Existentialism is one of the philosophical currents that have most influenced contemporary thought and the history of Psychology. Because of its influence, for example, the Humanistic Psychology of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, among others, appeared, authors who greatly emphasized the importance of the subjective aspects of consciousness.
Now, to understand what existentialism is, it is not enough to know the mark it left on a part of Psychology. It is preferable to know its fundamentals, among which is Albert Camus’ existentialist theory Next we will see the main aspects of this author’s philosophy.
Camus was born in French Algeria in 1913 Due to the death of his father in the First World War, he grew up with her mother in an environment of great poverty and precariousness.
When he reached early adulthood he studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and later, at the age of 25, he moved to Paris, where he became involved in political movements and became a member of the French Communist Party. Shortly afterward he was expelled from it because of his disagreements about the objectives pursued in political action. During world war II He actively participated in the underground press and he wrote part of the works that made him famous.
Some time after the armed conflict disappeared, in 1957, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in a car accident at the age of 46.
Camus’s philosophical interests were a reflection of the turbulent times in which he lived. On the one hand, the serious armed conflicts questioned the idea of progress caused by technological advances, and on the other, the great ideological movements seemed to show that had lost a common frame of reference The human being had lost a vector, a direction towards which to move in order to achieve goals pursued by all and unequivocally positive.
Existentialism explores this feeling of disorientation, as we will see in the main characteristics of Albert Camus’ theory.
1. The subjective sensation of meaning
Albert Camus begins by recognizing that human beings spontaneously develop a very strong feeling of purpose, linked to their own identity. In other words, we internalize the idea that life has meaning, without anyone having to educate us in that direction. In turn, as we will see, this gets us into trouble without hardly knowing why, without realizing that from the beginning we have fallen into a trap.
2. The absence of the meaning of life
In turn, another of the main components of Albert Camus’ existentialist theory is the principle that life, in reality, has no meaning. It is a conclusion that the philosopher arrives at simply by examining the arguments in favor of a meaning in life, and without finding a single reason why it should exist.
At the same time, all the recent scientific findings began to explain more and more areas of knowledge that had been hidden until that moment, which meant that the figure of a god who could give meaning to humanity was not needed. Camus thought that we are entirely human, and as such we are alone
The two previous elements hint at a contradiction at the heart of our existence. We believe that our lives have meaning, but this is false, and when reality gives us signs of this, we become frustrated, we perceive it as an attack on our identity and an existential crisis appears that generates a lot of discomfort
Thus, for Camus, living in a desirable way implies overcoming this contradiction, looking beyond it and accepting that tension that causes the void of meaning.
4. Assuming non-sense
How to live well? The solution is to assume the absence of a meaning constructed from outside and build it yourself. This is the revolutionary idea that many thinkers interested in self-realization inherited. If the absence of meaning in life can be suffocating, at least It is an indicator that we have the freedom to assign a totally original meaning and typical of everything we do.
In this way, from the existentialism of Albert Camus, each person has the responsibility of charting their own history. Regardless of the objective events that occur to him, it is one who interprets his life trajectory according to the narrative that he has constructed about it.
