The History of Existentialism

Existentialism has been held together with very little solid information. As the idea of existentialism is that of debate and has no real grounds, there can be no 100% way to view and evaluate what is not and what is existentialism in nature. Thus, people cannot correctly study the history of existentialism without going off on many different tangents. The idea of existentialism is one of question. People have questioned the existence of our minds and bodies throughout all of time.

It can be stated though that a certain group of people coined the term of existentialism and essentially were the founders of the philosophical idea. A french-man by the name of Gabriel Marcel was the first to use the actual word existentialism in 1943 but this is not the first person to write about the subject.

Søren Kierkegaard is regarded as the first person to publish on the thought of existentialism in a letter he wrote to a colleague of his. In it he explains the idea of existentialism as it applies to him.

"What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain knowledge must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. ... I certainly do not deny that I still recognize an imperative of knowledge and that through it one can work upon men, but it must be taken up into my life, and that is what I now recognize as the most important thing."
- Soren Kierkegaard

This propagates itself as the beginnings of modern existentialism. His thoughts were later rewritten into many journals and writings that promoted existentialism.


-Michael
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