The Meaning Of Life In Existentialist Philosophy

Abstract

This article examines the existentialist philosophy's perspective on the meaning of life and contrasts it with conventional religious and rationalist interpretations. The research concentrates on prominent figures of existentialist, such as Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Viktor Frankl, analyzing fundamental themes of freedom, responsibility, authenticity, absurdity, transcendence, and finitude. Through comparative conceptual study of original texts and hermeneutic interpretation, the paper reconstructs the existentialist assertion that existence lacks an inherent, objective goal, deriving meaning instead from specific personal choices and responsible commitments. The findings indicate that existentialists reframe traditional metaphysical inquiries via the lens of individual existence, experiential reality, and temporal context. For theistic existentialists, meaning is intimately connected to a personal relationship with God and the act of faith; for atheistic existentialists, it emerges from self-creation in a context of contingency and abandonment. The article also talks about how Frankl's existential-analytical approach corrects nihilistic tendencies by focusing on the human "will to meaning" and the idea that you may find meaning even amid pain. The discourse contends that existentialist transcends ordinary expressions of sorrow, instead articulating a rigorous ethics of self-formation and solidarity rooted in precarious freedom. The conclusion emphasizes the enduring significance of existentialist contemplations on meaning in relation to current problems of value, identity, and technological alienation.