It is difficult to say why existentialism is so often referred to by the broad masses today. Perhaps because of the beautiful and thoughtful name, perhaps because of the very accurate description of the "existential crisis" inherent in many. However, this does not change the essence - the term appears more and more often in communication with educated people, and therefore to understand at least the essence of this philosophical position is becoming more and more relevant.
Before talking about the essence of the term, it is important to note that the philosophical direction of "existentialism" has never been in an explicit form. The only author who called himself an existentialist is Jean-Paul Sartre, while the rest (like Kierkegaard or Jaspers) introduced and actively used the term in their works, but did not single out themselves in a separate trend.
The reason is that existence (ie "existence") is not itself a "position" or belief. It is rather a question and a topic for reasoning about how each specific individual feels himself and the world around him. What is important here is that the personality is in no way connected or tied to the world around us: we can say that, in this context, the whole universe revolves around a person.
If we talk about the "essence of existentialism", then it can be distinguished as "sensory knowledge of the world." In this context, the authors consider the question of the meaning of life, attitude towards others, dependence on external circumstances and responsibility for their actions. Particular attention in the writings "on existence" is given to fear and despair: it is believed that fully realizing the fact that "you live" can only be faced with death. It is often said that all life is nothing more than a path to full awareness of the fact of one's own being.
The central concept of this issue is the "existential crisis", vividly shown by Sartre in the novel "Nausea". It can be described as causeless longing and despair, a sense of meaninglessness and intense apathy combined. Such a crisis, according to philosophers, is the result of a loss of connection with the outside world.
To summarize, we can call existentialism a philosophy of being. She is primarily interested in the frailty and meaninglessness, the weakness of a person in the face of the world around him. But for all his weakness, for some reason, a person is endowed with free will, which means that he can and must consciously accept the fact that he is alive.
