# Existentialism — Tradition Existentialism is the 19th- and 20th-century tradition centered on individual existence, freedom, and meaning in a universe that supplies none. Its religious wing begins with [[Søren Kierkegaard]] and the "leap of faith"; its atheistic wing runs through [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] and culminates in [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] ("existence precedes essence," *[[Being and Nothingness]]*), [[Albert Camus]]'s absurdism (*[[The Myth of Sisyphus]]*), and [[Simone de Beauvoir]]. [[Martin Heidegger]]'s *[[Being and Time]]* is the philosophical hinge. ## Why it matters on the right Existentialism sits awkwardly relative to the right. Its public face — [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Simone de Beauvoir]], engaged Marxist intellectuals — is exactly the secular left the right defines itself against. But the tradition is **double-edged**. Its diagnosis of modern *meaninglessness* and nihilism, [[Martin Heidegger]]'s reactionary search for rooted authenticity, and the Dostoevskian warning that "without God everything is permitted" are taken up by the "meaning crisis" right. [[Jordan Peterson]]'s enormously popular self-help philosophy is, in effect, a Christianized, anti-nihilist existentialism of order against chaos. ## Relationship Existentialism overlaps [[Nietzscheanism]] (its atheist root), [[Continental Philosophy]] (its home tradition), and the [[Ethics]] branch (authenticity as a value). See the [[Philosophy in Right-Wing Thought Hub]] MOC.