Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of life? What is my fundamental purpose? Why do I exist? If you’ve ever found yourself pondering such questions, you’ve been dabbling in existentialist philosophy. The concept, however, is not easy to define. It can take diverse and sometimes contrasting directions — and many of the major names in existentialism, including Albert Camus and Martin Heidegger, didn’t even accept the label. Existentialism has its roots in the 19th century, with the philosophers Søren Kierkegaard in Denmark and Friedrich Nietzsche in Germany, as well as the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. These great thinkers were critical of rationalism and its adherence to pure reason, and instead focused on the question of meaning. One of the earliest statements of existentialist thought comes from a journal entry written by Kierkegaard in 1835: “What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know… the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die.” Existentialism flourished in Europe from around 1930 to the mid-20th century, championed by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir, a trio whose frequent meetings in Parisian cafés have become the stuff of literary legend. And while many of the leading existentialists of the 20th century disagreed about its tenets, there are certain shared elements that form the foundation of existentialism today. yeremiah@aol.com Yeremiah Hardt