In our culture, a certain image often comes to mind when we hear the word "existentialism." We think of pessimism, melancholy, and a kind of black-and-white gloom. Thoughts arise about a meaningless world, about loneliness and the tragedy of simply being. But the first thing to understand about the philosophy of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre is that this common picture has almost nothing to do with it. Far from being a philosophy of despair, existentialism is a philosophy of radical freedom and a profound belief in the power of the human individual. It hands us a strength we might not have realized we had, and in doing so, it confronts the fundamental questions that haunted the 20th century.

The Death of Old Certainties

To understand existentialism, we must first look to the century before its peak. We can find its roots in the work of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who centered his thought on the unique, personal existence of each human being. He was one of the first to force us to confront death not as a transition to an afterlife—be it Heaven, Hell, or Valhalla—but as the true, final end of our existence. This confrontation with mortality creates the problem of freedom, forcing us to make choices and take responsibility for them.

This ground was tilled further by Friedrich Nietzsche, who famously declared, “God is dead. ... And we have killed him.” This wasn't a cry of triumph, but a diagnosis of European culture. The influence of religion, which had long been the bedrock of meaning and morality, was waning. The death of God symbolized the end of a worldview that explained our place in the cosmos. If there is no divine law, what is good and evil? If there is no preordained purpose, what is the meaning of our lives? A world without God is a world without built-in meaning. Both Nietzsche and the existentialists who followed saw it as their task to find a way for humanity to live in this new, unnerving reality.

A Philosophy Forged in Crisis

It is no coincidence that existentialism flourished during and after the Second World War. The horrors of the 20th century—concentration camps, atomic bombs, and the systematic destruction of human life—led to a complete collapse of faith in humanism and progress. At the same time, ideologies like Marxism seemed to reduce the individual to a cog in the machine of economic forces, while psychoanalysis suggested we are governed by unconscious instincts beyond our control.

In this landscape of disillusionment, existentialism turned its focus back to the person. Not an abstract concept of "Man," but the concrete, living, breathing individual and their existence. It begins by acknowledging our situation: we are thrown into a world that has lost its original meaning. No one asked us if we wanted to be born. We feel abandoned, and this leads to anxiety. We don't understand the world, and we don't even understand ourselves, which leads to despair. But out of this bleak starting point, existentialism makes its most radical move. It postulates total freedom.

If there is no inherent meaning, if nothing predetermines who we are, then we are left alone with our absolute freedom. Nothing limits us, and nothing can serve as an excuse. I am my only support, and I alone am responsible for what I do.

Albert Camus and the Rebellion of Sisyphus

The French philosopher Albert Camus stated that there is only one truly serious philosophical problem: suicide. To decide whether or not life is worth living is to answer the most fundamental question. This is the starting point of his philosophy of the absurd.

The absurd, for Camus, is the clash that occurs when our human need to find meaning collides with the silent, meaningless universe. We cry out for answers in a world that provides none. Faced with this absurdity, Camus outlines three possible responses: suicide (giving up), capitulation (a leap of faith into some unproven belief system), or rebellion.

For Camus, rebellion is the only dignified path. How do we rebel? By creating our own meaning. He asks us to imagine Sisyphus, the mythical king condemned to forever push a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down each time. We must imagine Sisyphus as happy. He is fully aware of his fate, yet he finds meaning and fulfillment in the struggle itself. To live in rebellion is to live with the full knowledge of death and the absence of ultimate meaning, and yet to defiantly create value, love, and art in spite of it. We must take on the role of creators in a world without a creator.

Jean-Paul Sartre and the Weight of Being

While many thinkers are associated with this school of thought, it was Jean-Paul Sartre who provided its most famous slogan: “Existence precedes essence.” For centuries, philosophy had assumed that humans have a pre-defined "essence" or nature—an immortal soul, a rational mind. Sartre completely overturns this.

He argues that we first appear in the world—we exist—and only then, through our actions and choices, do we define ourselves. We are what we do. At birth, a person is nothing, a blank slate, a project. Throughout our lives, every choice we make adds to our definition, shaping our essence. This process only ends with death. The moment we die, our existence ceases, and our essence becomes fixed because we can no longer change it.

This is why Sartre declared, “Man is condemned to be free.” We are condemned because we did not create ourselves, yet we are free because from the moment we are thrown into the world, we are responsible for everything we do. This freedom is staggering. It is also, however, not lived in a vacuum. In his play No Exit, three characters find themselves in a room in hell. There are no torturers or flames; they have only each other. The play concludes with the famous line: “Hell is other people.” For Sartre, the gaze of another person is like a miniature death. It freezes us, turns us from a free, evolving subject into a finished object. The "Other" sees us as a fixed entity, robbing us of our fluid existence and freedom in that moment.

Ultimately, the philosophy of existentialism is one of profound responsibility. It is the philosophy of the unique human individual, abandoned in a meaningless world, with nothing left to do but create himself and the meaning of his own existence.

References

• Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism is a Humanism. Yale University Press, 2007.
  This short book is based on a 1945 lecture by Sartre and serves as a foundational and accessible introduction to his philosophy. It is here that he most clearly explains the core tenets of existentialism, including the famous principle "existence precedes essence" and the concepts of anguish, forlornness, and despair that accompany radical freedom.
• Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. Translated by Justin O'Brien, Vintage International, 1991.
  This is the primary text for understanding Camus's philosophy of the absurd. The titular essay explores the confrontation between humanity's desire for meaning and the universe's indifference. It introduces the concept of absurd rebellion and presents the figure of Sisyphus as the ideal absurd hero who finds happiness in a futile struggle.
• Kaufmann, Walter. Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre. Meridian Books, 1956.
  This influential anthology provides historical and philosophical context by collecting key writings from the major figures of existentialism, including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus. Kaufmann's introductions to each section are invaluable for understanding how these thinkers relate to one another. The selections from Kierkegaard on dread and Nietzsche on the "death of God" confirm the article's tracing of existentialism's intellectual lineage.