existentialism
UK /ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛnʃəlɪz(ə)m/ · US /ˌɛɡzəˈstɛn(t)ʃəˌlɪzəm/ noun
Forms existentialisms
- noun (uncountable) A 20th-century philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices; also (generally), a philosophy which emphasizes existence over essence. “The heyday of existentialism occurred in the mid-twentieth century.”
- noun (countable) The philosophical views of a particular thinker associated with the existentialist movement. “Sartre’s existentialism is atheistic, but the existentialism of Marcel is distinctly Christian.”
- noun (uncountable, historical) Synonym of structuralism (“a school of thought that focuses on exploring the individual elements of consciousness, how they are organized into more complex experiences, and how these mental phenomena correlate with physical events”).
Synonyms
structuralism existential philosophy existentialist philosophy
Antonyms
Etymology
From existential + -ism (suffix forming the names of schools of thought, systems, or theories), modelled after German Existentialismus. The word was popularized by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) in his work L’existentialisme est un humanisme (Existentialism is a Humanism, 1946).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “existentialism”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details