The Revolt Against Essence
Getting to know the most popular philosophy of the 20th century
Consider these popular subjects from the twentieth century:
Zen
Jack Kerouac
J.D. Salinger novels
Forrest Gump.
Each of them is soaked in the philosophical school of existentialism. There are many other popular subjects that are either tinged with existentialism or downright soaked in it as well, ranging from Taoism to psychedelics to St. Therese of Lisieux to the postmodern philosophy of Michel Foucault.
All these things have proven popular to the western mind over the past 100 years. The question is, why?
I believe it’s because existentialism might be the best individual response to our cultural condition.
What is It?
Experts often disagree about the definition of existentialism, but in general, the term refers to a type of thought that emphasizes existence rather than essence. Here’s how Will Herberg put it in Four Existentialist Theologians: “[G]enerally we can describe thinking as existentialist if it makes existence rather than essence the starting point of its ontological reflections.”
