ABSTRACT
Existentialism is the movement in nineteenth and twentieth century European philosophy essentially characterised by attempts to solve fundamental problems about human existence. No set of problems or methods is common to all and only existentialists, but typically philosophers otherwise as diverse as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Jaspers and Marcel describe those features of the human condition which matter most to us as individuals and prescribe the exercise of human freedom as the means of authentically facing our situation. Their work is philosophically significant not only because they construe problems of death, anxiety, oneself and other people, sexuality and political and religious commitment as genuine, as not to be dismissed as unscientific, or to be dismissed on linguistic grounds alone. It has also been found to be significant by people thinking outside philosophy. This is perhaps a partial cause and partial consequence of several of the existentialists authoring plays, novels and political tracts and not confining their written output to the philosophical treatise.
