Existentialism
Existentialism was a philosophical movement that began following World War II. During this period, there were large numbers of new freedoms being granted to artists of all kinds, and with this new latitude new forms of thinking were taking shape. The existentialism movement began in France, but quickly spread throughout Western Europe due to philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett, and Albert Camus. Through existentialism, these thinkers focused their writings on the way in which people found meaning in their lives and through their actions. Against the backdrop of the Second World War, they especially wanted to know how people made decisions under the moral dilemma of good and bad. More specifically, many of the existentialists, led by Sartre, believed that men and women (presumably post-war Europeans) left their lives to be decided largely by outside influences. In this sense they were not taking personal responsibility for their lives and, because of this, the fate of mankind was left to outside forces to do as they pleased leaving an overall feeling of helplessness for the direction of the world.
Group members: Peder Kvamme
Darrel Olson
Mike Buchanan