Existentialism appeared in its contemporary form in Paris right after World War 2. Many believed that this idea was just a new fad that would pass over in a few months. Many philosophers thought differently, like Jean-Paul Sartre. He was a French playwright, novelist, critic and most importantly a philosopher. New York Times described Sartre as "a rebel with a thousand causes, a modern Don Quixote." (NR pg.1197) He was a driving force in the intellectual life of post-World War 2 France. His thought and ideas of Existentialism influenced many artists, thinkers and many other people in this day in age. There are basically three major principles of Existentialism; Subjectivity, Anguish, and Forlornness.
Subjectivity is the first principle of Existentialism. Subjectivity means the name we are given when charges are brought up against us. This is entailing basically that man starts his life out with label and a plan. This plan or label is what we live by for oursel
The second principle of Existentialism is anguish. Freedom causes anguish, which means because we have so much freedom, sometimes we do not know the consequences of the choices that we make that leads us to anguish. There are many commitments in our lives that can stress us out, like religion. This is where the word anguish comes into play. You cannot get rid of the constant feeling of responsibility. Many people believe in religion and there Gods. That is a commitment that they made in which helps them to overcome their anguish. Another part of anguish that Sartre explains is the fact that we do not know if all of our morals are true or where they came from. How do we know that we should believe in everything God tells us to? It is probably because one mans anguish led him to believe that this was true. So the next man followed him and went along with his way of thinking to overcome his anguish of being an individual. There is no way an individual can tell the dif!
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