ABSTRACT
The word existence,’ writes Jaspers, ‘is one of the synonyms of the word reality, but owing to Kierkegaard it has acquired a new dimension. The philosophers of existence, beginning with Kierkegaard, chose the word existence over a number of other words—such as life, value, soul—which had previously been in philosophical use. he union of facticity and emotivity begets the idea and the feeling of existence. The existent is the man who is forever risking his own being. Existence is the palpitation of an intense life, the sharp point of subjectivity. On the threshold of transcendence existential problems come to a close; for transcendence does not admit of possibilities, while existence is essentially of the nature of possibility and at the same time a return towards its own source. Existence is at once the highest state and a sinful state.
