The philosophy of existentialism has become one of the most famous, vibrant and authoritative currents of our time. It is based on anti-scientism, which makes it clear that rational philosophy is not able to answer many questions, it simply has reached an impasse, so it's time to shift your view of a person, his problems and life.
This trend originated in the 1920s in Germany. Immediately after the First World War, society woke up and looked with different eyes at the existence of man, his problems. There are two directions: religious existentialism and atheistic. This philosophy opposed rational theories where only a specific human subject was considered. Existentialism implied a struggle for personality.
The philosophical movement was born almost simultaneously in Germany, France and Russia, and the scientific works of the philosophers of these countries confirm this. But the Germans became the discoverers; French existentialism developed on the works of Heidegger and Jaspers. In Germany, ideological sources, interpretations and interpretations were adopted. Two trends were immediately presented in France: religious and atheistic. The first was represented by Gabrielle Marcel, and the second by Camus and Sartre.
“Existentialism is humanism” is a well-known thesis of the French philosopher Sartre, which makes one wonder if this is really so. If representatives of the religious movement tried to find a lost connection with God, shove the old dogma into a new framework, then atheists primarily considered an autonomous personality apart from cultural and social structures. The atheistic trend tried to contrast the pathos of a lonely person and humanism against destructive tendencies.
In 1946, Sartre's first book, Existentialism is Humanism, was first published. Many years have already passed, and it has been repeatedly reprinted, because it contains in an accessible form the foundations of this philosophy and the point of view of the author himself. The very idea of existentialism is that a person is very lonely, and on this basis various fears develop, which open up real being. It turns out that man exists only in order to be in this world.
In his work, Sartre tried to answer the question, existentialism is humanism or something else, and talked about how these two trends can be related. Bright representatives of humanism are Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio. They said that anthropocentrism emanating from human consciousness, which assumes the value of man himself, is humanism. The only exception is that which subordinates people to superhuman forces and alienates them from themselves.
Existentialism is humanism, but special. Here the main role is played not by the person himself, but by something transcendenting himself in the world around him, trying to achieve certain goals and heights, constantly being in motion and searching for the best. Existentialism relies on the same foundations as humanism, but this trend is closer to human being. The main thing here is to achieve higher opportunities. In each person there is something valuable, the highest goal that must be achieved. Therefore, we can confidently say that existentialism is still humanism.