Existentialism Is a Humanism

This is an amazing and brief explanation of what existentialism is and why it should matter to anyone looking for meaning in their life.

I love that Satre demystifies his philosophy, making it accessible and understandable to anyone. The book is actually the transcription of a lecture he gave, so it is wonderfully readable and full of examples and situations that I learned a lot from.

He also defends existentialism from some of its common critiques, which makes the book even more useful as an introduction. Many of my questions were answered here!

This short talk has become one of the defining texts of existentialism. We have no essence, no purpose, no reason to be, and this both frees us and dooms us: we are doomed to be free. The heavy responsibility for creating meaning is placed firmly on our shoulders. Most people find the burden too heavy to bear and seek relief through what Sartre calls “bad faith,” which he spends much time detailing. You will recognize yourself somewhere in there. Sartre tells us there’s nothing we can do about this, but we can do nothing—we can embrace this nothingness and… show more.

This text provides the readers with a brief, yet in-depth look at the ideology behind the field of existentialism. In regard to the author, Jean-Paul Sartre, is deemed as one of the founders of modern existentialism, with it being his main focus throughout most of his life. This text, which was initially a speech, was used to provide a backbone to the field and bring about a heightened sense of understanding of the meaning of human existence.

Okay, so it’s a lecture, really, rather than a book. But it’s the classic statement of existentialism. The idea that life doesn’t have any meaning other than what we create for it, that we’re alone in the universe without a God to guide us, that we are nothing more than the projects we commit ourselves to—it’s all here.