Existentialism of Kierkegaard and Sartre Essay Example

Søren Kierkegaard is thought to be the first existentialist philosopher. Born in 1813, he dedicated his life to figuring out how we live as single individuals and explored ideas based on human reality rather than abstract ideas that are out of our realm of experience. He mainly focused on topics related to Christianity and studied different points of views from individuals about their relationship with God.

Jean-Paul Sartre was one of the key figures in 20th-century French philosophy. He was born in 1905 in Paris and later received a Nobel Peace Prize for literature in 1964 for his work. His main belief about people is that we are all condemned to be free because there is no higher power or creator. He is most known for producing the idea that "existence precedes essence".

Both men believed that as an individual, you have the power to create your own purpose in life and that you have free will to make decisions that will impact you, which is the definition of Existentialism. They both worked to shape the philosophical world by bringing up new ideas, questioning new theories, and recording their own concepts. Kierkegaard believed many people take a ‘leap of faith’ in determining if to believe in god; believing that you had the choice to do so or not. Either you believe in God and you are right earning you your place in heaven, you believe in God but he’s not real wasting your freedom, you don't believe in God but he’s real damning you to hell, or you don't believe in God and you are right getting live in freedom with no consequences. Søren considered this thought process to be a ‘blind leap of faith’ and recorded many written pieces explaining this. 

Jean-Paul Sartre believed that there was no God, that everything you accomplish in life isn’t determined by a higher power, it's determined by you. His main theory was that human beings have no essence before their existence, but build and learn their essence throughout life. Jean-Paul wrote about this concept and it eventually earned him a Nobel Prize in Literature.

The writings these two produced throughout their lifetimes have been studied repeatedly by people interested in the same thing. Newton’s quote “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants” doesn’t exactly apply to the lives that these two men have lived, but how what they created has helped others to understand more about philosophy. Using other people's discoveries to learn more about the topic and advance the subject is exactly what the quote intends and what has been happening in the philosophical community for hundreds of years. These two men had probably stood on the shoulders of others to produce their successful concepts, and now others get to stand on Jean-Paul and Søren Kierkegaard’s shoulders to create brand new ideas, theories, and concepts of their own in the 21st-century. Recording and sharing ideas throughout time is such a powerful thing. Giving the people in the present a glimpse of the past and showing how we as people have evolved is such an important thing. It sparks the question of what will we see and discover next while standing on the shoulders of giants?