Existentialism emphasizes individuality and existence over essence, leading to the importance of freedom, choice, and personal responsibility. Meaninglessness is key, as individuals must create their own meaning in a meaningless universe, often resulting in feelings of absurdity. However, people can move beyond this and create positive meaning for themselves.
One of the most important themes of existentialism is the importance of the individual and of existence as the predecessor of essence or humanity. This focus on the individual leads to further themes regarding the importance of freedom and choice for that person, which results in feelings of anxiety and dread based on such personal responsibility. Meaninglessness is important, as these other themes of existentialism indicate that there is no intrinsic meaning to anything and that it must be created by the individual. This is often associated with absurdity due to humanity’s place within a meaningless universe.
The various themes of existentialism can be difficult to tackle together, so examining them individually can simplify the process. Individuality and existence are among the most important themes and generally help make others easier to understand. Existence is often focused on more than the idea of the “essence” of a thing. A person as an individual matters simply because he exists and his “essence” develops over time through life, rather than as a pre-existing condition inherent in his existence.
From these two themes of existentialism, freedom and choice become the determining elements of this existence. Since there is no inherent essence in things, there is no inherent morality in the universe, and so each person and society must establish and assert its own moral system. This means that people have a lot of freedom and choice, perhaps even absolute freedom, and must make choices to determine their own paths and meaning.
The freedom that a person has can create anxiety and terror when he becomes aware of it. These sentiments are important themes of existentialism as a great deal of thought has gone into addressing them. A lot of personal responsibility is required for someone to come to terms with absolute freedom, and this can be difficult for many people.
Meaninglessness is also important in addressing the themes of existentialism and relates to the focus on existence over essence. Just as a rock has no intrinsic morality or meaning, everything else in the universe can be viewed in a similar way. Meaning is therefore created by each individual. The rock could be part of a wall or used to sharpen a knife; bonds between friends and family develop in similar ways, through choice and purpose rather than intrinsic worth.
All of these various themes of existentialism are typically associated with absurdity. This comes from attempts to assert purpose and reason over a universe that is meaningless. The conflict between the assumed role and importance of people and the actual meaninglessness is the foundation of absurdity. Rather than all of this being seen as a purely negative concept, however, it’s important to recognize that people move through and beyond this nonsense and create positive meaning for themselves.
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