novelist, essayist and playwright Albert Camus. Its basic premise is that 'existence precedes essence', in other words human beings are not pre-determined in any way but are entirely free to do as they choose and must be judged by their actions rather than 'what they are', since they are entirely what they do. Existentialism does not admit the existence of a god or of any other determining principle. It warns against all 'viscous' elements of existence, including the body ? and especially the female body ? that might ensnare the freedom that is the human being. As long as the traps of viscosity can be avoided, the main problem for the human being then becomes that of how to choose one's actions. The main tenets of the movement are set out in Jean-Paul Sartre's L'Existentialisme est un humanisme, translated as Existentialism and Humanism.
See philosophy for a list of other concepts related to existentialism.