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8:47in productionCh. 1 · The Absurd Is the Starting Point/ 8:47 · ceiling 15 min
Ideas

Existentialism

Existentialism isn’t a philosophy—it’s a refusal to let philosophy do your living for you.

Existentialism is a family of philosophical views centred on the individual's struggle for authenticity amid existential absurdity. It establishes authenticity as a primary virtue. It holds that personal freedom, individual responsibility, and deliberate choice are essential to self-discovery and determining life's meaning. The term was coined by Gabriel Marcel in the mid-1940s. Sartre rejected it in 1945, then adopted it publicly on October 29, 1945, in Paris. Steven Crowell argues it is better understood as a general approach rejecting systematic abstraction—not as a systematic philosophy itself.

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Chapters & takeaways4
  1. 1:08
    The Absurd Is the Starting Point

    It starts with absurdity—not despair, not rebellion, but the incomprehensibility of existence itself.

  2. 2:23
    Authenticity Is a Practice, Not a State

    Authenticity isn’t honesty—it’s the daily work of choosing freely while owning the consequences.

  3. 3:36
    A Term Forged in Real Time

    The label was invented in the mid-1940s—and only stuck after Sartre embraced it in a single lecture in Paris.

  4. 5:05
    An Approach, Not a System

    It’s not a school of thought. It’s a method: rejecting systematic abstraction in favour of concrete human experience.

Worth your time?

Yes. Study the whole thing.

4.5/ 5
What works
  • names the problem precisely
  • refuses to outsource responsibility
  • holds up a mirror to unexamined freedom
What does not
  • offers solutions
  • defines a movement
  • explains society
Study it if
  • readers who distrust ready-made answers
  • people confronting choice without precedent
  • those tired of being told what their life means
Skip it if
  • anyone seeking doctrine
  • those wanting historical consensus
  • readers looking for comfort
The written brief1 min read

What the thing is

Existentialism is a family of philosophical views centred on the individual’s struggle for authenticity amid existential absurdity.

Where it came from

The term was coined by Gabriel Marcel in the mid-1940s. Sartre rejected it in 1945, then adopted it publicly on October 29, 1945, in Paris.

What it gets right

It names the tension between freedom and absurdity. It insists meaning is made, not found. It places responsibility on the individual, not systems or essences.

What it gets wrong

It overstates the coherence of its own tradition. Steven Crowell shows it is not a system but a rejection of systems—yet it is routinely taught as one.

Why it matters now

It resurfaces wherever institutions fail to explain lived experience—when freedom feels like burden, choice feels hollow, and meaning must be asserted rather than inherited.

Is it worth your time

Yes—if you want a tool for questioning inherited meaning, not a doctrine for living.

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Crypto-anarchyCrypto-anarchy is a movement, not a prophecy. It uses cryptography to enable anonymity, free speech and trade. It emerged from Timothy C. May’s 1988 manifesto and the 1992 cypherpunk founding. It gets right that code can constrain power—but wrong that it will collapse the state. A 2022 study confirms its political irrelevance—yet its architecture remains vital for Internet-native dissent.
8:55
Free software movementThe free software movement is a precise, principled refusal of proprietary control over software. It began in 1983 with GNU and institutionalised in 1985 with the FSF. It gets right that software freedom must be guaranteed—not merely permitted. It gets wrong that licence compliance alone secures user agency. Its relevance has grown as software becomes infrastructural—but its methods remain rooted in individual refusal and collective development.
8:42
AbsurdismAbsurdism names the friction between human meaning-making and cosmic silence. It does not resolve it. It insists on the tension. It is precise, unsparing, and useless as advice.
9:02
AccelerationismAccelerationism is a theory that uses capitalism’s own mechanisms to dismantle it. It emerged from Deleuze and Guattari’s 1970s work, was amplified by Nick Land’s CCRU in the 1990s, and named by Benjamin Noys in 2010. It correctly identifies internal contradictions in capitalism—but wrongly assumes those forces can be steered without reproducing domination. Its influence lives less in movements than in how technocrats, AI ethicists and climate strategists talk about scale and speed. It is worth your time only if you want to dissect that assumption—and see where it breaks.
Up next in Culture

False consciousness

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False consciousness isn’t about being wrong—it’s about not knowing why you think what you do.

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