Someone please explain existentialism to me?

Question: Someone please explain existentialism to me!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

It is mostly a rational denouncement of divine morality theory!.
God has not showed up to clear up all the confusion therefor we must assume that we determine for ourselves what must be consider right or wrong, good or bad, and benevolent or evil!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Existentialism is a philosophical movement which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives!.

It emerged as a movement in twentieth-century literature and philosophy, though it had forerunners in earlier centuries!. Existentialism generally postulates that the absence of a transcendent force means that the individual is entirely free, and, therefore, ultimately responsible!. It is up to humans to create an ethos of personal responsibility for themselves, outside of any branded belief system!. In existentialist views, personal articulation of being is the only way to rise above humanity's absurd condition of much suffering and inevitable death!.

Existentialism is a reaction against traditional philosophies, such as rationalism and empiricism, that seek to discover an ultimate order in metaphysical principles or in the structure of the observed world, and thereby seek to discover universal meaning!.

As a movement, existentialism began with the nineteenth-century philosophers S?ren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, and literary figures such as Fyodor Dostoevsky also contributed to the movement!. It took explicit form as a philosophical current in Continental philosophy, first in the work of Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers in the 1930s in Germany, and then in the work of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir in the 1940s and 1950s in France!. Their work focused on such themes as "dread, boredom, alienation, the absurd, freedom, commitment, and nothingness" as fundamental to human existence!.[1] Walter Kaufmann described existentialism as "The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, and especially of systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy as superficial, academic, and remote from life"!.[2]

Although there are some common tendencies amongst "existentialist" thinkers, there are major differences and disagreements among them (most notably the divide between atheistic existentialists like Sartre and spiritual existentialists like Tillich); not all of them accept the validity of the term!.[3]Www@QuestionHome@Com

existentialism |?gz??st?n?(?)l?z(?)m|
noun
a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will!.
Generally taken to originate with Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, existentialism tends to be atheistic (although there is a strand of Christian existentialism deriving from the work of Kierkegaard), to disparage scientific knowledge, and to deny the existence of objective values, stressing instead the reality and significance of human freedom and experience!. The approach was developed chiefly in 20th-century Europe, notably by Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir!.
DERIVATIVES
existentialist |??gz??st?n(t)??l?st| |??ks??st?n(t)??l?st| noun & adjective
ORIGIN translating Danish existents-forhold ‘condition of existence’ (frequently used by Kierkegaard), from existential !.Www@QuestionHome@Com

existentialism gives priority to the existence of a man (oneself) over the essence(s) -- existence precedes the essence!. in order for any values to appear one has to exist!.
existentialism is directly opposed to the abstract philosophies since it aquires its data from the immediate living experience!. it is rather a method, a reflexive method of living then philosophy!.
sartre is regarded as a father of existentialism but there are many others too - notably merleau-ponty, kierkegaard, nietzche!. heidegger is usually not considered as an existentialist though his contribution to formulating the phenomenological idiom (which is absolutely required for grasping the existentialism - existence) was immense!.
for existentialsm it is claimmed that it brings man back to himself, without needing any intermediation of God!. the fundamental concepts of those philosphers are human freedom and choice!. man is "condemned to be free", he always has a choice, but he cannot choose to stop choosing since that is a choice too!. this is very important point to emphasize since it brings back the responsibility of life to each individual (as opposed to the heideggerian "impersonal they" in which most of people are immersed)!. with such responsibility back into your hands you will recognize the fact that the life is a task which requires development and maintainance and that you are what you make yourself be!. with those attitudes in one's mind one will not be able to find any external justifications for neither one's choices nor existence!. one will be fully responsible!. again heideggerian term -- one will become AUTHENTIC!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Two basic flavors:

Kierkegaardian God is Love and I'm nearly with Him;
and Sartrean God is Not and I'm relatively free to set my limited life!.

Kierkegaard's framing of being and reality began with existential "Aesthetic sphere," which is mostly where Sartre lived!. SK's "Ethic sphere" is reflective, and is where later Sartre dipped into (socialism as social justice shtick)!. SK held a third sphere, the Spiritual or religious, to be the case as well!.

Some Buddhist thinkers have described Sartre's complex system as elementary and somewhat primitive Buddhism!.

Logically, the most radical position an existentialist may take vis a vis God is that "she knows Him not!." I!.e!., it is illogical to claim "God is not," as that assumes the claiment is Omniscient herself!.!.!.!.Kierkegaard's position that "God is in this place and we may know it" is as Jacob's divine Ladder experience in the Old Testament: it presumes a spiritualization of sensibilities, i!.e!., from aesthetic now to ethical evaluation to spiritual realization!.

"A Philosophy of Universality," O!. M!. Aivanhov!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It is a way of thought and being!. Which is that we are all separate and don't make a difference in life!.That permits a person to not have much care in anyone but them self!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I don't know if there is a quick answer to this question!. To me it is defined in a nutshell by the idea that wherever you are is the perfect place to be!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I breathe there fore I amWww@QuestionHome@Com