What came first?

[Jow]

Did you develop existential ideas yourself and then discover existentialism or did you discover existentialism first? (if course if you developed them yourself you wouldn't of known they were existential)

I've been interested in this question for a while because for a number of years i was coming to all sorts of philosophical conclusions and had already formed the basis of my perception of the world, only to later find it was remarkably similar to the ideas of sarte and camus. Reading them for the first time was quite amazing for me, to read all of my thoughts written by someone else in a far more eloquent way than i could ever achieve myself.

[zen_arcade]

I had stirrings of nihilstic thought when I was eleven, and solipsistic thought when I was around fourteen or so, I think. as ar back as I can remember I had a predominantly existential viewpoint. almost everyone I talked to about it for years thought I was crazy when I tried to explain certain ideas to them, so I really thought that almost no one had had those thoughts before. like a kid who thinks no one else masturbates.

then I started reading philosophical texts and what have you around fifteen, which helped me further explore and articulate those concepts that occured to me long ago. so yeah.

[Fallout55]

I got the idea first, then when I heard about existentialism it just clicked.
I then found the same thing happened to my uncle when he was my age. : )

[Cauduceus]

Existentialism yields on itself. We have our own innate definitions, but through minimal classification development occurs.

[praxiskepsis]

I had stirrings of nihilstic thought when I was eleven, and solipsistic thought when I was around fourteen or so, I think. as ar back as I can remember I had a predominantly existential viewpoint. almost everyone I talked to about it for years thought I was crazy when I tried to explain certain ideas to them, so I really thought that almost no one had had those thoughts before. like a kid who thinks no one else masturbates.

then I started reading philosophical texts and what have you around fifteen, which helped me further explore and articulate those concepts that occured to me long ago. so yeah.That's pretty cool. In a way I envy your intellectual precociousness.

I was an idealist through my teen years, and at age 20 or 21 I read pretty much all of Nietzsche in one winter. My outlook then made an about face.

But I really only came to fully understand Nietzsche and existentialism this year. But any way, existentialism is just another name for Greek sceptic tradition, it looks like to me.

P.S. Forgot: even at my most idealist and superstitious, I was exposed to existential sensibilities through Zen. My years of nihilism/cynicism and depression were essentially a desperate attempt to conciliate Nietzsche and Zen. Today, their relationship seems to me quite obvious. But that was because I at first misunderstood Nietzsche in much the same way that a lot of people do.

[XBloodyNailPolishX]

same as others here, I always had "existentialist views", but never had the label attached until freshmen year of high school.

[ironbutterflydied]

I too found most of my thoughts on philosophy and science much later in print, it lead me to believe that anyone debating about such things, must eventually come to rest at predesignated places...central arguments. My path started with an interest of evolutionary theories, this lead to the philosophy of science and then to logic and semantics.

[ironbutterflydied]

cup of tea.?

[The_Moroccan_Raccoon]

My dad is an existentialist, of some sort. When I began asking questions, I talked to him and he taught me tons about all kinds of philosophy. I also came across a lot of interesting stuff in his enormous collection of books. So that's where I learned about existentialism as a school of thought, but I began asking the questions on my own.

I wouldn't exactly call myself an existentialist. I'm a Jewish pantheist...there's a huge amount of crossover between my beliefs and existentialism (but definitely not nihilism)

[themnax]

i'd never heard of existentialism before someone told me they thought i was one.
as many times as i've had it explained to me, or supposedly explained to me, i will still never be certain whether i am one or not.

=^^=
.../\...

[Reefer Rogue]

My existence preceded my essence. I am only that which i make myself. I am free, I am freedom.

[famewalk]

Existential ideas, as much as we wish otherwise, hinge around the negative. Negativity was meant in original Philosophy for all determinate connecting human nature for its source in the nature scientists observe. Conscience is faulted however as never accomplishing human nature, and human nature never accomplishes what science could observe. And nature plainly ceases as the possibility for ultimately meaningful scientific observation.

Many ways our pears and elders claim that that could have been merciful. Some long time ago life fended for itself and human beings around were all basically existential.

To make a long story short the fault lies in ourselves not in the stars.

Dostoyevsky said something somewhat else when I think of it: 'the fear is in me, not in the lose rock I observe above my head.'

That would be discovering the pure state of determination; I'll forgo that one for my mind is very Christian and made up about that one.

[twmmay]

I started to feel some depersonalization about 6/7 months ago, and that got me in the existentialism state of mind, and then i heard someone sayin something about it, then i did some research, its pretty interesting :)

[Jimmy P]

as I've come into my own I've made realizations and such over the years. I'm not a big fan of labels, but yeah, my understanding of existance is similar to some of the ideas of existensialism, and I only recently learned about existensialism.

[Meretrix]

I have always thought as I do -- at east as far back as I can remember -- but only within the past year or two did I come to realize that the majority of my thoughts are considered existential and/or nihlistic.

[emsterino]

I've always thought the thoughts, and I took a quiz of which philosophy do you follow and existentialism was the result. I reaseached it a little to see what it was all about and I thought, hey, I've benn thinking this stuff all along. But my thoughts are so abstract that I can never really put them in words, so once I learned more about extentialism, it put my thoghts into words to where I actually could explain what im thinking. My thoughts are like a whole other language to me.. much more developed and when I try to explain them its like im doing a horrible job translating the language of my thoughts... ya know? So its good to have something explain better what you are thinking, even thought you already were thinking them... it just puts it in a different perspective or something like that

[MokshaMedicine]

That's a great question. I have nothing wrong with people who learn about existentialism and then develop that kind of thinking but it's amazing that I actually had that mindset for most of my life. Learning there are actual names for and a lot of other people sharing that mindset is an amazing feeling.

[DutchElephant]

My existential beliefs came before knowledge of those who shared said beliefs.

First, I was really interested in Eastern philosophies like Buddhism and Taoism-because I had never really given into the notion of a higher being. So I still really appreciate and am strongly influenced by these faiths-especially Buddhism. However, as of now I connect more with Existentialism because it's more life embracing, less superstitious, and echoes my feelings towards freedom, responsibility, and morality.

[famewalk]

We get along knowing the unknown and all paths are certainly confident of a result. Ya..ah I'm waiting for Godot. Not really as the indeterminism counts on what I do and think.

And whatever will be will be: the future is not ours to see.

[BrotherMat]

I became interested in the idea of exhistentialism before i realized it was a real thing and it was definitly a philosophical thought, i beagn thinking that at te end of the day, everything is lost and life is without real purpose and meaning, therfor i became interested in nihilism and exhistentialism and asked "Natural phiosophy" for class-A nihilistic information

[i0-techno]

I would assume they came at the same time seeing as time doesn't really matter or exist or umm whatever you call it and all thoughts have been thought by somebody, somewhere, here there and everywhere you have not been, because if you had been there and known it, you would not ask questions like this. They may be getting thought right now just because. If you were willing to, you may just feel the need to think it too, but really is it worth it, no no... rather, what is it worth? I would think it is only worth the brain that thought it and ours barely works so stfu and squeeze your wimsum into some cowpung.. oh and ride ya bike there and back.

[fluttersteke]

I've had my own ideas before I even heard of existentialism. I didn't know what it was until someone explained it to me. It kinda freaked me out as first how well it just clicked.