Existentialism

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An introduction to our existential special issue by Anja Steinbauer.

Existentialism as a philosophical movement stretches from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century. Its leading figures included such giants as Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus and, of course, Jean-Paul Sartre. These thinkers had very different approaches and in some cases vehemently refused to be labelled as existentialists at all, but they shared certain broad concerns and assumptions. More than a dry theory about language or knowledge, existentialism was a philosophy of life.

Existentialism reflects the intellectual climate of a crisis.

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