Overview
Existentialism refers to branches of philosophy that question the nature, value, and modalities of existence.
Within Western philosophy, existentialism is often broken down into a few schools:
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Humanism: those like Sartre argue that human experience is the center of reality and that we are free to construct our own meanings rather than pursue an objective answer from outside of us
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Nihilism: those like Schopenhauer argue that meaning doesn’t exist in any shape or form, and that humans are animalistic in their pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain
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Absurdism: those like Camus argue that the gap between our desire for existential answers and the lack of answers from the universe cannot be bridged, but that we should respond to that by living our life rebelliously as if to spite that gap