Existentialism and Its Role today

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Recommended: Definition of happiness

The Good Life is an expression representing how one would like to live out their life. In other words, how that person achieves happiness. There are three theories that correlate to the Good Life: daoism, stoicism, and existentialism. Since each person defines their happiness differently, each person has their own opinion as to whether or not what is read to be correct or not. The goal is to at least shine a light onto what everyone seems drawn towards. Existentialism is an important theory to consider in order to achieve the Good Life. Although existentialism may not appeal to everyone as a reliable theory to achieve the Good Life, it does elaborate as to how existentialism can be used to achieve the Good Life.

Jean-Paul Sartre is a well-known existentialist writer who, in his article “Existentialism is a Humanism,” discusses in detail what existentialism is, “a doctrine that makes human life possible and also affirms that every truth and every action imply an environment and a human subjectivity” (Sartre 18). From this quote we can infer that, everything said and done is subject to proper judgment.

Sartre goes on to describe the views of an existentialist. An existentialist “states that if God does not exist, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence, a being whose existence comes before its essence, a being who exists before he can be defined by any concept of it” (Sartre 22). This quote explains that god is the being(s) who existed before classification, but spiritually empowered the world known today.

Later on in his article, Sartre describes subjectivism and what it means. “Subjectivism means the freedom of the individual subject to choose what he will be, and man’s inability to transcend human sub...

... middle of paper ...

...different Kierkegaard’s views are then the better-known existentialist views.

Existentialism is a surprisingly popular Good Life Theory today. Whether or not people have the same view of a life worth living or existentialism, existentialism can prove to be a worthwhile theory that could be used to achieve that life worth living.

Works Cited

Fox, Michael Allen. "Chapter 3: Kierkegaard- In Search of the

Individual." The Remarkable Existentialists. Amherst, NY:

Humanity, 2009. 45-69. Print.

Fox, Michael Allen. Preface, “Chapter 1: What is Existentialism?”

The Remarkable Existentialists. Amherst, NY: Humanity,

2009. 11-12, 13-25. Print.

Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism Is a Humanism. New Haven: Yale

UP, 2007. 18-24. Print.

Camus, Albert. "Life Is Absurd." The Moral Life. By Louis P.

Pojman and Lewis Vaughn. New York: Oxford UP, 2009.

578-81. Print.

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