søren kierkegaard the concept of anxiety

For no apparent reason, he breaks up with the woman everyone thought he was going to marry-not because he loves someone else but out of a sudden conviction that he is incapable of marriage and can only make her miserable. Despite Camus' insistence that he wasn't an existentialist, this statement on the human condition and what to about it is formative to existentialism, and the concept of the absurd is one philosophers continue to ponder alongside other existentialist philosophers like Sartre.Imagine an educated, affluent European in his late twenties, seemingly one of fortune’s favored, who suffers from crippling feelings of despair and guilt. Absurdism is the idea that people will keep trying to find meaning in a meaningless world. Camus considered himself an absurdist, meaning he saw a paradox in the way people search for meaning and the silence the world responds with.

He also denied being an existentialist, complicating his inclusion under the umbrella of existentialism. Indeed, his work does not read like that of other philosophers with its bold assertions and use of metaphor (Aronson 2022). All people have is their freedom and they are judged based on whether they hinder their own freedom or the freedom of others.Ĭamus, another French thinker writing in the same era as Sartre, is notable for denying the label philosopher. Because everyone is individually creating themselves there is no singular moral truth, or right way to act. Value does not exist out in the world, waiting for people to discover it and neither does purpose.

Freedom and self creation are paramount to Sartre, and he is the originator of existence preceding essence. At the end of World War II in 1945, Sartre gave a speech called 'Existentialism is a Humanism', distilling the contents of his major work Being and Nothingness and largely defining how later philosophers have come to define the existentialist movement.

Sartre is one of the most famous and recognizable French existentialist philosophers, likely because he refers to himself as 'existentialist' in his work. Much of his later work is dedicated to understanding this fear, overcoming it, and getting Regine back. Kierkegaard broke off his engagement to Regine his fear of losing her so great that he decided ending things himself was better than them ending some other way. Kierkegaard's engagement to Regine Olsen plays an important part in his work and the concept of faith. Taking a 'leap of faith' is instrumental to facing that anxiety, and means making a commitment to something in the world. Feeling anxiety is a sign of engagement with one's life. Leaving the comfort of what one has been told and making one's own decisions with the failure that could entail is foundational to being a person. Kierkegaard believes that being an individual, or a 'self' means embracing uncertainty and anxiety. Danish philosopher and theologian well known for his work on anxiety and faith.

Søren kierkegaard the concept of anxiety