What Is Existentialism?
Articles and books on existentialism generally eschew precise philosophical definition of their subject matter and disagree with one another over which ideas, issues, and thinkers should be classified as existentialist. This loose categorization distorts readings of the texts that are claimed to fall under it. This book argues for a precise conceptualization of existentialism grounded in the definition it was given by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre when the term was first popularized. Existentialism is therefore defined as the ethical theory that we ought to treat the freedom at the core of human existence as intrinsically valuable and the foundation of all other values. This chapter argues for the need for a clear definition and presents an overview of how the book develops its analysis.