Could someone explain what Existentialism means in the simplest way possible?

Question

Pretend like you are speaking to an idiot and explain!

Answer 1

It meansyou would be a free agent, if other people wouldn't burden you .

Answer 2

It pretty much means people create their own beliefs on how came into existence.  Without the means of a Creator.

Answer 3

"He [the policeman] asked why I was getting into trouble. I said it was because I am an existentialist nihilist.

He said 'Most lads who get into trouble say it's because they are bored'.

I smiled cynically and said 'Yes, existential nihilism is just one step further'."

Answer 4

the jist: that people are ultimately responsible for their own actions and their own position in life...

that "we are condemned to be free."

its more complicated than that... but that's the quickest way I can explain it...

I AM NOT an existentialist...

Answer 5

It's the belief that there is no greater purpose in life, or an after life.  You are born, you live your life, however long that proves to be, and you die.  No god, no afterlife, no reincarnation, except through the carbon cycle.  Neitzchian, basically.

Answer 6

I remember a few years ago my best friend explained to me she decided she was Existentialism-Christian. She had really researched it, and what I can remember is that she was a Christian, but also accepted the fact she could very well be wrong, and that it's okay to have your own theories on why we exist here. Something like that, I'd look it up in wikipedia honestly.

Answer 7

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #   existentialism

One entry found.

existentialism  

  

Main Entry: ex·is·ten·tial·ism  

Pronunciation: \-ˈten(t)-shə-ˌli-zəm\

Function: noun

Date: 1941

: a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad  

  

Answer 8

you exist on earth?

Answer 9

There you are.

Answer 10

dont no  

Answer 11

Existentialism stresses that people are entirely free and therefore responsible for what they make of themselves. With this responsibility comes a profound anguish or dread.

Answer 12

It basically has to do with questioning reality and its limitations, its opportunities, and its meanings.

EDIT: It is nothing like atheism. According to atheists, they embrace reality rather than question it.

Answer 13

Existentialism is a philosophical movement which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to it being created for them by deities or authorities or defined for them by philosophical or theological doctrines.

It emerged as a movement in twentieth-century literature and philosophy, most notably Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, though it had forerunners in earlier centuries. Fyodor Dostoevsky and Franz Kafka also described existential themes in their literary works. It took explicit form as a philosophical current in Continental philosophy, first in the work of Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers in the 1930s in Germany, and then in the work of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir in the 1940s and 1950s in France. Their work focused on such themes as "dread, boredom, alienation, the absurd, freedom, commitment, and nothingness" as fundamental to human existence. Walter Kaufmann described existentialism as "The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, and especially of systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy as superficial, academic, and remote from life"

Answer 14

okay, we did a huge unit on this last year, so I'll  try to be as concise as possible.  Existentialism is a belief that man chooses his own destiny.  It means that you can make whatever you want to happen happen.  If you need some references for research, look at the work of Franz Kafka.  He is probably the best known existentialist.