existentialist
- noun
- /ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛnʃəlɪst/
- As an existentialist, she believes that individuals must create their own meaning in life.
And it's it's essentially what the existentialists call bad faith.
- And it's it's essentially what the existentialists call bad faith.
- And of course the existentialist say life has no meaning, but it doesn't follow from that that it's intrinsic, that it's meaningless.
- So the existentialists are in this this family.
- Now the point is the existentialists called it throneness, which is enough.
Examples
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Berdyaev did, of course, share in the basic conviction of all existentialists, namely, that existence precedes essence.
Academic text (1991) -
Forerunners of postmodernism and the constructivist tradition, the French existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir announced that "existence precedes essence."
Academic text (1999) -
Does that make me an existentialist?
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- I think I'm an existentialist, I do.
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I am considering becoming an existentialist.
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Can we just pause on this point from an existentialist perspective?
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You know, the existentialists feel nothing happens
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She was very good about making the commitments of the existentialist more explicit.
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At the ripe old age of 18, I felt as unmoored as the existentialists I was reading.
Academic text (2010) -
Among the existentialists, the Perron case gave rise to lively discussions about the status of madness.
Academic text (2009)
Synonyms
A person who says people must make their own meaning in a world without given purpose
A philosopher who studies personal freedom, responsibility, and life's meaning
Compounds
A person who says people must make their own meaning in a world without given purpose
Ideas that say people are free and responsible for making their own meaning and values
Surface Forms
Morphology
existentialist = existential (semi-transparent) = existential + ist
Formed by adding the agentive/specialist suffix '-ist' to the adjective 'existential'; the morphological formation is regular but the philosophical sense depends on knowledge of 'existential'/'existentialism'.
Etymology
Existentialist comes from the word exist meaning 'to be' and the ending -ist like in artist. An existentialist is a person who believes we must make our own meaning in life and accept the freedom and responsibility that comes with it.