Existentialism Research Paper Topics
![existentialism research paper topics Academic Writing Service](https://www.iresearchnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Banner-728x90-1.png)
This page provides a comprehensive list of existentialism research paper topics , offering an extensive guide for philosophy students exploring this crucial area of study. It covers a wide range of themes, encompassing a detailed topic list categorized into ten distinct sections, a thorough article examining existentialism and the multitude of research paper topics it entails, and a complete overview of the iResearchNet’s writing services, tailored to support students in their academic pursuits.
![](http://pechenka.online/777/templates/cheerup1/res/banner1.gif)
100 Existentialism Research Paper Topics
The study of existentialism is crucial for understanding the human condition and our place in the world. It addresses the most fundamental questions of existence, freedom, and meaning. This page provides a comprehensive list of existentialism research paper topics that can guide students in exploring the profound ideas and themes associated with this philosophical movement.
Academic Writing, Editing, Proofreading, And Problem Solving Services
Get 10% off with 24start discount code.
- Basics of Existentialism
- The concept of ‘being’ in existentialism
- The role of freedom and choice in existentialism
- Existentialism and the absurd
- The concept of ‘bad faith’ in existentialism
- The relationship between existentialism and nihilism
- Existentialism and the concept of ‘the other’
- The role of anxiety and dread in existentialism
- Existentialism and the search for meaning
- The concept of ‘authenticity’ in existentialism
- The role of death and finitude in existentialism
- Existentialism and Religion
- Kierkegaard’s concept of ‘leap of faith’
- Existentialism and the problem of evil
- The role of God in existential thought
- The existential critique of religious institutions
- Existentialism and atheism
- The concept of ‘despair’ in Kierkegaard’s thought
- Existentialism and mysticism
- The role of faith and belief in existentialism
- Existentialism and the concept of ‘the absurd’ in religious contexts
- The relationship between existentialism and Buddhism
- Key Figures in Existentialism
- The philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard
- The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
- The philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre
- The philosophy of Albert Camus
- The philosophy of Martin Heidegger
- The philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir
- The philosophy of Karl Jaspers
- The philosophy of Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The philosophy of Franz Kafka
- The philosophy of Gabriel Marcel
- Existentialism in Literature and Arts
- Existential themes in the works of Franz Kafka
- The representation of existentialism in film
- Existentialism and the theatre of the absurd
- The role of existentialism in modern art
- Existentialism in the works of Albert Camus
- The influence of existentialism on music
- Existential themes in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The representation of existentialism in popular culture
- Existentialism and postmodern literature
- The influence of existentialism on contemporary theatre
- Ethical Considerations in Existentialism
- The concept of ‘bad faith’ and its ethical implications
- Existentialism and the ethics of responsibility
- The role of freedom and choice in existential ethics
- Existentialism and the concept of ‘the other’ in ethics
- The ethical implications of existential nihilism
- The ethics of authenticity in existentialism
- Existentialism and the ethics of despair
- The ethical implications of existential anxiety
- Existentialism and the ethics of death and finitude
- The ethics of existentialism in a globalized world
- Existential Psychology
- The influence of existentialism on humanistic psychology
- Existential psychotherapy and the concept of ‘the other’
- The role of anxiety and dread in existential psychology
- Existential psychology and the search for meaning
- The concept of ‘authenticity’ in existential psychology
- The role of death and finitude in existential psychology
- Existential psychology and the concept of ‘the absurd’
- The influence of existential psychology on contemporary psychotherapy
- Existential psychology and the treatment of depression
- The role of existential psychology in understanding mental health
- Feminist Existentialism
- Simone de Beauvoir and the concept of ‘the other’
- Existentialism and the feminist critique of patriarchy
- Feminist existentialism and the concept of ‘bad faith’
- The role of freedom and choice in feminist existentialism
- Feminist existentialism and the search for meaning
- The concept of ‘authenticity’ in feminist existentialism
- Feminist existentialism and the ethics of responsibility
- The role of existentialism in contemporary feminist thought
- Feminist existentialism and the concept of ‘the absurd’
- The influence of feminist existentialism on contemporary gender studies
- Existentialism in Modern Context
- Existentialism and the challenges of globalization
- Existentialism and the ethics of technology
- The role of existentialism in contemporary political thought
- Existentialism and the challenges of environmentalism
- The influence of existentialism on postmodern thought
- Existentialism and the ethics of social justice
- The role of existentialism in contemporary education
- Existentialism and the challenges of secularism
- The influence of existentialism on contemporary psychology
- Existentialism and the ethics of artificial intelligence
- Comparative Studies (Existentialism vs. other philosophies)
- Existentialism and phenomenology
- Existentialism and Marxism
- Existentialism and rationalism
- Existentialism and empiricism
- Existentialism and postmodernism
- Existentialism and pragmatism
- Existentialism and structuralism
- Existentialism and deconstruction
- Existentialism and psychoanalysis
- Existentialism and humanism
- Criticisms of Existentialism
- The critique of existentialism by rationalists
- The critique of existentialism by empiricists
- The critique of existentialism by Marxists
- The critique of existentialism by feminists
- The critique of existentialism by postmodernists
- The critique of existentialism by psychoanalysts
- The critique of existentialism by theologians
- The critique of existentialism by humanists
- The critique of existentialism by pragmatists
- The critique of existentialism by deconstructionists
The comprehensive list provided above demonstrates the relevance and necessity of research in existentialism. It encompasses a broad spectrum of topics, from the fundamental concepts of existential thought to its influence on contemporary society, literature, and art. Students and scholars alike can benefit from exploring these existentialism research paper topics, as they delve into the complexities and nuances of this influential philosophical movement.
The Range of Existentialism Research Paper Topics
Existentialism, a philosophical movement that originated in the 19th and 20th centuries, has been a significant influence on various aspects of modern thought and culture. This philosophical approach focuses on the individual’s experience and emphasizes freedom, choice, and responsibility. It has had a profound impact on literature, art, psychology, theology, and even politics. The range of existentialism research paper topics is vast and provides a rich field for academic research and exploration.
Importance and relevance of existentialism in philosophy
Existentialism addresses the most fundamental aspects of human existence, focusing on individual experience, freedom, responsibility, and the search for meaning in a seemingly indifferent or even hostile world. This philosophy challenges individuals to confront the ‘absurdity’ of life and to create their own meaning and values, rather than relying on external authorities or traditional beliefs. It also emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and the consequences of our choices and actions. These themes are incredibly relevant in today’s world, where many people struggle with feelings of alienation, meaninglessness, and existential anxiety.
Discussion on Topics
Exploring the various existentialism research paper topics can provide a deeper understanding of the different aspects of this philosophy and its impact on various fields of study. Here are some areas worth exploring:
- Basics of Existentialism: Understanding the foundational concepts of existentialism is crucial for anyone interested in this philosophy. Research topics in this area can include the concept of ‘being’ in existentialism, the role of freedom and choice, existentialism and the absurd, and the concept of ‘bad faith.’
- Existentialism and Religion: Existentialism has a complex relationship with religion. Some existentialist thinkers, such as Kierkegaard, were deeply religious, while others, like Sartre, were atheists. Research topics in this area can explore the role of God in existential thought, the existential critique of religious institutions, and the relationship between existentialism and Buddhism.
- Key Figures in Existentialism: The works of key figures in existentialism, such as Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir, provide a wealth of material for research. Topics can include an exploration of their individual philosophies, a comparison of their ideas, or an analysis of their influence on literature, art, or modern culture.
- Existentialism in Literature and Arts: Existentialism has had a significant influence on literature, film, theatre, and art. Research topics in this area can explore the representation of existentialism in film, the role of existentialism in modern art, and the influence of existentialism on music.
- Ethical Considerations in Existentialism: Existentialism places a strong emphasis on personal responsibility and the ethical implications of our choices and actions. Research topics in this area can explore the ethics of existentialism, the concept of ‘bad faith’ and its ethical implications, and the role of freedom and choice in existential ethics.
- Existential Psychology: Existential psychology focuses on the human experience and the existential challenges and concerns that we all face, such as freedom, responsibility, meaning, and death. Research topics in this area can explore the influence of existentialism on humanistic psychology, the role of existential psychology in understanding mental health, and the treatment of depression using existential psychotherapy.
- Feminist Existentialism: Feminist existentialism explores the intersection of existentialism and feminism. Research topics in this area can explore the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir, the role of freedom and choice in feminist existentialism, and the influence of feminist existentialism on contemporary gender studies.
- Existentialism in Modern Context: Existentialism continues to be relevant in the modern world and has influenced various aspects of contemporary society, such as politics, education, and technology. Research topics in this area can explore the challenges of globalization, the ethics of technology, and the role of existentialism in contemporary political thought.
- Comparative Studies (Existentialism vs. other philosophies): Comparing existentialism with other philosophical movements, such as phenomenology, Marxism, rationalism, or postmodernism, can provide valuable insights into the similarities and differences between these philosophies. Research topics in this area can explore the relationship between existentialism and phenomenology, existentialism and Marxism, or existentialism and postmodernism.
- Criticisms of Existentialism: Existentialism has faced various criticisms from other philosophical movements and thinkers. Research topics in this area can explore the critique of existentialism by rationalists, empiricists, Marxists, feminists, postmodernists, psychoanalysts, theologians, humanists, pragmatists, or deconstructionists.
The importance of existentialism cannot be overstated. It addresses fundamental questions about human existence, freedom, responsibility, and the search for meaning in a seemingly indifferent or even hostile world. The range of existentialism research paper topics is vast and provides a rich field for academic research and exploration. Whether you are interested in the foundational concepts of existentialism, its influence on literature, art, or modern culture, its ethical implications, or its relevance in today’s world, there is a wealth of material to explore and analyze. Understanding existentialism and its various research areas is not only academically rewarding but can also provide valuable insights into the challenges and concerns of our modern world.
iResearchNet’s Custom Writing Services
iResearchNet is a premier online writing service specializing in philosophy research papers, with a particular focus on existentialism topics. We understand the complexities and nuances associated with philosophical research and are dedicated to providing students with the highest quality of work to support their academic endeavors.
Features of the iResearchNet’s Services:
- Expert Degree-Holding Writers : Our team consists of writers who hold advanced degrees in philosophy and have extensive experience in academic research and writing. They are well-versed in existentialism and its various subfields, ensuring that your research paper is both accurate and insightful.
- Custom Written Works : Every paper we deliver is custom written to meet your specific requirements. We do not resell papers or use pre-written content. This ensures that your paper is unique and tailored to your needs.
- In-depth Research : Our writers conduct thorough research using the most recent and relevant sources. This ensures that your paper is well-grounded in the existing literature and contributes to the ongoing discourse on existentialism.
- Custom Formatting : We offer custom formatting in all major citation styles. Our writers are well-versed in the intricacies of each style and will ensure that your paper is correctly formatted throughout.
- Top Quality : We are committed to delivering the highest quality work. Every paper is meticulously researched, carefully written, and thoroughly proofread to ensure it meets our exacting standards.
- Customized Solutions : We understand that every student’s needs are unique, and we offer customized solutions to meet those needs. Whether you need a full research paper, assistance with a specific section, or help with editing and formatting, we can provide the support you need.
- Flexible Pricing : We offer flexible pricing options to accommodate different budgets. Our pricing is transparent and straightforward, with no hidden fees.
- Short Deadlines : We understand that sometimes deadlines can creep up on you. We offer fast turnaround times, with the option to have your paper completed in as little as three hours.
- Timely Delivery : We are committed to delivering your paper on time, every time. We understand the importance of deadlines and will ensure your paper is completed and delivered promptly.
- 24/7 Support : Our customer support team is available 24/7 to assist you with any questions or concerns. Whether you need help placing an order, have a question about your paper, or need to make a last-minute change, we are here to help.
- Absolute Privacy : We take your privacy seriously. Your personal information will never be shared with third parties, and all transactions are secure and confidential.
- Easy Order Tracking : Our easy-to-use online system allows you to track the progress of your order at every stage. You can communicate with your writer, upload additional materials, and request revisions if necessary.
- Money-Back Guarantee : We are confident in the quality of our work and offer a money-back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with your paper, you can request a refund.
Unlock Your Potential with iResearchNet!
Are you struggling with your existentialism research paper? Don’t worry, we are here to help. Order a custom existentialism research paper on any topic from iResearchNet and take the first step towards academic success. Our expert writers will provide you with a meticulously researched and carefully written paper that meets all your requirements. Unlock your potential with iResearchNet!
Writing a research paper on existentialism can be a daunting task. It requires a deep understanding of complex philosophical concepts, meticulous research, and careful analysis. At iResearchNet, we understand these challenges and are here to help. Our expert writers, custom-written works, in-depth research, and commitment to quality make us the ideal choice for your existentialism research paper needs. With our support, you can overcome the challenges and succeed in your academic endeavors. Order your custom existentialism research paper from iResearchNet today!
Take the First Step Towards Academic Success!
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Your academic journey is no different. Writing an existentialism research paper is a significant milestone in your academic journey, and we at iResearchNet are here to support you every step of the way. Our expert writers, comprehensive research, and commitment to quality ensure that your paper will not only meet but exceed your expectations. By choosing iResearchNet for your existentialism research paper needs, you are choosing to prioritize your academic success. Don’t leave your success to chance. Take the first step towards your academic success by ordering your custom existentialism research paper from iResearchNet today! Your future self will thank you.
ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER
![existentialism research paper topics](https://www.iresearchnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ban3-1-2.png)
![existentialism research paper topics SEP home page](https://plato.stanford.edu/symbols/sep-man-red.png)
- Table of Contents
- Random Entry
- Chronological
- Editorial Information
- About the SEP
- Editorial Board
- How to Cite the SEP
- Special Characters
- Advanced Tools
- Support the SEP
- PDFs for SEP Friends
- Make a Donation
- SEPIA for Libraries
- Entry Contents
Bibliography
Academic tools.
- Friends PDF Preview
- Author and Citation Info
- Back to Top
Existentialism
As an intellectual movement that exploded on the scene in mid-twentieth-century France, “existentialism” is often viewed as a historically situated event that emerged against the backdrop of the Second World War, the Nazi death camps, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of which created the circumstances for what has been called “the existentialist moment” (Baert 2015), where an entire generation was forced to confront the human condition and the anxiety-provoking givens of death, freedom, and meaninglessness. Although the most popular voices of this movement were French, most notably Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as compatriots such as Albert Camus, Gabriel Marcel, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the conceptual groundwork of the movement was laid much earlier in the nineteenth century by pioneers like Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche and twentieth-century German philosophers like Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Karl Jaspers as well as prominent Spanish intellectuals José Ortega y Gasset and Miguel de Unamuno. The core ideas have also been illuminated in key literary works. Beyond the plays, short stories, and novels by French luminaries like Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus, there were Parisian writers such as Jean Genet and André Gide, the Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, the work of Norwegian authors such as Henrik Ibsen and Knut Hamsun, and the German-language iconoclasts Franz Kafka and Rainer Maria Rilke. The movement even found expression across the pond in the work of the “lost generation” of American writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, mid-century “beat” authors like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, and William S. Burroughs, and the self-proclaimed “American existentialist,” Norman Mailer (Cotkin 2003, 185).
What distinguishes existentialism from other movements in the intellectual history of the West is how it stretched far beyond the literary and academic worlds. Its ideas are captured in films by Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Goddard, Akira Kurosawa, and Terrence Malick. Its moods are expressed in the paintings of Edvard Munch, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Edward Hopper and in the vitiated forms of the sculptor Alberto Giocometti. Its emphasis on freedom and the struggle for self-creation informed the radical and emancipatory politics of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as well as the writings of Black intellectuals such as Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Its engagement with the relationship between faith and freedom and the incomprehensibility of God shaped theological debates through the lectures and writings of Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and Martin Buber, among others. And, with its penetrating analyses of anxiety and the importance of self-realization, the movement has had a profound impact in the development of humanistic and existential approaches to psychotherapy in the work of a wide range of theorists, including R.D. Laing, Rollo May, Viktor Frankl, and Irvin Yalom.
With this broad and diverse range of incarnations, it is difficult to explain what the term “existentialism” refers to. The word, first introduced by Marcel in 1943, is certainly not a reference to a coherent system or philosophical school. [ 1 ] Indeed, the major contributors are anything but systematic and have widely divergent views, and of these, only Sartre and Beauvoir explicitly self-identified as “existentialists.” In surveying its representative thinkers, one finds secular and religious existentialists, philosophers who embrace a conception of radical freedom and others who reject it. And there are those who regard our relations with others as largely mired in conflict and self-deception and others who recognize a deep capacity for self-less love and interdependence. Given these disparate threads and the fact that there is no unifying doctrine, one can nonetheless distill a set of overlapping ideas that bind the movement together.
- Nihilism : The emergence of existentialism as an intellectual movement was influenced by the rise of nihilism in late nineteenth century Europe as the pre-modern religious worldview was replaced with one that was increasingly secular and scientific. This historical transition resulted in the loss of a transcendent moral framework and contributed to the rise of modernity’s signature experiences: anxiety, alienation, boredom, and meaninglessness.
- Engagement vs. Detachment : Against a philosophical tradition that privileges the standpoint of theoretical detachment and objectivity, existentialism generally begins in medias res , amidst our own situated, first-person experience. The human condition is revealed through an examination of the ways we concretely engage with the world in our everyday lives and struggle to make sense of and give meaning to our existence.
- Existence Precedes Essence : Existentialists forward a novel conception of the self not as a substance or thing with some pre-given nature (or “essence”) but as a situated activity or way of being whereby we are always in the process of making or creating who we are as our life unfolds. This means our essence is not given in advance; we are contingently thrown into existence and are burdened with the task of creating ourselves through our choices and actions.
- Freedom : Existentialists agree that what distinguishes our existence from that of other beings is that we are self-conscious and exist for ourselves, which means we are free and responsible for who we are and what we do. This does not mean we are wholly undetermined but, rather, that we are always beyond or more than ourselves because of our capacity to interpret and give meaning to whatever limits or determines us.
- Authenticity : Existentialists are critical of our ingrained tendency to conform to the norms and expectations of the public world because it prevents us from being authentic or true to ourselves. An authentic life is one that is willing to break with tradition and social convention and courageously affirm the freedom and contingency of our condition. It is generally understood to refer to a life lived with a sense of urgency and commitment based on the meaning-giving projects that matter to each of us as individuals.
- Ethics : Although they reject the idea of moral absolutes and universalizing judgments about right conduct, existentialism should not be dismissed for promoting moral nihilism. For the existentialist, a moral or praiseworthy life is possible. It is one where we acknowledge and own up to our freedom, take full responsibility for our choices, and act in such a way as to help others realize their freedom.
These ideas serve to structure the entry.
1. Nihilism and the Crisis of Modernity
2.1 subjective truth, 2.2 perspectivism, 2.3 being-in-the-world, 2.4 embodiment, 3. existence precedes essence, 4.1 the anxiety of choice, 4.2 mediated freedom, 5.1 the power of moods, 5.2 kierkegaard’s knight of faith, 5.3 nietzsche’s overman, 5.4 heidegger’s resolute dasein, 5.5 self-recovery in sartre and beauvoir, 6.1 authentic being-for-others, 6.2 the ethics of recognition, 6.3 the ethics of engagement, 7.1 post-structuralism, 7.2 narrative and hermeneutic philosophy, 7.3 philosophy of mind and cognitive science, 7.4 critical phenomenology, 7.5 comparative and environmental philosophy, 7.6 philosophy of health and illness, 7.7 a new generation, other internet resources, related entries.
We can find early glimpses of what might be called the “existential attitude” (Solomon 2005) in the Stoic and Epicurean philosophies of antiquity, in the struggle with sin and desire in St. Augustine’s Confessions , in the intimate reflections on death and the meaning of life in Michel de Montaigne’s Essays , and in the confrontation with the “dreadful silence” of the cosmos in Blaise Pascal’s Pensées . But it was not until the nineteenth century that the ideas began to coalesce into a bona fide intellectual movement. By this time, an increasingly secular and scientific worldview was emerging and the traditional religious framework that gave pre-modern life a sense of moral orientation and cohesion was beginning to collapse. Without a north star of moral absolutes to guide us, the modern subject was left abandoned and lost, “wandering,” as Nietzsche writes, “as if through an endless nothing” (1887 [1974], §125). But it wasn’t just the rise of modern science and its cold mechanistic view of the world as a value-less aggregate of objects in causal interaction that contributed to the anxiety and forlornness of the modern age. The rise of Protestantism also played a role. With its rejection of hierarchical Church authority, this new form of Christianity emphasized subjective inwardness and created a unique social configuration grounded in principles of individualism, freedom, and self-reliance. The result was the loss of a sense of community and belongingness rooted in the close-knit social bonds of traditional society. And the Protestant shift intensified the Christian attitude of contemptus mundi (“contempt for the world”), contributing to feelings of loneliness and creating a perception of public life as a domain that was fundamentally inauthentic and corrupt (Aho 2020; Guignon 2004; Taylor 1989).
Along with these historical developments, social transformations associated with the Industrial Revolution and the formation of the modern state were emerging. With newly mechanized working conditions and bureaucratic forms of administration, an increasingly impersonal and alienating social order was established. When Ortega y Gasset introduces his notion of “the mass man,” he captures the automation and lifeless conformism of the machine age, where everybody “feels just like everybody else and is nevertheless not concerned about it” (1930 [1993, 15]). In their conceptions of “the public” (Kierkegaard), “the herd” (Nietzsche), and “the They” (Heidegger), existentialists offer powerful critiques of the leveled down and routinized ways of being that characterize mass society. And the novels and short stories of Dostoevsky, Camus, and Kafka capture the bourgeois emptiness and boredom of the managerial class and the paranoia and distrust that emerges when life is regulated and controlled by faceless bureaucrats.
These social transformations created the conditions for nihilism, where modern humanity suddenly found itself adrift and confused, unsure of which path to take or where to look for a stable and enduring sense of truth and meaning. The condition of nihilism involves the shocking recognition that there is no overarching reason, order, or purpose to our existence, that it is all fundamentally meaningless and absurd. Of all the existentialists, Nietzsche was the most influential and prophetic in diagnosing and conceptualizing the crisis. With the death of God and the loss of moral absolutes, we are exposed to existence “in its most terrible form … without meaning or aim” (Nietzsche 1887 [1974], §55). And it is against this anomic background that the question of existence, of what it means to be, becomes so urgent. But it is a question that requires taking a radically different standpoint than the one privileged by the philosophical tradition.
2. Engagement vs. Detachment
From Plato onward, Western philosophy has generally prioritized a methodology grounded in a perspective of rational detachment and objectivity to arrive at truths that are immutable and timeless. By practicing what Merleau-Ponty disparagingly calls, “high-altitude thinking” (1964 [1968], 73), the philosopher adopts a perspective that is detached and impersonal, a “God’s eye view” or “view from nowhere” uncorrupted by the contingencies of our emotions, our embodiment, or the prejudices of our time and place. In this way the philosopher can grasp the “reality” behind the flux of “appearances,” the essential and timeless nature of things “under the perspective of eternity” ( sub specie aeternitatis ). Existentialism offers a thoroughgoing rejection of this view, arguing that we cannot look down on the human condition from a detached, third-person perspective because we are already thrown into the self-interpreting event or activity of existing, an activity that is always embodied, felt, and historically situated. Existence, then, is generally grasped not just through dispassionate theorizing but through a careful analysis of first-person experience, of the concrete, flesh and blood particulars of everyday life and the feelings, relationships, and commitments that make us who we are. It is a philosophy that begins from the standpoint of the engagé , of the individual who is engaged in life and who confronts the givens of existence.
The existentialist critique of theoretical detachment was pioneered by Kierkegaard whose scorn was directed primarily at G.W. F. Hegel, a philosopher who adopted the “perspective of eternity” to build a metaphysical system that would provide complete knowledge of reality. By taking a disengaged and panoptic view, Kierkegaard argues Hegel’s system invariably covers over the deeply personal project of being human and the specific needs and concerns of the existing individual. In his words, “it makes the subject accidental, and thereby transforms existence into something indifferent, something vanishing” (1846 [1941, 173]). In response, Kierkegaard reverses the traditional orientation that privileges objectivity by claiming that, when it comes to the question of existence, one’s own subjective truth is “ the highest truth attainable ” (1846 [1941, 182]). This means the abstract truths of philosophical detachment are always subordinate to the concrete truths of the existing individual. “The real subject,” writes Kierkegaard, “is not the cognitive subject … the real subject is the ethically existing subject” (1846 [1941, 281]). And subjective truth cannot be reasoned about or explained logically; it emerges out of the situated commitments, affects, and needs of the individual. For this reason, it does not disclose timeless and objective truths; it discloses “a truth which is true for me” (1835 [1959, 44]). For Kierkegaard, to live this truth invariably results in feelings of anxiety and confusion because it is objectively uncertain; it has no rational justification, and no one else can understand or relate to it. It is an ineffable truth that is felt rather than known. In this sense, the existing individual “discovers something that thought cannot think” (Kierkegaard 1844 [1936, 29]). But prioritizing the contingent and unrationalizable truths of existence does not mean Kierkegaard is forwarding a position of “irrationalism.” He is claiming, rather, that the standpoint of rational detachment cannot help us access the self-defining commitments and projects that matter to the existing individual. Truths of flesh and blood cannot be reduced to systematic explanation because such truths do not provide us with objective knowledge. Rather, they lay bare the passionate and urgent sense of how we should live our lives. They tell the individual: “what I am to do , not what I am to know” (Kierkegaard, 1835 [1959, 44]).
Nietzsche echoes Kierkegaard’s misgivings about methodological detachment and philosophical systems but he does so by forwarding a pragmatic and perspectival account of truth. He argues that philosophers don’t discover objective truths by means of detached reasoning because truth claims are always shaped by and embedded in specific sociohistorical contexts. Truths, for Nietzsche, are best understood as social constructs; they are created or invented by a historical people, and they endure only so long as they are socially useful. On Nietzsche’s account, truths are passed down historically for generations to the point where they are uncritically accepted as “facts.” But from the standpoint of perspectivism, “facts are precisely what there is not, [there are] only interpretations. [The world] has no meaning behind it, but countless meanings” (Nietzsche 1901 [1968], §481). Nietzsche’s genealogy is one that shows how the history of Western philosophy is largely a history of forgetting how truths are invented. “It is only by means of forgetfulness,” he writes, “that man can ever reach the point of fancying himself to possess a ‘truth’” (Nietzsche 1889a [1990a], §93). This means human beings are already bound up in socially constructed perspectives that they cannot disengage or detach from. To exist, then, is to live in one’s “own perspectival forms, and only in them. We cannot see around our own corner” (Nietzsche 1887 [1974], §374). There is no aperspectival “reality.” The epistemological distinction between “appearance” and “reality” is a pseudo-problem that is always parasitic on the perspectival forms that we inhabit.
Nietzsche goes on to suggest there is a psychological motivation in our shared belief in objective truth. It shelters us from the terrifying contingency and mutability of existence. Nietzsche understands that human beings are vulnerable and frightened creatures, and the belief in truth—even though it is an illusion—has social and pragmatic utility by providing a measure of coherence and reliability. We need these truths for psychological protection, to help us cope with an otherwise chaotic and precarious existence. “Truth,” therefore, “is that sort of error without which a certain species of life could not live” (Nietzsche 1901 [1968], §493).
In Being and Time , Heidegger will expand on this critique of detachment and objectivity by developing his own phenomenological analysis of existence or “being-in-the-world” ( In-der-Welt-sein ). Following the core maxim of phenomenology introduced by his teacher Husserl, Heidegger’s philosophy attempts to return “to the things themselves,” to not explain but describe how things are given, reveal themselves, and make sense to us in our average everyday lives. Employing the word “Dasein,” a colloquial German term that refers to the kind of “existence” or “being” unique to humans, Heidegger makes it clear he is not interested in a systematic explanation of what we are , as if existence referred to the objective presence of a substance—e.g., a rational animal, an ego cogito , or an ensouled body. As a phenomenologist, he is concerned with how we are . In his version of phenomenology, Dasein is viewed not as a substance with what-like characteristics but as a self-interpreting, meaning-giving activity. Dasein refers to “the subject’s way of being ” (Heidegger 1927 [1982, 123]), someone who is always already involved and engaged with the equipment, institutions, and practices of a shared world and that embodies a tacit understanding of how to be in that world.
Heidegger’s conception of being-in-the-world articulates three related ideas that will become central to twentieth-century existentialism and phenomenology. First, it offers a thoroughgoing rejection of the Cartesian view of the self or “I” as a discrete mental container of “inner” thoughts and beliefs that is somehow separate and distinct from “outer” objects in the world. There is no inner-outer dualism because the self is not a disembodied mind or consciousness. It is the activity of existing, a relational activity that is structurally bound up in the world. Thus, “self and world belong together in the single entity, the Dasein” (Heidegger 1927 [1982, 297]). Second, Heidegger compels us to rethink what we mean by “world.” From a phenomenological perspective, the world is not a geometrical space nor is it the sum of objects. It is the relational setting of our lives, the shared context of meaning that we are already involved in. And our involvement in the world allows objects to count and matter to us in particular ways. Third, Heidegger suggests that being-in-the-world is a meaning-giving activity. When we engage with and handle objects in the world, we give them meaning; we encounter them as meaningful . What appears to us in the immediacy of lived experience is always shaped by the public meanings we grow into. The fact that our existence is “fraught with meaning” suggests that experience has an intentional structure; it is always directed towards objects; it is about or of something (Heidegger 1919 [2002, 60]). The experience of hearing, for example, is not a representation of bare sense data because sounds are invariably colored by the context of meaning we are thrown into. We hear some- thing : we hear “the thunder of the heavens, the rustling of the woods, the rumbling of the motors, the noises of the city” (Heidegger 1950 [1971, 65], emphasis added). Meaning, on this view, is not generated by detached cognitive associations. It emerges against the background of our functional involvement in the world, in the way we are situated and engaged in a shared network of equipment, roles, institutions, and projects. And this engagement reveals a kind of pre-reflective competence or practical “know how” ( können ) that can never be made theoretically explicit.
We see, then, that in their critique of third-person detachment existentialists forward the idea that we are already “caught up in the world” (Merleau-Ponty 1945 [1962, 5]). And an essential aspect of being caught up in this way is the experience of one’s own embodiment and the crucial role that bodily orientation, affectivity, perception, and motility play in our everyday being-in-the-world. In this way, philosophers such as Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Marcel challenge the traditional interpretation of the body. Against the standard “Cartesian account,” the body is not regarded as a discrete, causally determined object, extended in space, and set apart from the disinterested gaze of the cognizing mind. The body is not something I have. It is a site of affectivity and meaning. It is who I am . And I cannot obtain objective knowledge of my body because I am already living through it; it is the experiential medium of my existence. “The body,” as Sartre puts it, “is lived and not known .” (1943 [1956, 427]) [ 2 ]
By building on the analysis of the lived body ( corps propre , corps vécu , corps vivant , Leib ), existentialists reveal how our moods, perceptions, and experiences are already bound up in worldly meanings, how we internalize these meanings, and how this act of internalization shapes the way we live, how we handle the tools of daily life, maneuver through lived space, relate to others, and interpret and perform our identities. In her pathbreaking work The Second Sex , Beauvoir illuminates this point by showing how a woman tends to internalize the dominant androcentric worldview, resulting in a representation of herself as subordinate, weak, and inferior. She is the “second sex” not because she is born with a particular biological body, but because she inhabits, enacts, and embodies the oppressive meanings and practices unique to her patriarchal situation. As Beauvoir famously puts it, the woman “is not born , but rather becomes a woman.” This is because “the body is not a thing; it is a situation… subject to taboos [and] laws… It is a reference to certain values from which [she] evaluates [herself]” (1949 [1952, 34, 36]).
The existentialist’s distinction between the object-body and the lived-body has made it possible for contemporary philosophers and social theorists to engage the lived experience of those who have been historically marginalized by the western tradition. By rejecting the standpoint of theoretical detachment and focusing on the structures of embodiment and being-in-the-world, influential thinkers such as Franz Fanon (1952 [1967]), Iris Marion Young (1984 [2000]), and Judith Butler (1990), among others, have explored different ways in which we enact and embody forms of oppression and how this can shape our self-image and inhibit the experience of movement, spatial orientation, and other forms of bodily comportment. These investigations help to broaden and pluralize our understanding of the human condition by shedding light on a diverse range of embodied perspectives, from ethnicity and race, sex and gender, and age and physical ability. And insofar as these analyses help capture what is distinct about the meaning-giving activity of humans, they illuminate what is arguably the unifying principle of existentialism: “existence precedes essence.”
This principle was initially introduced early on in Heidegger’s Being and Time when he writes, “The ‘essence’ of Dasein lies in its existence” (1927 [1962, 42]). [ 3 ] Sartre will later repackage this line with the pithy adage, “existence precedes essence” (1946 [2001, 292]). What this statement suggests is that there is no pre-given or essential nature that determines us, which means that we are always other than ourselves, that we don’t fully coincide with who we are. We exist for ourselves as self-making or self-defining beings, and we are always in the process of making or defining ourselves through the situated choices we make as our lives unfold. This is, according to Sartre, “the first principle of existentialism,” and it “means, first, that man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself” (1946 [2001, 292–3]). The point here is that there can be no complete or definitive account of being human because there is nothing that grounds or secures our existence. Existence is fundamentally unsettled and incomplete because we are always projecting forward into possibilities, “hurling ourselves toward a future” as we imagine and re-imagine who we will be. Existence, then, is not a static thing; it is a dynamic process of self-making.
Acknowledging existence as a self-making process does not mean the existentialist is denying that there are determinate aspects or “facts” about our situation that limit and constrain us. This is our givenness (or “facticity”), and it includes aspects of our being such as our embodiment and spatiality, our creaturely appetites and desires, and the socio-historical context we find ourselves in. But what distinguishes us as humans is that we have the capacity to rise above or “transcend” these facts in the way we relate to, interpret, and make sense of them. If I am compelled by a strong desire for sex, alcohol, or cigarettes, for instance, I do not out of necessity have to act on these desires. I have the freedom to question them and give them meaning, and the meanings I attribute to them shape my choices and the direction my life will take going forward.
This means, unlike other organisms, we are self-conscious beings who can surpass our facticity by calling it into question, interpreting it in different ways, and making decisions about how to deal with it in the future. This is what Kierkegaard means when he describes existence as “a relation that relates to itself” (1849 [1989, 43]). Existence is a reflexive or relational tension between “facticity” and “transcendence,” where we are constrained by our facticity but simultaneously endowed with the freedom to exceed or transcend it. The human being is, as Ortega y Gasset writes, “a kind of ontological centaur, half immersed in nature, half transcending it” (1941, 111). We are not wholly determined by our nature because our nature is always a question or an issue for us. We have the capacity to reflect on and care about it. And the way we care about our nature informs how we create ourselves. Sartre will go so far as to say that human existence is fundamentally “indefinable” and that “there is no human nature” because there is no aspect of our facticity that can fully describe us. Our facticity reveals itself to us only through the self-defining meanings and values that we give to it. “If man […] is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing . Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be” (1946 [2001, 293]). This idea that facticity can always be nullified or negated by our choices reveals the key to understanding the existentialist conception of freedom.
Recognizing that there is no pre-given essence that determines existence, the existentialist makes it clear that it is up to the individual to make his, her, or their own identity through choices and actions. Sartre explains that the coward, for instance, is not the way he is because of an unstable childhood or a particular genetic makeup. The coward “makes himself a coward” by means of his decisions (1946 [2001, 301]). In this way, the existentialist generally affirms the view that the human being has free will, is able to make decisions, and can be held responsible for their actions. [ 4 ] But, as we will see, this does not mean that we can do whatever we want. It means, rather, that existence is structured by our capacity to give meaning to our situation based on the actions and choices we make as our lives unfold. Insofar as we exist, we are envisioning a certain kind of life, assigning a value to our identity, and making ourselves into the kind of person we are.
When we become aware of our freedom as an inescapable given of the human condition, the awareness is often accompanied by anxiety because we realize that we alone are responsible for our choices and the projects we undertake. There is no moral absolute, divine will, or natural law that can provide guidance or justify our actions. We are, in this sense, condemned to be free because “there are no excuses behind us nor justifications before us” (Sartre 1946 [2001, 296]).
In the canon of existentialist literature, no writer captures this idea better than Dostoevsky in his Notes from the Underground . The nameless “underground man” rebels against an increasingly scientized, rational, and mechanistic picture of human behavior promoted by Russian social reformers in the 1860s, where everything a person does was thought to be determined by causal laws. For the underground man, this view reduces the human being to a mechanical cog or “a piano key” (1864 [2009, 18]), and it undermines the one value that gives existence its meaning and dignity, that is, the capacity to choose and create our own lives. [ 5 ] To affirm his freedom, the underground man responds to this situation through self-immolating acts of revolt, doing the opposite of whatever the determinations of rationality, social convention, or the laws of nature demand. When he has a toothache, he refuses to see the doctor; when he is at a party with former school mates, he behaves in outrageous and humiliating ways; when the prostitute Liza reaches out to him in tenderness, he lashes out at her in rage. In this sense, the underground man is an anti-hero. He recognizes that freedom is the highest value, the “most advantageous advantage” (1864 [2009, 17]) for human beings, but at the same time he realizes there is no way of knowing what might come of our choices; they may, as they do for the underground man, result in our own self-destruction. As Dostoevsky writes: “What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead. And the choice, of course, the devil only knows what choice” (1864 [2009, 20]).
This account of freedom suggests that my being (or identity) is always penetrated by the possibility of its own negation because I can always question myself and assign new meanings to and interpretations of who I am in the future. My self-interpretation is always insecure or unstable. I may interpret myself as a philosophy professor today, but I am also not a professor insofar as I can freely choose to reject this identity and resign from my job tomorrow. In this sense, I am no-thing, a “being-possible.” As Sartre puts it: “human existence is constituted as a being which is what it is not and which is not what it is ” (1943 [1956, 107]). For the existentialist, anxiety discloses this predicament to me, revealing that I’ve been abandoned to a realm of possibilities, where I face a dizzying array of options, and I alone am answerable to whatever options I choose. Understood this way, anxiety is not directed at some external object or event in the world. If I am an incarnation of freedom, it is directed at me ; I am the source of it.
In Being and Nothingness , Sartre forwards an account of “radical” or “absolute” freedom, an unconditioned “freedom-in-consciousness” where we make or create ourselves ex nihilo , through the sheer “upsurge” of choice alone. But in the wake of Marxist criticism in the 1940s and 1950s, his views changed; he realized that this early account was far too abstract, interiorized, and influenced by Cartesian assumptions. [ 6 ] It failed to engage the social, historical, and material conditions that invariably limit and constrain our freedom. He came to recognize that our choices and actions are always mediated by the world, by the sociohistorical situation we’ve been thrown into. He sees that the idea of radical, unconditioned freedom “is nonsense. The truth is that existence ‘is-in-society’ as it ‘is-in-the-world’” (Sartre 1952 [1963, 590]). Freedom must be understood as “freedom-in-situation.” It is true that we are free to create ourselves, but it is also true that we are already created by our situation. “Man,” is best understood as “a totally conditioned social being who does not render back completely what his conditioning has given him” (Sartre 1972 [2008, 35]).
Sartre’s Marxist inspired conception of situated or mediated freedom is one that had already been forwarded and developed by Beauvoir in her major treatises The Second Sex and The Coming of Age and in her novels such as The Blood of Others (1945 [1970]) and The Mandarins (1954 [1991]). The view is also developed by her compatriot Merleau-Ponty. In Phenomenology of Perception , for example, Merleau-Ponty makes it clear that the options we choose to act on do not emerge out of nothing. They are already embedded in a sociohistorical situation “before any personal decision has been made.” (1945 [1962, 449]) The ways in which we create or make ourselves, then, are always circumscribed by the meanings of our situation. We are simultaneously self-making and already made. “We exist in both ways at once,” writes Merleau-Ponty. “We choose the world, and the world chooses us.” (1945 [1962, 453–454]). As we will see in section 6.3, the recognition of the extent to which freedom is mediated by the material conditions of our situation opened existentialism to a broader engagement with the social sphere and the structures of oppression and violence that shape our experience and self-understanding.
5. Authenticity
Existentialism is well known for its critique of mass society and our tendency to conform to the levelled-down norms and expectations of the public. Rather than living our own lives, we tend to get pulled along by the crowd, doing what “they” do. As Heidegger writes, “We take pleasure and enjoy ourselves as they take pleasure. We read, see, and judge about literature and art as they see and judge … we find ‘shocking’ what they find shocking. The ‘they’… prescribes the kind of being of everydayness” (1927 [1962, 126–7]). Living this way can be comforting, creating the illusion that we are living well because we are doing what everyone else does. But for the existentialist, this conformist way of being is a manifestation of inauthenticity or self-deception because it shows how we are unwilling or unable to face up to the freedom and contingency of our condition; it reveals the extent to which we are afraid of being an individual, of being true to ourselves, and of making our own life-defining choices.
In The Sickness unto Death , Kierkegaard describes inauthenticity in terms of fleeing from ourselves, of “not wanting to be oneself, [of] wanting to be rid of oneself” (1849 [1989, 43]). Insofar as we let others decide our lives for us, we live a life that is bereft of passion, a life of “bloodless indolence,” where we are unwilling or unable to “make a real commitment.” (Kierkegaard 1846 [1946, 266–67]). Similarly, Heidegger will refer to this condition as a form of estrangement that “alienates Dasein from itself,” where we exist as a “they-self” ( Man-selbst ) that drifts along in lockstep with others. (1927 [1962, 254–55]) And this self-estrangement is numbing or “tranquilizing” ( beruhigend ) because it covers over the anxiety of own freedom and finitude.
Sartre and Beauvoir refer to inauthenticity in terms of “bad faith” ( mauvaise foi ), where we either deny or over-identify with one of the two aspects of human existence, either facticity or transcendence. I am in bad faith, for example, when I over-identify with my factical situation and deny my freedom to act on and transform this situation. I am also in bad faith when I over-identify with freedom and deny my past conduct and the fact that my choices are limited and constrained by my situation. Sartre and Beauvoir recognize that the self is never wholly free or wholly determined; it is structurally unstable, it is a “double- property … that is at once a facticity and a transcendence” (Sartre 1943 [1956, 98]). When we cling to one or the other of these poles, we are denying this “double-property,” and this is a denial of the fundamental ambiguity and instability at the core of the human condition.
For the existentialists, the possibility of breaking free from engrained patterns of self-deception is generally not something that is accomplished by means of detached reflection. It emerges in the wake of powerful emotional experiences or moods. When the existentialist refers to feelings of “nausea” (Sartre), “absurdity” (Camus), “anxiety” (Kierkegaard), “guilt” (Heidegger), or “mystery” (Marcel) they are describing uncanny affects that have the power to shake us out of our complacency, where the secure and familiar world breaks apart and collapses, and we are forced to confront the question of existence. Jaspers refers to these moments as “limit” or “boundary situations” ( Grenzsituationen )—situations “when everything that is said to be valuable and true collapses before our eyes” (1932 [1956, 117]).
Although terrifying, the existentialist makes it clear that we should not close our eyes or flee from these experiences because they are structural to the human condition. They are, as Jaspers puts it, “impassable, unchangeable situations that belong to human existence as such” (1913 [1997, 330]). Instead of turning away from this basic anxiety, the existentialist asks us to turn toward and face it, because it is amidst a collapsing world that the ultimate questions emerge: Who am I? and What now? In this way, the existentialist sees the experience of anxiety and its related moods as an opportunity for personal growth and transformation. World-shattering moods open me up to the possibility of being authentic, of accepting and affirming the unsettling givens of my condition, of being released from distractions and trivialities, and of recognizing the self-defining projects that matter to me as an individual.
For Kierkegaard, the authentic individual is someone that is “willing to be one’s own self.” (1843 [1989, 43]) He, she, or they recognize(s) that there is more to life than following the crowd or chasing surface pleasures. Such a life is invariably scattered and disjointed, pulled apart by temporal desires and the fleeting fads and fashions of the public. Authenticity requires a passionate, “personality defining” ( personligheds definerende ) decision or commitment that binds together and unifies the fragmented and disjointed moments of our life into a focused and coherent whole. The “unifying power” of commitment is embodied in, what Kierkegaard calls, an attitude of “earnestness” ( alvor ), a sober recognition that existence is a serious affair, not a pleasure-seeking masquerade. But authenticity cannot be achieved simply by means of renouncing temporal pleasures and doing one’s duty according to some universal moral principle—such as the Ten Commandments or Kant’s Categorical Imperative. This is because, for Kierkegaard, the subjective truth of the individual is higher than the universal truths of morality. And this means there may be times in our lives where we must suspend our obligation to the ethical sphere and accept the terrible fact that it may be more important to be authentic (to be true to oneself) than it is to be moral (to do what is right.)
In Fear and Trembling , Kierkegaard draws on the biblical figure of Abraham to make this point. As a father, Abraham has a moral duty to love and protect his son, but when God demands that he break this commandment and kill Isaac, he is confronted with a personal truth that is higher than the universal. In committing himself to this truth, Abraham becomes a “knight of faith” by “leaping” ( springer ) into a paradox, one where the truth of “the singular individual is higher than the universal” (1843 [1985, 84]). As a religious existentialist, Kierkegaard contends that this is what is required to enter the sphere of faith and become a Christian. It has nothing to do with membership in a congregation or obedience to doctrinal statements. It is, rather, a willingness to commit to a truth that is fundamentally irrational and absurd. How, for example, can one make rational sense of God’s command to Abraham to kill his own son? “The problem,” writes Kierkegaard, “is not to understand Christianity, but to understand that it cannot be understood” (1835–1854 [1959, 146]). [ 7 ] An authentic or religious life, then, is always accompanied by anxiety and loneliness because the leap individualizes us; it cuts us off from the comforting truths of the public and its blanket conceptions of right and wrong. It compels us to follow a path that no one else may understand. Abraham’s decision is, for this reason, fraught with despair. In his willingness to suspend his moral duty, he appears “insane” because he “cannot make himself understood to anyone.” (1985 (1843], 103)
But with the despair of faith comes feelings of intensity, even joy, as we recognize the absurdity of religious existence, that the eternal or divine is not found in some otherworldly realm, it is bound up in the temporal; that it is this life , the finite, that has infinite significance. Freed from the temptations of the crowd and of blind obedience to moral principles, the knight of faith “takes delight in everything he sees” because he is now fully aware of the majesty and richness of finitude. For him, “finitude tastes just as good as to one who has never known anything higher” (1843 [1985, 69–70]).
Like Kierkegaard, Nietzsche is critical of our tendency to follow the herd and cling to universal moral principles. He forwards a conception of authenticity that accepts our nihilistic predicament and rises above Christian values of good and evil. He sees these values as representative of a tame and submissive way of being, a “slave morality” ( Sklavenmoral ) that is subservient to authority and bereft of any originality or style. Nietzsche contrasts this with a “master morality” ( Herrenmoral ) embodied in those who have the courage to face, even affirm, the cruel and tragic aspects of life and the self-directed power to create their own meanings and values against the backdrop of God’s death. Nietzsche refers to the individual who can overcome the meek and slavish values of tradition for the sake of self-creation as an “Overman” ( Übermensch ), an aristocratic figure who embodies the freedom, courage, and strength to be original, that is, to “give style” to life. “Such spirits,” writes Nietzsche, “are always out of fashion or explain themselves and their surroundings as free nature—wild, arbitrary, fantastic, and surprising” (1887 [1974], §290).
The key to living with style is, for Nietzsche, a radical acceptance of one’s existence and the world as it is , embracing all our strengths and weaknesses and all the blessed and cursed events that have been and will be. The Overman is a “yes-sayer” who affirms every aspect of his life, “every truth, even the simple, bitter, ugly, unchristian, immoral truths” (1887 [1996], §1). In The Gay Science , Nietzsche captures this attitude with a famous thought experiment called the “doctrine of eternal recurrence.” Here, he asks if we have the audacity to live the same life we are living now over and over for eternity. “And there will be nothing new about it,” he explains, “but every pain and every pleasure, and every thought and sigh, and everything unspeakably small and great in your life must come back to you and all in the same series and sequence.” On Nietzsche’s view, most of us would recoil in horror at the prospect of eternally suffering through the same boredom, failures, and disappointments. But overflowing with amor fati (love of one’s fate), the Overman welcomes this possibility, proclaiming, “I have never heard anything more godlike” (1887 [1974], §341). Camus describes this attitude as a form of rebellion against servile and conformist ways of being. Like the Overman, “the rebel” is someone “born of abundance and fullness of spirit,” and he embodies “the unreserved affirmation of human imperfection and suffering, of evil and murder, of all that is problematic and strange in our existence. It is born of an arrested wish to be what one is in a world that is what it is” (1951 [1956, 72]).
But not everyone has the inborn power to rebel against tradition and creatively express their unique style of living. For Nietzsche, only “the highest types” can manifest this kind of freedom and capacity for self-overcoming. To this end, his account of authenticity is unapologetically elitist and anti-democratic. Most of us are too mired in self-deception, too frightened and weak to break with the herd and become who we are. “Only a very few people can be free,” writes Nietzsche, “It is a prerogative of the strong” (1886 [1998], §29).
Heidegger devotes much of the second half of Being and Time to an analysis of authenticity, employing the German term Eigentlichkeit —formed from the stem of the adjective eigen (“own” or “property”)—that literally means “being own’s own” or “ownnness.” But he sets up his analysis of authenticity by first claiming that self-deception or “inauthenticity” is unavoidable; it is a structure of the human condition, one that he refers to as “falling” ( Verfallen ). What this means is that in our everyday lives we invariably conform (or “fall prey”) to the norms and values of the public world. This results in a kind of complacency and indifference about the question of existence, where we are not our own selves, where “everyone is the other, and no one is himself” (1927 [1962, 128]). Falling creates the illusion that our existence (or being-in-the-world) is secure and thing-like because we are doing what everyone else does. But, for Heidegger, there is nothing that fundamentally secures our existence. As a self-making activity, I am not a stable thing. I am nothing, a “not yet” ( noch nicht ) that is always unsettled, always in the process of making myself. The awareness of our own unsettledness emerges in moments of anxiety when the familiar and routinized world “collapses into itself” (1927 [1962, 186]), and I “die” ( sterben ) because I am no longer able-to-be, that is, to understand or make sense of who I am. [ 8 ]
Like Kierkegaard, Heidegger interprets anxiety as an individualizing mood, one that momentarily “snatches one back” from the tranquilizing routines of “the They,” leaving us vulnerable and exposed to confront our lives (1927 [1962, 384]). And this is potentially liberating because it can temporarily free us from patterns of self-deception, providing insight, a “moment of vision” ( Augenblick ) that can give our lives a renewed sense of urgency and focus. But this experience of individuation does not detach me from the world, turning me into a radical subject or “free floating ‘I’” (1927 [1962, 298]). Heidegger claims that our self-defining choices are always guided in advance by our historical embeddedness, what he calls “historicity” ( Geschichtlichkeit ). The meanings we choose to give to our lives, then, are not created out of thin air; they have already been interpreted and made intelligible by a historical community or “people” ( Volk ). [ 9 ] The moment of vision shakes me out of my fallen, everyday existence and allows me to come back to my historical world with fresh eyes, to seize hold of the publicly interpreted meanings that matter to me and make them “mine” ( Jemeinig ).
Heidegger refers to this authentic attitude in terms of “resoluteness” ( Entschlossenheit ), where I “pull [myself] together,” giving life a sense of cohesion and focus that was missing when I was lost and scattered in “the They.” But being resolute does not mean that I stubbornly cling to whatever possibilities I happen to choose. For Heidegger, authenticity demands an openness and flexibility with how I interpret myself. [ 10 ] Understanding that existence is a situated process of self-making, whatever values or meanings I commit myself to, I must also be willing to let go or give up on them depending on the circumstances of my life, that is, to “hold [myself] free for the possibility of taking it back ” (1927 [1962, 308]). Resoluteness, on this view, does not mean “becoming rigid” and holding fast to a chosen identity because my self-understanding is always insecure; it can die at any time. For this reason, authenticity requires “readiness” or “anticipation” ( Vorgriff ), where we passionately hold ourselves open and free for the inescapable breakdowns and emergencies of life. It is, in Heidegger’s words, “an impassioned freedom towards death—a freedom which has been released from the illusions of the ‘They’” (1927 [1962, 266]).
Sartre and Beauvoir follow Heidegger in viewing self-deception as structural to the human condition. It is, as Sartre writes, “an immediate, permanent threat to every project of the human being” (1943 [1956, 116]). Although I can certainly deceive myself by over-identifying with freedom and denying the extent to which my possibilities are constrained by facticity, the most common and familiar form of bad faith is when I over-identify with my facticity, as if I were a fully realized object or thing, a being “in-itself” ( en-soi ). This form of self-deception is understandable as it creates the consoling impression that there is something secure and thing-like about my identity, that “I am what I am,” and there is nothing that can change me. But to live this way is to deny my freedom and transcendence, that I am self-making, that I live for myself —or, in the vernacular of Sartre and Beauvoir, “for-itself” ( pour-soi ). Human beings are, on their view, always in the process of making or constituting themselves, modifying and negating their being through moment-to-moment choices and actions. This means my identity is never fixed or stable because I can always choose to take a new path or interpret myself in other ways. Regardless of how I see myself at a given time—as a professor, a father, or a political activist—I am also “not” that person, because my identity is never realized and complete; I am always free to negate a given identity and define myself differently in the future. This means I am “what I am not ” (1943 [1956, 103]). And this situation appears to undermine the prospect of authenticity altogether. If the self is always unstable, always in question, how can I ever be genuine or true to myself?
In Being and Nothingness , Sartre provides an answer, referring to authenticity in terms of a “recovery” ( récupération ) of a self or way of being “that was previously corrupted” (1943 [1956, 116]). [ 11 ] But this act of “self-recovery” has nothing to do with creating or holding on to a particular identity. It involves, rather, a clear-eyed awareness and acceptance of the instability and ambiguity of the human condition. And, along with this acceptance, a willingness to act in the face of this ambiguity and to take responsibility, however horrible, for wherever these actions might lead. As Sartre writes, “authenticity consists in a lucid consciousness of the situation, in assuming the responsibilities and risks it involves, in accepting it […] sometimes with horror and hate” (1946 [1948, 90]). But just because existence is fundamentally ambiguous does not mean that our chosen projects are meaningless or absurd. My projects have meaning and value because I chose these projects, but the meaning is contingent; it is never enduring or stable. In The Ethics of Ambiguity , Beauvoir explains: “The notion of ambiguity must not be confused with that of absurdity. To declare that existence is absurd is to deny that it can ever be given a meaning; to say that it is ambiguous is to assert that its meaning is never fixed” (1947 [1948, 129]). The point of authenticity, then, is not to be concerned with who I am —because, at bottom, I am nothing. It is to be concerned with what I do . As Sartre writes, “Authenticity reveals that the only meaningful project is that of doing (not that of being)” (1948 [1992, 475]). For Sartre and Beauvoir, to be authentic is to recover and accept the ambiguous tension of the self, that: we are who we are not —and— we are not who are . And by means of this recovery, recognize that the task of existence involves acting and doing, that is, realizing our freedom through projects in the world but also, as we will see, taking responsibility for how these projects might enhance or diminish freedom for others.
Existentialist ethics generally begins with the idea that there is no external moral order or table of values that exists a priori. “It must be understood,” as Beauvoir writes in The Ethics of Ambiguity , “that the passion in which man has acquiesced finds no external justification. No outside appeal, no objective necessity permits of its being called useful.” But this does not mean that the existentialists are promoting a form of moral nihilism. Beauvoir admits it is true that the human being “has no reason to will itself. But this does not mean that it cannot justify itself, that it cannot give itself reasons for being that it does not have .” It is human existence itself “which makes values spring up in the world on the basis of which it will be able to judge the enterprise in which it will be engaged.” (1947 [1948, 12, 15]). [ 12 ] There is, then, a coherent account of ethical responsibility grounded in freedom, not as a theoretical abstraction but as a concrete expression of transcendence, and the obligation to help others realize their own freedom so that I can realize mine. When I acknowledge that freedom is my essence, I must also acknowledge that it is the essence of others and work, to the best of my ability, to help them realize it. My freedom, then, is not free-floating; it is invariably bound up in the freedom of others. As Sartre puts it: “We want freedom for freedom’s sake and in every particular circumstance. And in wanting freedom we discover that it depends entirely on the freedom of others, and that freedom of others depends on ours […] I am obliged to want others to have freedom at the same time that I want my own freedom” (1945 [2001, 306]).
Sartre and Beauvoir argue that we generally exist as “a being-for-others” ( un être-pour-autrui ), which is to say that I understand or see myself in the way that I do through “the look” ( le regard ) of the Other. And the look has the power to strip away my freedom and turn me into an object. Human relations, on this account, are best understood as a form of conflict, a dyadic power struggle where I try to assert my freedom and subjectivity by turning the Other into an object, while the Other tries to do the same to me. “While I attempt to free myself from the hold of the Other,” writes Sartre, “the Other is trying to free himself from mine; while I seek to enslave the Other, the Other seeks to enslave me… Conflict is the original meaning of being-for-others” (1943 [1956, 475]). This struggle for self-assertion leads to Sartre’s famous claim in his play Huis Clos (No Exit) that “Hell is— other people ” (1944 [1989, 45]).
But the struggle to objectify and possess the Other by stripping them of their freedom is a manifestation of inauthentic being-for-others. There is an authentic counterpart. Beauvoir, for example, explores what it means to develop and cultivate freedom for others with her account of “authentic love” ( l’amour authentique ), describing it as a relationship where we acknowledge and nurture the other’s freedom and transcendence while at the same time resisting the temptations of bad faith, that is, to see the Other as an object or thing to be manipulated and possessed. As a moral stance, authentic being-for-others is a form of reciprocity that involves “the mutual recognition of two freedoms […] [where] neither would give up transcendence [and] neither would be mutilated” (1949 [1952, 667]). In this way authenticity and morality belong together, whereby we have a shared obligation to liberate or free each other so that we can create ourselves and take responsibility for the life we lead. Therefore, as Beauvoir puts it, “to will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one and the same decision” (1947 [1948, 24]).
Heidegger develops a similar idea in Being and Time with his account of “liberating concern” ( befreiend Fürsorge ), a form of care where the central aim is to free the Other from patterns of self-deception so that they can anxiously face and create their own existence. It is a relational stance that “helps the Other become transparent to himself in his care and to become free for it” (1927 [1962, 122]). When we care in this way, we resist the temptation to “leap-in” ( einspringen ) for the Other, as if the Other were a dependent thing or object that needs to be sheltered from the unsettling question of existence. Heidegger refers to this sheltering tendency in terms of a kind of tacit mastery or “domination” ( Beherrschung ) that strips the Other of the anxious responsibility they have for their own life. Instead of leaping-in for the Other and disburdening them of their responsibility, an authentic relation is one that “leaps-ahead” ( vorausspringt ) of the Other, giving them back their anxiety and the freedom to care for and confront their condition. As Heidegger writes, we leap-ahead of the Other, “not in order to take away his ‘care’ but rather to give it back to them authentically as such for the first time” (1927 [1962, 122]). Here, we see the development of an ethical maxim: to act in such a way as to will the realization of your own freedom and the realization of freedom for others.
There is also heterodox current among some religious existentialists, one that suggests that moral demands are placed on us when we recognize ourselves not as voluntaristic subjects—or, in the words of Iris Murdoch, “brave naked wills” (1983, 46) severed from bonds of community and attachment—but as relational beings who are fundamentally bound together in mutual vulnerability. And this recognition may serve as the foundation for an ethics by pulling us out of our everyday self-absorption and awakening us, not to our freedom, but to our essential dependency.
Speaking through the religious elder Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov , Dostoevsky offers a powerful indictment of the “terrible individualism” that he sees as endemic to modernity, where unfettered freedom and self-affirmation have become the highest values. Such a view leads not to self-actualization but to loneliness and despair. The modern man, says Zossima, “is accustomed to rely upon himself alone and to cut himself off from the whole; he has trained himself not to believe in the help of others, in men and in humanity […] but this terrible individualism must inevitably have an end, and all will suddenly understand how unnaturally they are separated from one another” (1879 [1957–80, 279]). Against the vision of the willful subject who makes choices without evaluative limits or constraints, Dostoevsky suggests it is only in recognizing the Other as dependent and vulnerable that we can come to recognize ourselves. True freedom emerges when we release ourselves from the bondage of our own egoistic striving and adopt an attitude of humility and self-sacrifice. The aim is to show that the human being is not an isolated will but a frail and defenseless being that is dependent on the self-less love, compassion, and charity of others. [ 13 ] When we free ourselves from the temptations of individualism in this way, Zossima says a moral demand is placed on us, one where we begin to see that “we are all responsible to all and for all” (1879–80 [1957, 228).
The Jewish existentialist Martin Buber expands on this idea in his masterwork I and Thou . He claims that in our everyday lives we generally relate to others from an instrumental and objectifying standpoint, what he calls the “I-It” ( Ich-Es ) relation, where the other is encountered as a thing (or “it”) to be manipulated and controlled for one’s own use. This relation is comforting because it creates the illusion that we have control of our situation. But there are moments in our lives when this illusion collapses, and we become vulnerable to the other, not as an “it” but as a “you.” In the “I-You” ( Ich-Du ) relation, all the egoistic defenses we rely on to conceal our essential dependency and openness to the Other break down. Buber refers to this as an experience of grace, where the Other is revealed to me as a whole person, defenseless and exposed, and I am revealed in the same way. It is a moment where “two human beings reveal the You to one another” (1923 [1970, 95]). In this way, anxiety isn’t a radically individualizing affair, where the forlorn subject is cut off from the relational world to confront their own freedom. For Buber, exposure to the I-You relation shakes us out of our own egoistic concerns and awakens us to the fact that we are not isolated individuals but beings who are always in living relation with others. With this experience “the barriers of the individual are breached,” and this creates an affective union, a “bridge from self-being to self-being across the abyss of dread” (1938 [1965], 201, 207]).
The Nazi occupation of France, his own experience as a prisoner of war, and the attacks on his philosophy from influential Marxist critics, compelled Sartre to shift his focus from the individual to the social. Following the war, he, along with Merleau-Ponty and Beauvoir, launched the influential journal of social criticism Le Temps Modernes (Modern Times), and Sartre made his aims clear in the first issue, writing: “Our intention is to help effect certain changes in the Society that surrounds us… one is responsible for what one is … Totally committed and totally freed. And yet it is the free man who must be delivered , by enlarging his possibilities of choice” (Sartre 1945 [1988, 264–65]). Here we see existentialists making the connection that for the Other to realize their freedom, philosophy must engage the “bases and structures” that limit and constrain them. This is because these structures are not philosophical abstractions; they “are lived as schematic determinates of the individual’s future” (Sartre 1957 [1968, 94]). Society, here, is viewed not as an aggregate of voluntaristic subjects; it is the mediating background of our lives, and if we are going to create a situation of freedom and “enlarge the possibilities of choice,” we must recognize how this background can be violent and oppressive—especially to historically marginalized and undervalued people—and to act in such a way as to transform it.
Of all the major developers of existentialism, it is unquestionably Beauvoir who offered the most sustained and influential analyses of oppression and of possibilities for emancipation, not only in her feminist masterwork The Second Sex , but in her bleak account of the dehumanization of the elderly in The Coming of Age (1970 [1996]) and her reflections on the experience of Black populations in the Jim Crow South in her memoir America Day by Day (1954 [1999]). In these works, Beauvoir illuminates how socioeconomic and political structures can restrict the human capacity for freedom and transcendence, how they have the power to “freeze” the Other, strip away possibilities for agency and self-creation, and trap them in “immanence.” But in these works, Beauvoir makes it clear that this situation is not a destiny. Human beings have no essential nature; no one is born inferior or submissive. We are constituted intersubjectively by growing into, internalizing, and enacting ready-made structures of oppression. But insofar as these structures are constituted and maintained by the choices and actions of individuals, they are not fixed and static. Like human beings, they too are subject to change. Here we see how the recognition that existence precedes essence moves from the ontological realm to the ethical, it becomes a call to action, to engage and transform the material conditions that limit the possibilities of choice for those who are oppressed and marginalized.
In this way, postwar existentialism began to engage the realities of the social sphere and the painful “isms”—classism, racism, colonialism, sexism, anti-Semitism—haunting the western world. It was a philosophy that had come to recognize, in Sartre’s words, that “the individual interiorizes his social determinations; he interiorizes the relations of production, the family of his childhood, the historical past, the contemporary in institutions, and he then re-exteriorizes these acts and options which necessarily refer us back to them” (1972 [2008, 35]). And insofar as these social determinations are not fixed and timeless but contingent human constructs, they can be resisted and transformed to free others.
7. Contemporary Relevance
Existentialism has had a profound impact on how philosophers conceptualize and understand the human condition, with rich accounts of affectivity and embodiment, facticity (or worldliness), and the ways in which we are constituted intersubjectively. It has opened new paths for philosophy to engage with concrete and acute human problems, from sexuality, race, disability, and old age to broader issues of social and political violence and oppressive relations in general. And the movement continues to thrive in the academy today. Not only is the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) flourishing as the second largest philosophical organization in the English-speaking world, with smaller research groups (or “Circles”) devoted to every major figure. There is a cascade of scholarship published every year in leading journals and academic presses that captures the enduring relevance of existentialist thought, including important new work engaging the significance of French existentialism as an ethical theory (Webber 2018), reframing our conceptions of virtue and human flourishing (McMullin 2019), and even addressing current analytic debates in philosophies of life-extension, anti-natalism, and transhumanism (Buben 2022). Indeed, the core ideas and major figures of existentialism are not just alive and well; they are shaping developments in a diverse range of areas across the humanities and social sciences.
The legacy is most clearly present in the European philosophies that proceeded it. Existentialism’s critique of foundationalism and the authority of reason as well as its rejection of universalism, essentialism, and “grand narratives” (or metanarratives) all had a decisive impact on post-structural philosophies in France. Nietzsche and Heidegger in particular served as decisive influences on the project of “de-centering the subject” in Jacques Derrida’s method of deconstruction and in Michel Foucault’s genealogy of power, demonstrating how the subject is not the privileged center or origin of truth and knowledge. The subject is, rather, shaped in advance by sociohistorical structures, an overlapping network of norms and practices, linguistic conventions, and shared meanings, and this shaping takes place in a way that we are never fully conscious of. [ 14 ] The individual, on this view, is more of a placeholder or crossing point in these anonymous structures, where the subject exists as “the inscribed surface of events […] totally imprinted by history” (Foucault 1977, 148). Of course, existentialists reject the idea that this historical imprinting or “decentering” is total or absolute. They are, after all, still committed to the value of freedom and authenticity, but they recognize that freedom is never unconditioned. Beyond the philosophies of Heidegger and Nietzsche, we see this recognition in Merleau-Ponty’s conception of mediated freedom, in Sartre’s postwar account of “freedom-in-situation,” and in what Beauvoir calls “ la force des choses ” (the power of circumstances). The recognition of historicity as an impersonal force that structures our identity had such an impact on Foucault’s work that he once remarked: “My entire philosophical development was determined by my reading of Heidegger” (Foucault 1985, cited in Dreyfus 1995, 9).
In viewing the self not as a substance or thing but as a self-interpreting, meaning-giving activity that is always already bound up in the world, existentialism has also informed key developments in narrative and hermeneutic philosophy. Prominent anglophone philosophers such as Harry Frankfurt (1971), Charles Taylor (1985), and Alasdair MacIntyre (1981) have drawn on classical existentialism to illuminate how we exist in the meanings and self-interpretations that we create for ourselves. My sense of who I am is constituted by an ongoing process of choosing, pulling together, and consolidating the roles, projects, and meanings that matter to me and that are made available by the sociohistorical situation I find myself in. On this view, the story I create for myself is held together by the narrative unity and cohesion that I give to it. This is what Taylor means when he says that we can only understand or “grasp our lives in a narrative” (1989, 47). And this conception of narrative identity not only offers a response to overly reductive conceptions of the self that are grounded in the substance ontologies of mind and body; it demonstrates an attentiveness to the ambiguous tension of our condition, that our choices are both self-fashioning and socially embedded, that we simultaneously make ourselves and are already made.
Beginning with Hubert Dreyfus’s (1972) groundbreaking critique of Artificial Intelligence (AI), philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists have been drawing on existentialist philosophy—especially Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty—to challenge the overly mentalistic picture of selfhood and agency that modern philosophy inherits from Descartes and Kant and to dismantle traditional representational theories of knowledge. Key works by Shaun Gallagher (2005), Thomas Fuchs, (2018), and Dan Zahavi (2005) have replaced the picture of the disembodied mind with the now widely accepted notion of the embedded, enactive, and embodied self. This is a rejection of the long-held assumption that human action must somehow be represented or “mirrored” in the mind. Existentialism illuminates how—as a situated way of being-in-the-world—human beings already embody a tacit understanding of the world in a way that we are not and can never be thematically conscious of. This means we do not understand things as discrete objects. We understand things in terms of how we use and handle them and in terms of the purposive, meaning-giving roles these things play in our everyday lives. The traditional view of the mind as something resembling the rule-governed processes of a computer program have continually failed to capture this ambiguous and embodied sense of being-in-the-world.
The attentiveness to conditions of oppression, subjugation, and violence among postwar existentialists in France has had a decisive impact on recent developments in critical phenomenology by giving voice to those who have been historically marginalized or undervalued in the western tradition. Beauvoir’s pioneering account of the woman’s experience in The Second Sex is well known for laying the conceptual foundations for second wave feminism, and her late career phenomenology of aging broke new ground by shedding light on the existence of older persons and exposing the toxic ageism in contemporary capitalist societies. Together with Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, her ideas would inform Franz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks (1952 [1967]), a seminal work that disclosed the dehumanizing experience of colonized Black populations and helped give birth to Africana critical theory or “black existentialism” (Gordon 2000). The focus on the ways in which structures of discrimination along with the limits of our own embodiment can constrain our capacities for freedom and transcendence has, in turn, influenced recent phenomenological accounts of intersectionality and the lived experience of, among others, indigenous peoples, immigrants, and exiles (Coulthard 2014; Ortega 2016), queer and trans identities (Ahmed 2006; Salamon 2010), those who are imprisoned or in solitary confinement (Guenther 2013; Leder 2016), and the elderly, disabled, and chronically ill (Aho 2022; Reynolds 2022; Dickel 2022).
Interpreting existence in terms of the situated activity of being-in-the-world not only serves as a rejection of substance ontology and the metaphysical dualisms (subject-object; mind-body; inner-outer) that we inherit from Cartesian and empiricist epistemologies; it also reveals deep affinities with the nonduality of Buddhism and other incarnations of Eastern thought. (Loy 2018; Kalmanson 2020) And the recognition of our enmeshment in the world has informed a range of important advances in the philosophy of place, deep ecology, and eco-phenomenology (Brown & Toadvine 2003; Malpas 2017; Morton 2016; Rentmeester 2016). These endeavors have exposed the limitations of the scientific worldview and our uncritical dependence on technological innovation to address the current ecological crisis. Modern science generally assumes a binary paradigm of the subject as separate and distinct from a value-less domain of objects (or nature), a domain that can, in turn, be mastered and controlled by technoscience. In this way, it betrays our ordinary experience, that in our day-to-day lives we are not atomistic, self-certain subjects but beings that are fundamentally entwined with the world and the meaning and value that this intertwining brings to our experience. For the existentialist, then, extricating ourselves from environmental doom requires not a technoscientific fix but an ontological transformation in our own self-understanding, an awaking to the reality of our interdependence with nature, that the earth is not apart from us but rather part of us.
Outside of the humanities and social sciences, existentialism has also had a deep and lasting impact on the allied health professions. The role it has played in the development of existential and humanistic approaches to psychotherapy (Cooper 2003; Spinneli 2007; van Deurzen 2015) and to phenomenological psychopathology (Parnas & Gallagher 2015; Ratcliffe 2015; Stanghellini et al. 2019) is well-known, but in recent years we have seen its influence emerge in a range of different areas, from narrative medicine to nursing, and from gerontology to palliative care. To this end, existentialism has informed a move away from the reductive and objectifying tendencies of modern biomedicine to recover the first-person experience of health and illness, viewing the body not so much as a biophysical machine that needs to be adjusted and maintained but as the experiential and interpretative medium of our existence. This shift has not only allowed clinicians to challenge the emergent tendency to medicalize ever-expanding swaths of the human condition; it makes it possible for the clinician to better understand the patient’s experience by getting a sense of “what it means” and “what it feels like” to suffer when the body breaks down (Aho 2018; Slatman 2014; Svenaeus 2022; Zeiler & Käll 2014).
Beyond its ascendency in the healing arts, its myriad cultural influences, and its wide-ranging impact on the humanities and social sciences, the enduring legacy of existentialism is perhaps most visible in the classroom. Existentialist-themed courses are often among the most popular in the philosophy curriculum as young students confront, for the first time, the unsettling questions of freedom and the meaning of their own existence. And these questions have never been more pressing as they develop against the backdrop of anthropogenic climate change, species extinction, global pandemics, and the reemergence of authoritarian and fascist politics. Amidst these planetary emergencies, a new generation is facing the predicament of nihilism and the death of God and owning up to the uncanny truth of the human condition: that existence precedes essence.
- Adorno, T., 1964 [1973]. The jargon of authenticity , K. Tarnowski & F. Will (trans.), Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
- Ahmed, S., 2006. Queer phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others , Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
- Aho, K., 2007. “Recovering play: On the relationship between leisure and authenticity in Heidegger’s thought,” Janus Head , 10(1): 217–238.
- –––, 2020. Existentialism: An introduction , 2 nd edition. Cambridge: Polity.
- –––, 2022. One beat more: Existentialism and the gift of mortality , Cambridge: Polity.
- Aho, K. (ed.), 2018. Existential medicine: Essays on health and illness , London: Rowman and Littlefield.
- Baert, P., 2015. The existentialist moment: The rise of Sartre as a public intellectual , Cambridge: Polity.
- Beauvoir, S. de, 1947 [1948]. The ethics of ambiguity , B. Frechtman (trans.), New York: Philosophical Library.
- –––, 1949 [1952]. The second sex , H. M. Parshley (trans.), New York: Knopf.
- –––, 1945 [1970]. The blood of others , Y. Moyse and R. Senhouse (trans.), New York: Penguin.
- –––, 1956 [1991]. The mandarins , L. Friedman (trans.), New York: W.W. Norton.
- –––, 1963 [1992]. After the war: The force of circumstance, volume 1, 1944–1952 , R. Howard (trans.), New York: Paragon House.
- –––, 1970 [1996]. The coming of age , P. O’Brian (trans.), New York: W. W. Norton.
- –––, 1954 [1999]. America day by day , C. Cosman (trans.), Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- Brown, C. & Toadvine, T. (eds.), 2003. Eco-phenomenology: Back to the earth itself , Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
- Buben, A., 2022. Existentialism and the desirability of immortality , London: Routledge.
- Buber, M., 1923 [1970]. I and thou , W. Kaufmann (trans.), New York: Touchstone.
- –––, 1938 [1965]. “What is man?” in Martin Buber: Between man and man , R. Gregor-Smith (trans.), New York: Routledge
- Butler, J., 1990. Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversions of identity , New York: Routledge.
- Camus, A., 1951 [1956]. The rebel: An essay on man in revolt , H. Read (trans.), New York: Vintage Books.
- Cooper, M., 2003. Existential therapies , London: Sage.
- Cotkin, G., 2003. Existential America , Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Coulthard, G., 2014. Red skin, white masks: Rejecting the colonial politics of recognition , Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
- Dickel, S., 2022. Embodying difference: Critical phenomenology and narratives of disability, race, and sexuality , Dordrecht: Springer.
- Dostoevsky, F., 1879–80 [1957]. The brothers Karamazov , C. Garnett (trans.), New York: Signet Classic.
- –––, 1864 [2009]. Notes from the underground , C. Garnett (trans.), Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Press.
- Dreyfus, H., 1972. What computers can’t do: A critique of artificial reason , New York: Harper and Row.
- –––, 1995. Being-in-the-world: A commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division I , Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Fanon, F., 1952 [1967]. Black skin, white masks , C. Markmann (trans.), New York: Grove Press.
- Foucault, M., 1977. “Nietzsche, genealogy, history,” in D. F. Bouchard (ed.), Language, counter-memory, practice: Selected essays and interviews , Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
- –––, 1985. “Final interview,” Raritan , 5(1): 1–13.
- Frankfurt, H., 1971. “Freedom of the will and the concept of a person,” Journal of philosophy , 68(1): 5–20.
- Fuchs, T., 2018. Ecology of the brain: the phenomenology and biology of the embodied mind , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Gallagher, S., 2005. How the body shapes the mind , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Gordon, L. (ed.), 1997. Existence in black: An anthology of black existential philosophy , New York: Routledge.
- Guenther, L., 2013. Solitary confinement: Social death and its alternatives , Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
- Guignon, C., 1993. “Editor’s introduction,” in C. Guignon (ed.), Dostoevsky’s “The grand inquisitor”: With related chapters from The Brothers Karamazov, C. Garnett (trans.), Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
- –––, 2004. On being authentic , London: Routledge.
- Guingon, C. & Aho, K., 2019. “Authenticity and social critique,” in K. Becker & I. Thomson (eds.), The Cambridge history of philosophy, 1945–2015 , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Habermas, J., 1985 [1990]. The philosophical discourse of modernity: Twelve lectures , F. Lawrence (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Heidegger, M., 1927 [1962]. Being and time , J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson (trans.), New York: Harper and Row.
- –––, 1950 [1971] Poetry, language, thought , A. Hofstadter (trans.), New York: Harper & Row.
- –––, 1927 [1982]. The basic problems of phenomenology , A. Hofstadter (trans.), Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. (1927 is the year of the lecture course.)
- –––, 1919 [2000]. Towards the definition of philosophy , T. Sadler (trans.), London: Continuum Books. (1919 is the year of the lecture course.)
- Husserl, E., 1912 [1989]. Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to Phenomenological Philosophy, Second Book , R. Rojcewicz and A. Schuwer (trans.), Dordrecht: Kluwer. (1912 is the year the second edition was initially drafted.)
- Jaspers, K., 1932 [1956]. Philosophie (Volume 2), Berlin: Springer.
- –––, 1913 [1997]. General Psychopathology (Volume 1), J. Hoenig & M. Hamilton (trans.), Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Kalmanson, L., 2020. Cross-cultural existentialism: On the meaning of life in Asian and western thought , London: Bloomsbury.
- Kierkegaard, S., 1844 [1936]. Philosophical fragments , D. Swenson (trans.), Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- –––, 1846 [1941]. Concluding unscientific postscript , D. Swenson, L. Swenson, & W. Lowrie (trans.), Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- –––, 1846 [1946]. “The present age,” A. Dru (trans.), in R. Bretall (ed.), A Kierkegaard anthology , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- –––, 1835–1854 [1959]. The journals of Kierkegaard , A. Dru (trans.), New York: Harper Torchbooks. (1835–1854 are the years of the journal entries.)
- –––, 1843 [1985]. Fear and trembling , A. Hannay (trans.), New York: Penguin Books.
- –––, 1849 [1989]. The sickness unto death , A. Hannay (trans.), New York: Penguin books.
- Leder, D., 2016. The distressed body. Rethinking illness, imprisonment, and healing , Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
- Loy, D., 2018. Lack and transcendence: The problem of death and life in psychotherapy, existentialism, and Buddhism , Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications.
- MacIntyre, A., 1981. After virtue , Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press.
- Malpas, J., 2017. Heidegger and the thinking of place: Explorations in the topology of being , Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- McMullin, I., 2019. Existential flourishing: A phenomenology of the virtues , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Merleau-Ponty, M., 1945 [1962]. Phenomenology of perception , C. Smith (trans.), London: Routledge & Keegan Paul.
- –––, 1964 [1968]. The visible and the invisible: Followed by working notes , A. Lingis (trans.), Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
- Morton, T., 2016. Dark ecology: For a logic of future coexistence , New York: Columbia University Press.
- Murdoch, I., 1983. “Against dryness: A polemical sketch,” in S. Hauerwas and A. MacIntyre (eds.), Revisions: Changing perspectives in moral philosophy , Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press.
- Nietzsche, F., 1886 [1998]. Beyond good and evil , M. Faber (trans.), New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- –––, 1887 [1974]. The gay science , W. Kaufmann (trans.), New York: Vintage Books.
- –––, 1887 [1996]. On the genealogy of morals , D. Smith (trans.), New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- –––, 1889a [1990a]. Philosophy and truth: Selections from Nietzsche’s Notebooks of the early 1870s , D. Breazeale (trans. and ed.), Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.
- –––, 1889b [1990b] Twilight of the idols , R. J. Hollingdale (trans.), New York: Penguin Books.
- –––, 1901 [1968]. The will to power , W. Kaufmann (trans.), New York: Vintage Books.
- Ortega y Gasset, J., 1941. Toward a philosophy of history , H. Weyl (trans.), New York: W.W. Norton.
- –––, 1930 [1993] The revolt of the masses , (anonymous trans.), New York: W.W. Norton.
- Ortega, M., 2016. In-between: Latina feminist phenomenology, multiplicity, and the self , Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
- Parnas, J. & Gallagher, S., 2015. “Phenomenology and the Interpretation of Psychopathological Experience,” in L. Kirmayer, R. Lemelson, and C. Cummings (eds.), Re-Visioning Psychiatry: Integrating Biological, Clinical and Cultural Perspectives , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Ratcliffe, M., 2015. Experiences of depression. A study in phenomenology , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Reynolds, J. M., 2022. The life worth living: A philosophical challenge to the ableist conflation of disability and pain , Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
- Rentmeester, C., 2016. Heidegger and the environment , London: Rowman and Littlefield.
- Salamon, G., 2020. Assuming a body: Transgender and rhetorics of materiality , New York: Columbia University Press.
- Sartre, J-P., 1943 [1956]. Being and nothingness , H. Barnes (trans.), New York: Washington Square Press.
- –––, 1952 [1963]. Saint Genet, actor and martyr , B. Frechtman (trans.), New York: George Braziller Inc.
- –––, 1957 [1968]. Search for a method , H. Barnes (trans.), New York: Vintage Books.
- –––, 1945 [1988]. “What is literature?” and other essays , S. Ungar (ed.), J. Mehlman (trans.), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- –––, 1944 [1989]. No exit , S. Gilbert (trans.), New York: Vintage Press.
- –––, 1948 [1992]. Notes for an ethics , D. Pellauer (trans.), Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
- –––, 1946 [2001]. “Existentialism is a humanism,” B. Frechtman (trans.), in C. Guignon and D. Pereboom (eds.), Existentialism: Basic writings , Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Press.
- –––, 1972 [2008]. “The itinerary of thought,” in Jean-Paul Sartre: Between existentialism and Marxism , J. Matthews (trans.), New York: Verso Books.
- Slatman, J., 2014. Our strange body: Philosophical reflections on identity and medical interventions , Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press.
- Solomon, R., 2005. Existentialism , 2 nd edition, New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Spinelli, E., 2007. Practising existential psychotherapy: The relational world , London: Sage.
- Stanghellini, G., Broome, M., Fernandez, A., Fusar-Poli, P., Raballo, A., Rosfort, R., 2019. The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology , New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Svenaeus, F., 2022. The hermeneutics of medicine and the phenomenology of health: Steps towards a philosophy of medical practice , 2 nd edition, Dordrecht: Springer.
- Taylor, C., 1989. Sources of the self: the making of the modern identity , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- van Deurzen, E., 2015. Paradox and passion in psychotherapy: An existential approach to counseling and therapy , 2 nd edition, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Vogel, L., 1994. The fragile “we”: Ethical implications of Heidegger’s Being and Time, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
- Webber, J., 2018. Rethinking existentialism , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Wolin, R., 1990. The politics of being: The political thought of Martin Heidegger , New York: Columbia University Press.
- –––, 1995. “Karl Löwith and Martin Heidegger—Contexts and Controversies: An Introduction,” in Karl Löwith, Martin Heidegger and European nihilism , G. Steiner (trans.), New York: Columbia University Press.
- Young, I. M., 1984 [2000]. On the female body experience: “Throwing like a girl” and others essays , New York: Oxford University Press.
- Zahavi, D., 2005. Subjectivity and selfhood: Investigating the first-person perspective , Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Zeiler, K. & Käll, L., 2014. Feminist Phenomenology and Medicine , Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.
- Crowell, Steven, “Existentialism”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = < https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2022/entries/existentialism/ >. [This was the previous entry on this topic in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – see the version history .]
- Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosoph
- The Society for Existential Analysis
- Existentialism , entry at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Norther American Sartre Society
- The Albert Camus Society
- Simone de Beauvoir , entry at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- The International Simone de Beauvoir Society
- The International Merleau-Ponty Circle
- The North American Nietzsche Society
- Karl Jaspers Society of North America
- Heidegger Circle
- Society for Interdisciplinary Feminist Phenomenology
- The Caribbean Philosophical Association
- The North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics
- Phenomenological Reviews
Beauvoir, Simone de | Buber, Martin | Heidegger, Martin | hermeneutics | Husserl, Edmund | Jaspers, Karl | Kierkegaard, Søren | Marcel, Gabriel (-Honoré) | Merleau-Ponty, Maurice | Nietzsche, Friedrich | Ortega y Gasset, José | phenomenology | Sartre, Jean-Paul
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Aho < kaho @ fgcu . edu >
- Accessibility
Support SEP
Mirror sites.
View this site from another server:
- Info about mirror sites
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is copyright © 2023 by The Metaphysics Research Lab , Department of Philosophy, Stanford University
Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054
87 Existentialism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
🏆 best existentialism topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 simple & easy existentialism essay titles, 👍 good essay topics on existentialism, ❓ existentialism questions.
- Gardner’s “Grendel” as a Nihilist and Existentialist Grendel’s response is to show the hero his contempt for nobility and meaning in life. Finally, Grendel’s life is so devoid of meaning that he decides to try and kill the queen.
- The Theory of Atheistic Existentialism As far as I am concerned, this theory is not valid in the explanation of a row of important issues existing in the Universe with regards to the Creator, and all the moral issues connected […]
- Existentialism in Le Guin Story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” In this short story, the main characters refuse to follow the immoral attitudes of society and make their own choices which is the direct representation of existentialism which is beneficial for society.
- Existentialism in “Nausea” and “The Stranger” In Nausea, the main character is a well-traveled 30-year-old man afflicted with intense feelings of the meaninglessness of his own being, an experience he dubs ‘nausea.’ The main character and narrator, Roquentin, is portrayed as […]
- The Aspects that Influenced the Poetry of Auden and the Question of Existentialism The existence of a gift denotes the action of a provider and thus the question that remains is about the giver of the gift of writing poems.
- Existentialism of the 20th Century They argued that human beings are actors in the world and hence are aware of what is in it unlike the trees and stones that just exist.
- Concepts of Sartre’s “Existentialism Is a Humanism” In this discussion, the objective is to describe the two outstanding concepts that make up the title of the speech: Existentialism and Humanism.
- Literary Genre of Existentialist Novel Existentialist literature is often characterized by the absurdity of the existence of man, and how a man often dwells on the ugly and dark sides of things.
- Existentialism: Existence of the Exceptional Individual Jean-Paul Sartre established the idea of existentialism in the nineteenth century, and it focused on the duties of the people’s choices in the ecosphere that fell short of ethics.
- Sartre’s Philosophy of Existentialism The main thesis of the theory of existentialism is that existence precedes essence and that one has to start from subjectivity.
- Postmodern Existentialism and Spirituality The road, referred to in the title of the book, is connected to humans’ idea that they are the prodigal son.
- Aspects of Existentialism as a Philosophical Concept It is not simply by a pure accident that the 20th century is now being strongly associated with the initial rise of existentialism, as an entirely new branch of Western philosophic thought, which is concerned […]
- “Going Local” and Existentialism The freedom of the individual stems from the ability to create their essence, since both the capacity of free will as humans is the sub of decisions made, including the roles and identities which constitute […]
- Nietzsche & Emerson vs. Rational Western Existentialism According to Nietzche, simpler situations are always true and the problem is that people tend to complicate standards by engaging the emotive qualities of existentialism instead of focusing on the simple tenets of the truth.
- Kierkegaard’s and Nietzsche’s Ideas of Existentialism Kierkegaard’s writing is developed in the context of his approach to Christianity, while Nietzsche’s thesis lies in the death of God.
- Cartesian Dualism Against Existentialist Nihilism In my belief, the idea that there is no God because His existence means the absence of freedom is not right.
- Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre The Judeo-Christian religious tradition insists that it is necessary for the soul to be viewed as being in a constant fight with the body in an attempt to transcend the temptations of the flesh. The […]
- The Elephant in the Room: Existentialism and the Denial of Death In Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych, Peter Ivanovich experiences a chilling moment as he contemplates his own mortality in light of the long and painful period of torture and agony that befell his colleague […]
- A Reflection on Bigelow’s “Primer of Existentialism” According to Bigelow, the rise of Existentialism can be discussed within the context of people becoming increasingly secularized, which intensifies the sensation of ‘universal loneliness’, on their part, “The main forces of history…have collectivized individual […]
- Contrasting Between William Shakespeare and Existentialism in the 20th Century
- The Development of Existentialism and Adlerian Theory Throughout History
- An Analysis of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Opinions in Existentialism and Human Emotions
- Tryst of Existentialism with Realism in Veronica Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
- Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage and Existentialism
- The Purpose of Education and the Use of the Ideas of Essentialism and Existentialism
- The Role of Existentialism in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex
- The Teleological Impulse: Thorstein Veblen, Existentialism, and the Philosophy of Science
- Black Existentialism and The Jazz Aesthetic in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
- Existentialism in Demian and Crime and Punishment
- Existentialism in The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus and Waiting for Godot by Beckett
- The Concept Of Existentialism The Humanism of Existentialism By Sartre
- Describing Existentialism and its Fast Growth in the World
- The Philosophy of Existentialism in the Literature of Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett
- The Educational Philosophies Of Existentialism And Social Reconstruction
- The Portrayal of Existentialism Within Beckett’s Play, ‘Rockaby’
- Understanding the Concept of the Philosophy of Existentialism
- The Themes of Existentialism in “The Shawshank Redemption”
- The Inception and History of Existentialism in the 19th and 20th Century
- Christians & Communists Against Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism
- Understanding the Concept of Existentialism of Soren Kierkegaard
- Images Of Human Nature Underlying Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism And Existentialism
- The Historical Development of Continental Philosophy’s Existentialism and Phenomenology
- The Basic Themes of Existentialism in the Play No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
- To What Extent Can Existentialism Give Us More Than a Satisfactory Philosophical Conclusion
- An Atheistic View of Existentialism in Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Humanism of Existentialism
- An Analysis of the French Existentialism Movement During the 20th Century
- The Popularity of the Concept of Existentialism in France During the Second World War
- Existentialism And Human Emotions By Jean-Paul Sartre Essay
- An Analysis of Sartre’s Philosophical Piece Existentialism and Human Emotions
- An Argument in Favor of the Philosophical Theory of Existentialism and Its Contributions to the World
- Notions Of Selflessness In Sartrean Existentialism And Theravadin Buddhism
- The Prevalence of Existentialism in The Stranger by Albert Camus
- The Philosophical Community As The Father Of Existentialism
- The Human Condition: Existentialism in Literature Relates to Religion
- Responsibility and Choices According to Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism
- The Influence of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Leadership in French Existentialism
- The History and Development of the Philosophical Movement of Existentialism
- Existentialism: A Philosophical Movement Pursuing the Meaning of Existence
- Theories Of Existentialism In Cormac Mccarthy’s The Road
- Waiting for Godot: Existentialism and Christianity
- How Existentialism and Psychoanalysis Influenced Frankl?
- How Could Existentialism Affect One’s Belief in God?
- What Are the Main Ideas of Existentialism?
- What Is an Example of Existentialism?
- What Is Wrong With Existentialism?
- Is Existentialism Compatible With Christianity?
- What Is the Opposite of Existentialism?
- Who Is Considered the Father of Existentialism?
- What Are the Three Beliefs of Existentialism?
- How Do You Practice Existentialism?
- What Is the First Principle of Existentialism?
- What Are the Two Kinds of Existentialism?
- How Does Existentialism View the Human Person?
- What Is the Difference Between Humanism and Existentialism?
- What Is Existentialism in Simple Terms?
- What Are the Six Themes of Existentialism?
- Is There an Ethics of Existentialism?
- Who Spoke of Existentialism?
- Why Is Existentialism Important Today?
- Who Is the Most Famous Representative of Existentialism?
- What Is the Connection Between Classical Detectives and Existentialism?
- How to Compare and Contrast Person-Centred and Existentialism Therapy?
- What Is Contrasting Between William Shakespeare and Existentialism in the 20th Century Form?
- How Describing Existentialism and Its Fast Growth in the World?
- What Are Different Ideas Within the Philosophy of Existentialism?
- Humanism Research Ideas
- Allegory Essay Titles
- Idealism Paper Topics
- Personality Psychology Research Topics
- Meaning of Life Essay Ideas
- Psychoanalysis Essay Topics
- Suffering Essay Topics
- The Metamorphosis Research Topics
- Chicago (A-D)
- Chicago (N-B)
IvyPanda. (2024, February 28). 87 Existentialism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/existentialism-essay-topics/
"87 Existentialism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." IvyPanda , 28 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/existentialism-essay-topics/.
IvyPanda . (2024) '87 Existentialism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples'. 28 February.
IvyPanda . 2024. "87 Existentialism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/existentialism-essay-topics/.
1. IvyPanda . "87 Existentialism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/existentialism-essay-topics/.
Bibliography
IvyPanda . "87 Existentialism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/existentialism-essay-topics/.
Existentialism: An Overview of Important Themes and Figures
Cite this chapter.
- William C. Pamerleau 2
175 Accesses
‘Existentialism’ is a difficult term to define. Historically, it has been used in a wide variety of contexts and for diverse purposes. As far back as the ancient Greeks, one can find examples of texts that could today be described as existentialist, though it was not until the twentieth century that existentialism emerged as a conspicuous movement. 1 While today we would certainly classify eighteenth century figures like Dostoevsky and Nietzsche as existentialists, they did not use that term to describe themselves. By the time Sartre became famous for his works, shortly after World War II, the term was widely recognized as a description of a certain kind of literature, art, and philosophy, but by then it was also misunderstood by a large portion of society outside of academia. In his popular essay ‘The Humanism of Existentialism’, Sartre jokes that a woman who let loose a vulgarity exclaimed, ‘I guess I’m becoming an existentialist’, which for Sartre illustrates how vague and abused that term had become. 2 It doesn’t help us understand the movement any better to know that its major figures, like Sartre, often denied being existentialists (though for reasons which make perfect sense, if you are an existentialist).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Subscribe and save.
- Get 10 units per month
- Download Article/Chapter or eBook
- 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
- Cancel anytime
- Available as PDF
- Read on any device
- Instant download
- Own it forever
- Compact, lightweight edition
- Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
- Free shipping worldwide - see info
- Durable hardcover edition
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Institutional subscriptions
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Mary M. Litch’s Philosophy Through Film provides an introduction to the perennial problems in the history of philosophy (skepticism, relativism, personal identity, etc.) via a discussion of films. Mary M. Litch, Philosophy Through Film (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 1–2.
Google Scholar
Stephen Mulhall. On Film (London: Routledge. 2002). p. 2.
Jerry Goodenough, ‘Introduction I: A Philosopher Goes to the Cinema’, in Film as Philosophy: Essays on Cinema after Wittgenstein and Cavell , ed. Rupert Read and Jerry Goodenough (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2005), p. 25. On the show/tell distinction, see also Julian Baggini, ‘Alien Ways of Thinking’, Film-Philosophy 7, no. 24 (August 2003), < http://www.film-philosophy.com /archive/vo17–2003/>.
Paisley Livingston, ‘Theses on Cinema as Philosophy’, in Thinking Through Cinema: Film as Philosophy , ed. Murray Smith and Thomas E. Wartenberg (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006). p. 12.
Thomas E. Wartenberg, ‘Philosophy Screened: Experiencing The Matrix ’, in The Philosophy of Film: Introductory Text and Readings , ed. Thomas E. Wartenberg and Angela Curran (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), p. 275.
Bruce Russell, ‘Film’s Limits: The Sequel’, Film and Philosophy 12 (2008): 1.
Consider this observation by Fellini: ‘I do not make moral judgments, I’m not qualified to do so. ...I dislike analyzing, I am not an orator, a philoso-pher or a theorist. I am merely a story-teller and the cinema is my work.’ Federico Fellini, Fellini on Fellini (New York: Da Capo Press, 1996), p. 51.
Noël Carroll, ‘Philosophy in the Moving Image: Response to Bruce Russell’, Film and Philosophy 12 (2008): 21.
Cleanth Brooks, The Well Wrought Urn (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc., 1947), pp. 195–199.
Seymour Chatman, ‘What Novels Can Do That Films Can’t (and Vice Versa)’, in Film Theory and Criticism , ed. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 443.
David Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), p. 212.
Colin Wilson, for example, argues that the Sartrean brand of existentialism emphasizes the negative elements of freedom more than the positive ones, thus leaving his work open to these darker consequences. See Colin Wilson, Introduction to The New Existentialism (New York: Houghton Mifflin. 1966). p. 32.
Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘Existentialism is a Humanism’, in Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre , ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Meridian Books, 1975), pp. 367–368.
Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity , trans. Frederick Lawrence (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987), pp. 316–326.
For a good discussion of how both feminism and Marxism challenge the existentialist emphasis on subjectivity see Judith Butler, ‘Variations on Sex and Gender: Beauvoir, Wittig and Foucault’, in Feminism and Critique , ed. Seyla Benhabib and Drucilla Cornell (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987), pp. 128–142.
Kendall Walton argues that the use of photography in the production of film makes us see the objects photographed in a way that other media, like painting, can never do. ‘The invention of the camera gave us not just a new method of making pictures and not just pictures of a new kind: it gave us a new way of seeing.’ Kendall L. Walton, ‘Film, Photography, and Transparency’, in The Philosophy of Film: Introductory Texts and Readings , ed. Thomas E. Wartenberg and Angela Curran (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), pp. 70–71.
Siegfried Kracauer, Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997).
Andrè Bazin, What is Cinema?, Vol. I , trans. Hugh Gray (Berkley: University of California Press, 1967), p. 12.
Andrè Bazin, What is Cinema?, Vol. II , trans. Hugh Gray (Berkley: University of California Press, 1971), p. 28.
Hugo Münsterberg, The Photoplay: A Psychological Study (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1916), < http://www.gutenberg.org /files/15383/ 15383-h/15383-h.htm>, ch. 7.
J. Dudley Andrew, The Major Film Theories: An Introduction (London: Oxford University Press, 1976), p. 22.
Bélá Balázs, Theory of the Film (New York: Dover Books, 1970), p. 55.
James Monaco, How to Read a Film (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 246.
Stanley Cavell, The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971).
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997), pp. 463–464.
Woody Allen, Woody Allen on Woody Allen: In Conversation with Stig Björkman , (New York: Grove Press, 1993), p. 211.
Download references
Author information
Authors and affiliations.
Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, USA
William C. Pamerleau ( Associate Professor )
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Copyright information
© 2009 William C. Pamerleau
About this chapter
Pamerleau, W.C. (2009). Existentialism: An Overview of Important Themes and Figures. In: Existentialist Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230235465_2
Download citation
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230235465_2
Publisher Name : Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN : 978-1-349-36539-5
Online ISBN : 978-0-230-23546-5
eBook Packages : Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection Social Sciences (R0)
Share this chapter
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative
- Publish with us
Policies and ethics
- Find a journal
- Track your research
![existentialism research paper topics U.S. flag](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/coreutils/uswds/img/favicons/favicon-57.png)
An official website of the United States government
The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.
The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.
- Publications
- Account settings
Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .
- Advanced Search
- Journal List
- IBRO Neurosci Rep
- v.11; 2021 Dec
An existentialist approach to authentic science
Associated data.
No Data was used in this manuscript.
The pressures of the ethos of “publish or perish” in academia has led to a multitude of issues for science and scientists. In this paper, we argue that the existentialist philosophy concept of authenticity would be useful for scientists to prevent issues of reproducibility, data manipulation, fraud, and mentorship. We highlight some major caveats and call for policies to prevent them. Overall, we propose a way for scientists to ensure they do not succumb to the pressures of a career in science.
Introduction
Existentialism is a philosophical idea that existence precedes essence, which means that above the labels, roles, or stereotypes that one may be given, we are first and foremost independently acting conscious beings. Quoting Jean-Paul Sartre from “Existentialism is a Humanism”, his famous essay defending existentialism ( Sartre, 1946 ):
“We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world—and defines himself afterwards.”
Sartre goes on to explain that the implication of this is that, as humans, we have the freedom of choice and are therefore responsible for our actions and the decisions we make.
“Thus, the first effect of existentialism is that it puts every man in possession of himself as he is, and places the entire responsibility for his existence squarely upon his own shoulders.”
The primary virtue of existentialism is authenticity, whereby choices are made autonomously with full responsibility and avoiding “mauvaise foi” or bad faith, a phenomenon in which an agent adopts false values due to external or social pressures, and in doing so, denies their own freedom.
In this article, we argue that the existentialist account of authenticity is a beneficial approach for the way we should conduct science, and its adoption would ensure scientists do not succumb to the pressures of a career in science. This paper is meant as a guide for scientists to conceptualize the use of existential philosophy in navigating science in academia and industry. It is not an in-depth analysis of existentialism in science, such issues of funding, publishing, and society’s views on science, but rather a discussion of scientists and their individual responsibilities. While we will not discuss the criticisms of existentialist philosophy itself (though we do discuss some specific criticisms in regard to its use in the scientific process) as much has already been written on it, it is important to note that at its core, biological sciences seem to argue against “existence precedes essence” in that individual differences in behavior are nearly always influenced by genetic factors ( Kendler and Greenspan, 2006 ). However, similar to many of Freudian theories being flawed ( Webster, 1995 ), yet theories on anxiety developing from traumatic memories ( Breuer and Freud, 1893 ) are still relevant to modern research on anxiety; aspects of existentialist theories are still relevant in virtue ethics in science – something we will argue in this paper.
The problem
I think it is fair to say that most scientists start out their careers with noble ideals, perhaps with the goal to better humanity or perhaps out of curiosity of the world we live in. However, the pressures of an ingrained ethos of “publish or perish” and the ever-increasing demands for research outputs, has led to a situation in which many scientists end up pursuing higher numbers of publications and higher impact papers. Quoting the 2017 Nobel Prize Laureate Jeffery Hall ( Hall, 2008 ):
“In my day you could get a faculty job with zero post-doc papers, as in the case of yours truly; but now the CV of a successful applicant looks like that of a newly minted full Professor from olden times.”
One might argue that this is not a bad thing, but would pursuing more publications and higher impact papers increase productivity and the quality of science? We argue that this research culture causes immense harm to both science and scientists. First, when the focus shifts to churning out publications instead of pursuing good science with well-designed and well-executed experiments, issues of reproducibility, ethics, and rigor start to emerge. For example, the high demands of publishing might drive a researcher to seek out significance by running a high number of experiments but only presenting significant data or data that fits the hypothesis, or by not replicating experiments or manipulating statistics or “p-hacking”. Second, the demand for research output can change mentorship dynamics, for example, between a primary investigator (PI) and their Ph.D. student. Instead of training their students to become better scientists by mentoring them on how to synthesize hypotheses, to design controlled experiments to test these hypotheses, and to properly analyze the results and understand it in the context of the literature, the pressures of research output can easily push a PI to use their students as a means to generate data. Although we acknowledge that quality of teaching is independent or mildly correlated to publishing ( Centra, 1983 ) and that good training can indeed lead to better research output, there is still the temptation to treat the students as a way to get publications rather than as young scientists-in-training. Third, the demand for increased output becomes a burden on scientists generating the data, which we argue is a huge reason for the high levels of mental health issues in graduate students and academic staff ( Court and Kinman, 2008 , Evans et al., 2018 , Watts and Robertson, 2011 ). Overall, the increased pressures of academia are detrimental to both science and scientists.
The existentialist approach
A key tenet in existentialist philosophy is that, as humans, we are “cursed” with absolute freedom (at least in atheistic accounts such as that of Sartre) and are thus responsible for the choices we make. If we abdicate this responsibility (such as succumbing to the pressures of society), we fall into bad faith. We argue that some concepts developed in existentialism can provide insights on how to develop better practices for scientists to navigate the pressures of academia. By the existentialist approach, we are free to choose that which we desire to be. As scientists, we make a choice in ‘becoming’ a scientist, and with it, the loss of certain freedoms (in abiding professional code of conducts, for example). 1 To stay authentic, we need to accept the burden of the loss of freedom by taking responsibility for this choice—by accepting the loss of freedom in 'becoming' a scientist committed to the truth and to the energetic search for it. Scientists should therefore conduct science authentically with the noble ideal to better humanity. Embracing freedom means not succumbing to the pressures of “publish or perish”, but rather to pursue good science. This then has implications on the problems of reproducibility, data manipulation, falsification, fraud, mentorship, and so on, as mentioned above. This is particularly important in the current climate of academic research with increasing rates of retractions due to fraud ( Steen, 2011 ), more researchers admitting to questionable research practices ( Fanelli, 2009 ), and greater evidence of more research with false findings ( Ioannidis, 2005 ). Having an existentialist approach means that we can no longer blame our actions on the pressures placed on us by the system. The PI should be fully responsible for his/her actions and how they treat their students and staff, and fall into bad faith if they claim they need to publish papers to retain their jobs. On the other hand, pre-independent researchers can no longer place the responsibility of how they conduct their research on the pressures placed on them by their PIs, as this similarly falls into bad faith. In either case, the agent cannot place responsibility on the system as that will fall into bad faith, instead the agent has to be responsible for her action. Given that the agent chose to become a scientist, one who agrees in the pursuit of truth within the constraints of professional code of conduct (as argued above), the agent therefore cannot justify any misconduct as that will be done in bad faith. Overall, we argue that approaching science through an existential perspective would place the responsibility squarely on the individual, preventing misconduct in research and creating a better environment for scientists.
Why existentialism? Rather than providing clear guidance, philosophical idealisms when applied to real-world situations can often add confusion. While the tension between idealisms of philosophies and the reality of a modern scientific career can bring up more questions that they answer, we argue that these questions are worth bringing up, as they highlight issues that we as scientist should question, contemplate, and strive to overcome. There are also many other theories in which scientific ethics can be and are indeed based on. We do not argue that existentialism stands as the only theory or even the best theory when it comes to ethical issues in science, but rather compliments other theories already discussed and applied in ethical science. We argue that existentialism provides a layer of personal responsibility beyond that of professional codes of conduct, and is complimentary rather than oppositional to current concepts. There are situations in which these codes of conduct realistically limit freedoms per se (e.g., Institutional review boards rejecting non-conforming studies), however, we argue that understanding the principles of existentialism in tandem with these codes of conduct would create more robust ethical behavior than simply conforming to latter. These codes of conduct then act as facticity (a limitation and a condition of freedom based on things one did not choose that are “set in stone”). Similarly, seemingly incoherent philosophical theories such as Aristotelian virtue ethics which are agent-focused and depends on human nature that exists independently of the agent (unlike existentialism which is agent-based and denies the existence of human nature) are not always entirely incoherent and can at times be naturalized as facticity – existentialism can be seen as a agent-based account of virtue ethics.
An immediate issue of applying an existentialist approach in science (or perhaps in general) is that of responsibility. By responsibility, we do not mean the responsibility of freedom as stated by Sartre, but rather personal responsibilities that challenge Sartre’s view of freedom. Throughout our lives, we have responsibilities that perhaps realistically limit our freedom. While an existentialist might argue that this constitutes bad faith as said responsibilities can be seen as “societal pressures” (making decisions based on responsibilities can be seen as putting blame on them and hence being inauthentic or falling into bad faith), they realistically remain a consideration for how one acts, and rightly so. For example, if an academic has a family with young children, then surely, they would be mindful of the implications of losing one’s job due to low numbers of papers or fewer high impact publications, resulting in the loss of income, needing to relocate, and other consequences. In such situations, we argue that an existentialist thought process would still be beneficial, as it forces one to take into consideration the authenticity of science (or one’s original intent of pursuing a career in academic sciences). This would be beneficial in two ways: 1) it would prevent certain actions that cross the line (e.g., falsifying data) and 2) if one succumbs to the pressures of academia due to personal responsibilities, it would taper the extent of such acts. Overall, although a researcher might not be fully authentic in conducting science due to extraneous responsibilities, an existentialist approach could minimize any emerging issues.
Another major problem perhaps lies in the economics of the existentialist approach. Regardless of how one conducts research, be it authentic or not, the “invisible hand” of the capitalistic “publish or perish” system of academia would still favor researchers who have more publications and more high impact papers. This system puts pressure on academics to publish more in order to stay relevant in the eyes of the institution that values publishing, which is reminiscent of the economic concept of rent-seeking behavior 2 ( Muller, 2017 ). Such a system can lead to academics following the path of least resistance to obtain short-term rewards/funding. It then becomes conceivable that authenticity (in the existentialist sense of the word) in science might be unintentionally “weeded” out by the system. In our above example, a PI who exploits their students to generate more data at the cost of their development would produce more publications and continue to get grants and promotions, whereas a PI who mentors their students to be good scientists would have a fewer publications and would receive less funding. Similarly, rigorous science requires repeat experiments and robust statistical analysis, but p-hacking or even fraud if undetected (in our opinion, this happens a lot) generates more significant data that leads to faster publications with higher impact. Perhaps like economics, policies need to be in place to prevent such “market failures” in science. Policies need to encompass a more holistic evaluation of the quality of work, rewarding good mentorship over data generation, and taking into consideration the research output beyond the impact factor of journals publishing the papers. What exactly these policies entail would require careful consideration by economist, politics and policy researchers, scientists, funders, and publishers.
Combining the above caveats, a central theme of idealism comes to mind, but are theoretical philosophies such as existentialism overly idealistic to be of benefit to a pragmatic venture such as science? The endeavor of taking abstract and perhaps insensitive ideals of a theoretical philosophy and applying them to specific situations of scientific ethics might appear to be impractical. Furthermore, is existentialism internally incoherent to the real-world pressures that we have accepted in our choice (assuming it is one of good faith) to become a scientist by choosing the loss of certain freedoms and putting blame on the loss of these freedoms? Much has already been argued on the practicality of ethical philosophy, for example, proponents of the “anti-theory” such as the objection of reductive ethical theory and it’s lack of authority ( Williams, 1985 ). Is there any value in an existentialist approach for scientific ethics? As mentioned above, we argue that existentialist theory is complimentary to other philosophical theories and professional codes of conduct. It adds a layer of personal responsibility in which existing ethical guidelines might be lacking. For example, it is perfectly ethical according to professional guidelines to not repeat experiments if statistics sufficiently argue for a certain hypothesis; however, if a scientist authentically seeks the idealism mentioned above, effort would be made to ensure reproducibility through repeat experiments. Being authentic as a scientist would therefore mean resisting the pressures to take “shortcuts” like not replicating experiments, as being authentic as a scientist is to be in earnest pursuit of the truth, above the pressures of publications, impact factors, citations, etc. – something that can only produce better science.
However, scientists can be arrogant, hostile, overly driven by their career etc., and being free from authenticity under these conditions might lead to some very bad behavior. Therefore, existentialist theory alone may be insufficient for ethical science in such cases, rather it should act as a compliment to other ethical theories and codes of conduct. There are also arguments that the existentialist theory is incompatible with other theories. For example, adherence to a professional code of conduct appears to be exactly the kind of external values that existentialists tend to question—“good science” following a professional code of conduct will inherently be subject to the essence of the code, whereas existentialism at its core asks that an agent determines their own essence and questions an enforced “essence” placed on said agent. How then can scientists resolve such contradictions? Similar to our above arguments of responsibility, we believe an existentialist thought process can still be beneficial. Ethical codes of conduct dictate acceptable behavior in a profession, and we propose that they should be adhered to if one is considered a member of said profession. A scientist could however apply existentialist precepts complimentary to already existing ethical frameworks like professional codes of conduct by adhering to the “spirit” in which this code was derived to avoid unethical actions. Overall, we argue an existentialist mindset complimentary to other ethical frameworks could still be effective in preventing certain unethical actions, and to avoid certain “lines” from being crossed or reduce unethical actions.
The pressures of modern academia have inevitably caused a myriad of issues that have unfortunately distorted the intent of many scientists, creating a situation where science and scientists are under extreme stress. In this article, we argue that by using an existentialist approach, scientists will be obliged to come to terms with their responsibility of freedom, leading to choices that are authentic. It is worth noting that many other philosophical theories exist in which science can be conducted, and existentialism is but one that we propose. Critical thinking, through philosophical theories, can be useful tools for a scientist ability to make good judgements in cases where rigid doctrines, like code of conducts, can be skirted. Articles such as the present hence serve as a means to which scientist can engage with philosophical thought in order better the way in which we conduct science. However, more discussions based on philosophical underpinning would be useful in this pursuit. Although issues in funding, measures of success, and how society views science may appear to challenge the use of existentialist concepts in ethical science, by practical adoption of an existentialist philosophical approach in compliment with existing ethical theories and codes of conduct together with sensible policies to prevent “market failures”, we can begin to reform areas of academia that appear to be broken by the high pressures of “publish or perish”.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Shawn Zheng Kai Tan: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Lee Wei Lim: Writing – review & editing, Supervision.
Ethics Statement
All authors declare no competing financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Alexandre Erler, Keri Roberson, Mildred Mitchell, and Madeleine Armstrong for their invaluable input.
1 We take here a stance against a fully epistemological anarchistic (as suggested by Feyerabend (1975) in “Against Method”) in scientific pursuit (though we do recognize that Freyebend was making a reducto argument anyway). We reconcile this with the existentialist philosophy by stating that it is indeed a choice by the agent to become a scientist, and with-it choosing loss of freedom in the form of professional code of conducts, one which the agent must be responsible for if the agent wants to remain authentic.
2 Rent-seeking behavior seeks to increase one's existing wealth without creating new wealth. The theory is when the most talented individuals go into rent-seeking (the most lucrative) fields like finance, law, etc., instead of entrepreneurship, the economy is negatively affected because this does not encourage innovation and growth ( Murphy et al., 1991 ). Muller (2017) used Tollison’s analysis of rent-seeking ( Tollison, 2012 ) as “the study of how people compete for artificially contrived transfers” and parallels it with academia and publishing.
Data Availability
- Breuer, J., Freud, S., 1893. On the psychical mechanism of hysterical phenomena: preliminary communication from studies on Hysteria. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume II (1893–1895): Studies on Hysteria. pp. 1–17.
- Centra J.A. Research productivity and teaching effectiveness. Res. High. Educ. 1983; 18 (2):379–389. [ Google Scholar ]
- Court, S., Kinman, G., 2008. Tackling Stress in Higher Education. pp. 1–134. 10.1145/1314683.1314684. [ CrossRef ]
- Evans T.M., Bira L., Gastelum J.B., Weiss L.T., Vanderford N.L. Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education. Nat. Biotechnol. 2018; 36 (3):282–284. doi: 10.1038/nbt.4089. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
- Fanelli D. How many scientists fabricate and falsify research? A systematic review and meta-analysis of survey data. PLoS One. 2009; 4 (5):5738. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005738. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
- Feyerabend P. New Left Books; 1975. Against Method. [ Google Scholar ]
- Hall J.C. Curr. Biol.: CB. 2008; 18 (3):101–103. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.12.016. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
- Ioannidis J.P.A. Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Med. 2005; 2 (8):124. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
- Kendler K.S., Greenspan R.J. The nature of genetic influences on behavior: lessons from “simpler” organisms. The Am. J. Psychiatry. 2006; 163 (10):1683–1694. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.163.10.1683. American Psychiatric Assn. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
- Muller S.M. Academics as rent seekers: distorted incentives in higher education, with reference to the South African case. Int. J. Educ. Dev. 2017; 52 (November):58–67. doi: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2016.11.004. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
- Murphy K.M., Shleifer A., Vishny R.W. The allocation of talent: implications for growth. Q. J. Econ. 1991; 106 (2):503–530. [ Google Scholar ]
- Sartre J.-P. World Publishing Company; 1946. Existentialism is a Humanism. [ Google Scholar ]
- Steen R.G. Retractions in the scientific literature: is the incidence of research fraud increasing? J. Med. Ethics. 2011; 37 (4):249–253. doi: 10.1136/jme.2010.040923. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
- Tollison R.D. The economic theory of rent seeking. Public Choice. 2012; 152 (1–2):73–82. doi: 10.1007/s11127-011-9852-5. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
- Watts J., Robertson N. Burnout in university teaching staff: a systematic literature review. Educ. Res. 2011; 53 (1):33–50. doi: 10.1080/00131881.2011.552235. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
- Webster R. Basic Books; 1995. Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, and Psychoanalysis. [ Google Scholar ]
- Williams B. Harvard University Press; 1985. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. [ Google Scholar ]
- Search Menu
Sign in through your institution
- Browse content in Arts and Humanities
- Browse content in Archaeology
- Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
- Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
- Archaeology by Region
- Archaeology of Religion
- Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
- Biblical Archaeology
- Contemporary and Public Archaeology
- Environmental Archaeology
- Historical Archaeology
- History and Theory of Archaeology
- Industrial Archaeology
- Landscape Archaeology
- Mortuary Archaeology
- Prehistoric Archaeology
- Underwater Archaeology
- Zooarchaeology
- Browse content in Architecture
- Architectural Structure and Design
- History of Architecture
- Residential and Domestic Buildings
- Theory of Architecture
- Browse content in Art
- Art Subjects and Themes
- History of Art
- Industrial and Commercial Art
- Theory of Art
- Biographical Studies
- Byzantine Studies
- Browse content in Classical Studies
- Classical Numismatics
- Classical Literature
- Classical Reception
- Classical History
- Classical Philosophy
- Classical Mythology
- Classical Art and Architecture
- Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
- Greek and Roman Archaeology
- Greek and Roman Papyrology
- Greek and Roman Epigraphy
- Greek and Roman Law
- Late Antiquity
- Religion in the Ancient World
- Social History
- Digital Humanities
- Browse content in History
- Colonialism and Imperialism
- Diplomatic History
- Environmental History
- Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
- Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
- Historical Geography
- History by Period
- History of Agriculture
- History of Education
- History of Emotions
- History of Gender and Sexuality
- Industrial History
- Intellectual History
- International History
- Labour History
- Legal and Constitutional History
- Local and Family History
- Maritime History
- Military History
- National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
- Oral History
- Political History
- Public History
- Regional and National History
- Revolutions and Rebellions
- Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
- Social and Cultural History
- Theory, Methods, and Historiography
- Urban History
- World History
- Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
- Language Learning (Specific Skills)
- Language Teaching Theory and Methods
- Browse content in Linguistics
- Applied Linguistics
- Cognitive Linguistics
- Computational Linguistics
- Forensic Linguistics
- Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
- Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
- History of English
- Language Variation
- Language Families
- Language Evolution
- Language Reference
- Language Acquisition
- Lexicography
- Linguistic Theories
- Linguistic Typology
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Phonetics and Phonology
- Psycholinguistics
- Sociolinguistics
- Translation and Interpretation
- Writing Systems
- Browse content in Literature
- Bibliography
- Children's Literature Studies
- Literary Studies (Modernism)
- Literary Studies (Romanticism)
- Literary Studies (American)
- Literary Studies (Asian)
- Literary Studies (European)
- Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
- Literary Studies - World
- Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
- Literary Studies (19th Century)
- Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
- Literary Studies (African American Literature)
- Literary Studies (British and Irish)
- Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
- Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
- Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
- Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
- Literary Studies (History of the Book)
- Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
- Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
- Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
- Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
- Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
- Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
- Literary Studies (War Literature)
- Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
- Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
- Mythology and Folklore
- Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
- Browse content in Media Studies
- Browse content in Music
- Applied Music
- Dance and Music
- Ethics in Music
- Ethnomusicology
- Gender and Sexuality in Music
- Medicine and Music
- Music Cultures
- Music and Culture
- Music and Media
- Music and Religion
- Music Education and Pedagogy
- Music Theory and Analysis
- Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
- Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
- Musicology and Music History
- Performance Practice and Studies
- Race and Ethnicity in Music
- Sound Studies
- Browse content in Performing Arts
- Browse content in Philosophy
- Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
- Epistemology
- Feminist Philosophy
- History of Western Philosophy
- Metaphysics
- Moral Philosophy
- Non-Western Philosophy
- Philosophy of Action
- Philosophy of Law
- Philosophy of Religion
- Philosophy of Language
- Philosophy of Mind
- Philosophy of Perception
- Philosophy of Science
- Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
- Practical Ethics
- Social and Political Philosophy
- Browse content in Religion
- Biblical Studies
- Christianity
- East Asian Religions
- History of Religion
- Judaism and Jewish Studies
- Qumran Studies
- Religion and Education
- Religion and Health
- Religion and Politics
- Religion and Science
- Religion and Law
- Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
- Religious Studies
- Browse content in Society and Culture
- Cookery, Food, and Drink
- Cultural Studies
- Customs and Traditions
- Ethical Issues and Debates
- Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
- Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
- Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
- Sports and Outdoor Recreation
- Technology and Society
- Travel and Holiday
- Visual Culture
- Browse content in Law
- Arbitration
- Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
- Commercial Law
- Company Law
- Browse content in Comparative Law
- Systems of Law
- Competition Law
- Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
- Government Powers
- Judicial Review
- Local Government Law
- Military and Defence Law
- Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
- Construction Law
- Contract Law
- Browse content in Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure
- Criminal Evidence Law
- Sentencing and Punishment
- Employment and Labour Law
- Environment and Energy Law
- Browse content in Financial Law
- Banking Law
- Insolvency Law
- History of Law
- Human Rights and Immigration
- Intellectual Property Law
- Browse content in International Law
- Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
- Public International Law
- IT and Communications Law
- Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
- Law and Society
- Law and Politics
- Browse content in Legal System and Practice
- Courts and Procedure
- Legal Skills and Practice
- Legal System - Costs and Funding
- Primary Sources of Law
- Regulation of Legal Profession
- Medical and Healthcare Law
- Browse content in Policing
- Criminal Investigation and Detection
- Police and Security Services
- Police Procedure and Law
- Police Regional Planning
- Browse content in Property Law
- Personal Property Law
- Restitution
- Study and Revision
- Terrorism and National Security Law
- Browse content in Trusts Law
- Wills and Probate or Succession
- Browse content in Medicine and Health
- Browse content in Allied Health Professions
- Arts Therapies
- Clinical Science
- Dietetics and Nutrition
- Occupational Therapy
- Operating Department Practice
- Physiotherapy
- Radiography
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Browse content in Anaesthetics
- General Anaesthesia
- Clinical Neuroscience
- Browse content in Clinical Medicine
- Acute Medicine
- Cardiovascular Medicine
- Clinical Genetics
- Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
- Dermatology
- Endocrinology and Diabetes
- Gastroenterology
- Genito-urinary Medicine
- Geriatric Medicine
- Infectious Diseases
- Medical Oncology
- Medical Toxicology
- Pain Medicine
- Palliative Medicine
- Rehabilitation Medicine
- Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
- Rheumatology
- Sleep Medicine
- Sports and Exercise Medicine
- Community Medical Services
- Critical Care
- Emergency Medicine
- Forensic Medicine
- Haematology
- History of Medicine
- Medical Ethics
- Browse content in Medical Skills
- Clinical Skills
- Communication Skills
- Nursing Skills
- Surgical Skills
- Browse content in Medical Dentistry
- Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
- Paediatric Dentistry
- Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
- Surgical Dentistry
- Medical Statistics and Methodology
- Browse content in Neurology
- Clinical Neurophysiology
- Neuropathology
- Nursing Studies
- Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
- Gynaecology
- Occupational Medicine
- Ophthalmology
- Otolaryngology (ENT)
- Browse content in Paediatrics
- Neonatology
- Browse content in Pathology
- Chemical Pathology
- Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
- Histopathology
- Medical Microbiology and Virology
- Patient Education and Information
- Browse content in Pharmacology
- Psychopharmacology
- Browse content in Popular Health
- Caring for Others
- Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- Self-help and Personal Development
- Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
- Cell Biology
- Molecular Biology and Genetics
- Reproduction, Growth and Development
- Primary Care
- Professional Development in Medicine
- Browse content in Psychiatry
- Addiction Medicine
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Forensic Psychiatry
- Learning Disabilities
- Old Age Psychiatry
- Psychotherapy
- Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
- Browse content in Radiology
- Clinical Radiology
- Interventional Radiology
- Nuclear Medicine
- Radiation Oncology
- Reproductive Medicine
- Browse content in Surgery
- Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
- General Surgery
- Neurosurgery
- Paediatric Surgery
- Peri-operative Care
- Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
- Surgical Oncology
- Transplant Surgery
- Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
- Vascular Surgery
- Browse content in Science and Mathematics
- Browse content in Biological Sciences
- Aquatic Biology
- Biochemistry
- Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
- Developmental Biology
- Ecology and Conservation
- Evolutionary Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
- Microbiology
- Molecular and Cell Biology
- Natural History
- Plant Sciences and Forestry
- Research Methods in Life Sciences
- Structural Biology
- Systems Biology
- Zoology and Animal Sciences
- Browse content in Chemistry
- Analytical Chemistry
- Computational Chemistry
- Crystallography
- Environmental Chemistry
- Industrial Chemistry
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Materials Chemistry
- Medicinal Chemistry
- Mineralogy and Gems
- Organic Chemistry
- Physical Chemistry
- Polymer Chemistry
- Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
- Theoretical Chemistry
- Browse content in Computer Science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Computer Architecture and Logic Design
- Game Studies
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Mathematical Theory of Computation
- Programming Languages
- Software Engineering
- Systems Analysis and Design
- Virtual Reality
- Browse content in Computing
- Business Applications
- Computer Games
- Computer Security
- Computer Networking and Communications
- Digital Lifestyle
- Graphical and Digital Media Applications
- Operating Systems
- Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
- Atmospheric Sciences
- Environmental Geography
- Geology and the Lithosphere
- Maps and Map-making
- Meteorology and Climatology
- Oceanography and Hydrology
- Palaeontology
- Physical Geography and Topography
- Regional Geography
- Soil Science
- Urban Geography
- Browse content in Engineering and Technology
- Agriculture and Farming
- Biological Engineering
- Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
- Electronics and Communications Engineering
- Energy Technology
- Engineering (General)
- Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
- History of Engineering and Technology
- Mechanical Engineering and Materials
- Technology of Industrial Chemistry
- Transport Technology and Trades
- Browse content in Environmental Science
- Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
- Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
- Environmental Sustainability
- Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
- Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
- Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
- Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
- Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
- Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
- History of Science and Technology
- Browse content in Materials Science
- Ceramics and Glasses
- Composite Materials
- Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
- Nanotechnology
- Browse content in Mathematics
- Applied Mathematics
- Biomathematics and Statistics
- History of Mathematics
- Mathematical Education
- Mathematical Finance
- Mathematical Analysis
- Numerical and Computational Mathematics
- Probability and Statistics
- Pure Mathematics
- Browse content in Neuroscience
- Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
- Development of the Nervous System
- Disorders of the Nervous System
- History of Neuroscience
- Invertebrate Neurobiology
- Molecular and Cellular Systems
- Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
- Neuroscientific Techniques
- Sensory and Motor Systems
- Browse content in Physics
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
- Biological and Medical Physics
- Classical Mechanics
- Computational Physics
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
- History of Physics
- Mathematical and Statistical Physics
- Measurement Science
- Nuclear Physics
- Particles and Fields
- Plasma Physics
- Quantum Physics
- Relativity and Gravitation
- Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
- Browse content in Psychology
- Affective Sciences
- Clinical Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Criminal and Forensic Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Psychology
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Health Psychology
- History and Systems in Psychology
- Music Psychology
- Neuropsychology
- Organizational Psychology
- Psychological Assessment and Testing
- Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
- Psychology Professional Development and Training
- Research Methods in Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Browse content in Social Sciences
- Browse content in Anthropology
- Anthropology of Religion
- Human Evolution
- Medical Anthropology
- Physical Anthropology
- Regional Anthropology
- Social and Cultural Anthropology
- Theory and Practice of Anthropology
- Browse content in Business and Management
- Business History
- Business Ethics
- Business Strategy
- Business and Technology
- Business and Government
- Business and the Environment
- Comparative Management
- Corporate Governance
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- Entrepreneurship
- Health Management
- Human Resource Management
- Industrial and Employment Relations
- Industry Studies
- Information and Communication Technologies
- International Business
- Knowledge Management
- Management and Management Techniques
- Operations Management
- Organizational Theory and Behaviour
- Pensions and Pension Management
- Public and Nonprofit Management
- Social Issues in Business and Management
- Strategic Management
- Supply Chain Management
- Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
- Criminal Justice
- Criminology
- Forms of Crime
- International and Comparative Criminology
- Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
- Development Studies
- Browse content in Economics
- Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
- Asian Economics
- Behavioural Finance
- Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
- Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
- Economic Methodology
- Economic History
- Economic Systems
- Economic Development and Growth
- Financial Markets
- Financial Institutions and Services
- General Economics and Teaching
- Health, Education, and Welfare
- History of Economic Thought
- International Economics
- Labour and Demographic Economics
- Law and Economics
- Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
- Microeconomics
- Public Economics
- Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
- Welfare Economics
- Browse content in Education
- Adult Education and Continuous Learning
- Care and Counselling of Students
- Early Childhood and Elementary Education
- Educational Equipment and Technology
- Educational Strategies and Policy
- Higher and Further Education
- Organization and Management of Education
- Philosophy and Theory of Education
- Schools Studies
- Secondary Education
- Teaching of a Specific Subject
- Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
- Teaching Skills and Techniques
- Browse content in Environment
- Applied Ecology (Social Science)
- Climate Change
- Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
- Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
- Management of Land and Natural Resources (Social Science)
- Natural Disasters (Environment)
- Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Social Science)
- Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
- Sustainability
- Browse content in Human Geography
- Cultural Geography
- Economic Geography
- Political Geography
- Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
- Communication Studies
- Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
- Browse content in Politics
- African Politics
- Asian Politics
- Chinese Politics
- Comparative Politics
- Conflict Politics
- Elections and Electoral Studies
- Environmental Politics
- Ethnic Politics
- European Union
- Foreign Policy
- Gender and Politics
- Human Rights and Politics
- Indian Politics
- International Relations
- International Organization (Politics)
- Irish Politics
- Latin American Politics
- Middle Eastern Politics
- Political Theory
- Political Behaviour
- Political Economy
- Political Institutions
- Political Methodology
- Political Communication
- Political Philosophy
- Political Sociology
- Politics and Law
- Politics of Development
- Public Policy
- Public Administration
- Qualitative Political Methodology
- Quantitative Political Methodology
- Regional Political Studies
- Russian Politics
- Security Studies
- State and Local Government
- UK Politics
- US Politics
- Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
- African Studies
- Asian Studies
- East Asian Studies
- Japanese Studies
- Latin American Studies
- Middle Eastern Studies
- Native American Studies
- Scottish Studies
- Browse content in Research and Information
- Research Methods
- Browse content in Social Work
- Addictions and Substance Misuse
- Adoption and Fostering
- Care of the Elderly
- Child and Adolescent Social Work
- Couple and Family Social Work
- Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
- Emergency Services
- Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
- International and Global Issues in Social Work
- Mental and Behavioural Health
- Social Justice and Human Rights
- Social Policy and Advocacy
- Social Work and Crime and Justice
- Social Work Macro Practice
- Social Work Practice Settings
- Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
- Welfare and Benefit Systems
- Browse content in Sociology
- Childhood Studies
- Community Development
- Comparative and Historical Sociology
- Disability Studies
- Economic Sociology
- Gender and Sexuality
- Gerontology and Ageing
- Health, Illness, and Medicine
- Marriage and the Family
- Migration Studies
- Occupations, Professions, and Work
- Organizations
- Population and Demography
- Race and Ethnicity
- Social Theory
- Social Movements and Social Change
- Social Research and Statistics
- Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
- Sociology of Religion
- Sociology of Education
- Sport and Leisure
- Urban and Rural Studies
- Browse content in Warfare and Defence
- Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
- Land Forces and Warfare
- Military Administration
- Military Life and Institutions
- Naval Forces and Warfare
- Other Warfare and Defence Issues
- Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
- Weapons and Equipment
![existentialism research paper topics Rethinking Existentialism](https://oup.silverchair-cdn.com/oup/backfile/content_public/books/3561/book/2/m_9780198735908.jpeg?Expires=1726683603&Signature=YquA2EXIt8sUKJpWED14890cHH9aXsJuG9tu5a-0eY6fRb~82lTzw1qt1cgBva~uGoYcA7yl3IFhdD~OKKlX9uwj5hN5qKm9Mh4gl~EN5sFzxbNY6Mx3JnjJ4lrpZ66eBZpkFRJDb-6-U3fdR9eXHC4YUhIe8OX5WqperL0oVpSvvVdGICHIIxL02P2Rp5shYFzuEkSxYRVaS-OBhFtfkUKOLLF-VapGDHW~SW93hi4Pw31EIrVQyr2Bn1mnmfXCCiCWuDDisjHC8WUNJeApn8l2JniB0r1~PR~AmNKFiajiPeMfpSpI7Pn4l6ORkaSEAxP00PeoHzHTyrhxZarm1Q__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIE5G5CRDK6RD3PGA)
- < Previous
- Next chapter >
1 What Is Existentialism?
- Published: July 2018
- Cite Icon Cite
- Permissions Icon Permissions
Articles and books on existentialism generally eschew precise philosophical definition of their subject matter and disagree with one another over which ideas, issues, and thinkers should be classified as existentialist. This loose categorization distorts readings of the texts that are claimed to fall under it. This book argues for a precise conceptualization of existentialism grounded in the definition it was given by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre when the term was first popularized. Existentialism is therefore defined as the ethical theory that we ought to treat the freedom at the core of human existence as intrinsically valuable and the foundation of all other values. This chapter argues for the need for a clear definition and presents an overview of how the book develops its analysis.
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Institutional access
Sign in with a library card.
- Sign in with username/password
- Recommend to your librarian
- Institutional account management
- Get help with access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
- Click Sign in through your institution.
- Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
- When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
- Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
![](http://pechenka.online/777/templates/cheerup1/res/banner1.gif)
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
- Click Sign in through society site.
- When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
- View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
- View the institutional accounts that are providing access.
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Month: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 36 |
November 2022 | 17 |
December 2022 | 31 |
January 2023 | 23 |
February 2023 | 18 |
March 2023 | 21 |
April 2023 | 38 |
May 2023 | 30 |
June 2023 | 11 |
July 2023 | 47 |
August 2023 | 19 |
September 2023 | 12 |
October 2023 | 8 |
November 2023 | 43 |
December 2023 | 25 |
January 2024 | 27 |
February 2024 | 43 |
March 2024 | 34 |
April 2024 | 34 |
May 2024 | 44 |
June 2024 | 18 |
July 2024 | 11 |
August 2024 | 8 |
- About Oxford Academic
- Publish journals with us
- University press partners
- What we publish
- New features
- Open access
- Rights and permissions
- Accessibility
- Advertising
- Media enquiries
- Oxford University Press
- Oxford Languages
- University of Oxford
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide
- Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
- Cookie settings
- Cookie policy
- Privacy policy
- Legal notice
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only
Sign In or Create an Account
This PDF is available to Subscribers Only
For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.
![Pitchgrade Pitchgrade](https://pitchgrade.com/_next/static/media/logo.11df162a.png)
Presentations made painless
- Get Premium
127 Existentialism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
Inside This Article
Existentialism is a philosophical movement that explores the individual's freedom, choice, and responsibility in a world without inherent meaning or purpose. It is a complex and thought-provoking philosophy that has inspired countless essays, books, and debates. If you are looking for inspiration for your next existentialism essay, look no further. Here are 127 existentialism essay topic ideas and examples to get you started:
- The concept of authenticity in existentialism
- The role of freedom in existentialist thought
- The meaning of life in a world without inherent purpose
- Existentialist views on death and mortality
- The relationship between existentialism and absurdism
- The existentialist critique of traditional ethics and morality
- The concept of the "absurd hero" in existentialist literature
- Existentialist views on love and relationships
- The existentialist conception of time and temporality
- The importance of individual choice and responsibility in existentialism
- The existentialist critique of modern society and technology
- The role of anxiety and despair in existentialist thought
- The concept of "bad faith" in existentialist philosophy
- The existentialist perspective on art and creativity
- The relationship between existentialism and existential psychotherapy
- The existentialist critique of religious belief and dogma
- The concept of "existential freedom" in existentialist thought
- The existentialist perspective on human nature and essence
- The relationship between existentialism and feminism
- The concept of "existential dread" in existentialist literature
- The existentialist critique of capitalism and consumerism
- The role of alienation and isolation in existentialist thought
- The concept of "existential guilt" in existentialist philosophy
- The relationship between existentialism and postmodernism
- The existentialist perspective on identity and selfhood
- The concept of "existential angst" in existentialist literature
- The existentialist critique of political ideologies and systems
- The role of authenticity in existentialist ethics
- The relationship between existentialism and existential phenomenology
- The concept of "existential despair" in existentialist thought
- The existentialist perspective on the human condition
- The relationship between existentialism and psychoanalysis
- The concept of "existential crisis" in existentialist literature
- The existentialist critique of determinism and fatalism
- The role of choice in overcoming existential nihilism
- The relationship between existentialism and existential theology
- The concept of "existential dread" in existentialist philosophy
- The existentialist perspective on language and communication
- The relationship between existentialism and existential sociology
- The concept of "existential authenticity" in existentialist thought
- The existentialist critique of positivism and scientism
- The role of authenticity in overcoming existential alienation
- The relationship between existentialism and existential aesthetics
- The concept of "existential despair" in existentialist literature
- The existentialist perspective on the nature of reality
- The relationship between existentialism and existential ethics
- The existentialist critique of objectivity and rationality
- The role of choice in confronting existential absurdity
- The relationship between existentialism and existential hermeneutics
- The concept of "existential anxiety" in existentialist thought
- The existentialist perspective on power and authority
- The relationship between existentialism and existential ontology
- The existentialist critique of essentialism and essentialist thinking
- The role of authenticity in existentialist politics
- The relationship between existentialism and existential epistemology
- The concept of "existential despair" in existentialist philosophy
- The existentialist perspective on the limits of reason
- The existentialist critique of skepticism and relativism
- The role of choice in confronting existential nihilism
- The relationship between existentialism and existential metaphysics
- The concept of "existential guilt" in existentialist literature
- The existentialist perspective on the nature of truth
- The existentialist critique of dualism and dichotomous thinking
Want to research companies faster?
Instantly access industry insights
Let PitchGrade do this for me
Leverage powerful AI research capabilities
We will create your text and designs for you. Sit back and relax while we do the work.
Explore More Content
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service
© 2024 Pitchgrade
Home — Essay Samples — Philosophy — Philosophical Theories — Existentialism
![existentialism research paper topics one px](https://gradesfixer.com/wp-content/themes/essay/assets/img/1px.png)
Essays on Existentialism
The four themes of existentialism, existentialism and colonialism in albert camus' "the guest", made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.
Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences
+ experts online
Existentialism in "Hush": a Philosophical Examination of Silence and Being
The role of existentialism in simone de beauvoir’s the second sex, the presence of existentialism in the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky, existentialism in albert camus' the stranger, let us write you an essay from scratch.
- 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
- Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours
Forrest Gump as an Existentialist Film
The search of the meaning of life in "six characters in search of an author", existentialist philosophy in sartre’s "no exit", a reflection on soren kierkegaard’s philosophy, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.
Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind
My Views on The Philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard
Free will and human existence in kierkegaard’s philosophy, repetition and the visual in beckett’s act without words, soren kierkegaard’s views on the paradoxical nature of faith, nausea: a realization of existence, meursault as an existential character in the stranger, reconsidering the canon through jansenist contradiction in phaedra, characteristics of existential state, a cemetery symbolism analysis in the thief and the dogs, existential despair in cat’s cradle by kurt vonnegut, the theme of existentialism in to build a fire by jack london, the relevance of kierkegaard's present age in modern world, the nature of christian faith in kierkegaard’s fear and trembling, analysis of soren kierkegard’s idea of subjective truth, analysis of soren kierkegaard’s concept of an ethical life, the conceptions of self and despair according to kierkegaard, free sexual misconduct in schools: analysis in terms of existentialism, life essay: what is the meaning of life, existentialism in franz kafka's "the metamorphosis", analysis of san manuel bueno, martyr, relevant topics.
- Individualism
- Tabula Rasa
- Philosophy of Education
- Functionalism
- Euthyphro Dilemma
- Just War Theory
- Just Society
- Personal Philosophy
By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email
No need to pay just yet!
We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .
- Instructions Followed To The Letter
- Deadlines Met At Every Stage
- Unique And Plagiarism Free
Get the Reddit app
Explore Existentialism & adjacent philosophy | Frame the person at the heart of contemplation | Welcomes all to participate in casual and academic discussion
Ideas for Research Paper regarding Existentialism and "The Metamorphosis"
I have been assigned a research paper regarding one of the books we have read in my Honors English Class. I chose "The Metamorphosis" and proposed to examine it from an existentialist perspective. My teacher liked this idea and now I'm pretty much stuck with it. I understand existentialism in a broad sense and am having trouble narrowing down what exactly I want to examine. The scholarly articles I have read have really only confused me more.
ANYWAYS... I'm lost. I would appreciate any guidance or ideas about what angle I should take in writing my paper, articles to read, or general thoughts about existentialism.
By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .
Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app
You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.
Enter a 6-digit backup code
Create your username and password.
Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.
Reset your password
Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password
Check your inbox
An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account
Choose a Reddit account to continue
Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser .
- We're Hiring!
- Help Center
Existentialism
- Most Cited Papers
- Most Downloaded Papers
- Newest Papers
- Last »
- Martin Heidegger Follow Following
- Phenomenology Follow Following
- Continental Philosophy Follow Following
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty Follow Following
- Philosophy Follow Following
- Edmund Husserl Follow Following
- Jean Paul Sartre Follow Following
- Friedrich Nietzsche Follow Following
- Hermeneutics Follow Following
- Existential Phenomenological Psychotherapy Follow Following
Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.
- Academia.edu Journals
- We're Hiring!
- Help Center
- Find new research papers in:
- Health Sciences
- Earth Sciences
- Cognitive Science
- Mathematics
- Computer Science
- Academia ©2024
Existentialism Essay Topics
- Philosophical Theories & Ideas
- Major Philosophers
- Ph.D., Philosophy, The University of Texas at Austin
- M.A., Philosophy, McGill University
- B.A., Philosophy, University of Sheffield
If you are studying existentialism and have an exam coming up, the best way to prepare for it is to write lots of practice essays. Doing this helps you to recall the texts and the ideas you have studied; it helps you to organize your knowledge of these; it often triggers original or critical insights of your own.
Here is a set of essay questions you can use. They relate to the following classic existentialist texts:
- Tolstoy, My Confession
- Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground
- Dostoyevsky, The Grand Inquisitor
Nietzsche, The Gay Science
- Beckett, Waiting for Godot
- Sartre, The Wall
- Sartre, Nausea
- Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism
- Sartre, Portrait of an Anti-Semite
- Kafka, A Message From the Emperor, A Little Fable, Couriers, Before the Law
- Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
- Camus, The Stranger
Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky
- Both Tolstoy 's Confession and Dostoyevsky 's Notes from Underground seem to reject science and rationalistic philosophy. Why? Explain and evaluate the reasons for the critical attitudes toward science in these two texts.
- Both Tolstoy’s Ivan Ilyich (at least once he falls sick) and Dostoyevsky’s Underground Man feel estranged from the people around them. Why? In what ways is the kind of isolation they experience similar, and in what ways is it different?
- The underground man says that ‘to be too conscious is an illness.’ What does he mean? What are his reasons? In what ways does the underground man suffer from excessive consciousness? Do you see this as the root cause of his sufferings or are there deeper problems that give rise to it? Does Ivan Ilyich also suffer from excessive consciousness, or is his problem something different?
- Both The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Notes From Underground portray individuals who feel separated from their society. Is the isolation they experience avoidable, or is it primarily caused by the sort of society they belong to.
- In the "Author's Note" at the beginning of Notes from Underground , the author describes the underground man as "representative" of a new type of person that must inevitably appear in modern society. What aspects of the character are "representative" of this new type of modern individual? Does he remain representative today in 21st century America, or has his "type" more or less disappeared?
- Contrast what Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor says about freedom with what the Underground Man says about it. Whose views do you most agree with?
- Tolstoy (in Confession ), Dostoyevsky’s Underground Man , and Nietzsche in The Gay Science , are all critical of those who think the main goal in life should be the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Why?
- When Nietzsche read Notes from Underground he immediately hailed Dostoyevsky as a ’kindred spirit’. Why?
- In The Gay Science , Nietzsche says: “Life—that is: being cruel and inexorable against everything about us that is growing old and weak….being without reverence for those who are dying, who are wretched, who are ancient." Explain, giving illustrative examples, what you think he means and why he says this. Do you agree with him?
- At the beginning of Book IV of The Gay Science , Nietzsche says "all in all and on the whole: some day I wish only to be a Yes-sayer." Explain what he means—and what he is opposing himself to--by reference to issues he discusses elsewhere in the work. How successful is he in maintaining this life-affirming stance?
- "Morality is herd instinct in the individual." What does Nietzsche mean by this? How does this statement fit in with the way he views conventional morality and his own alternative values?
- Explain in detail Nietzsche’s view of Christianity. What aspects of Western civilization, both positive and negative, does he see as largely due to its influence?
- In The Gay Science Nietzsche says: “The strongest and most evil spirits have so far done the most to advance humanity.” Explain, giving examples, what you think he means and why he says this. Do you agree with him?
- In The Gay Science Nietzsche seems to both criticize moralists who distrust the passions and instincts and also himself be a great advocate of self-control. Can these two aspects of his thinking be reconciled? If so, how?
- What is Nietzsche’s attitude in The Gay Science towards the quest for truth and knowledge? Is it something heroic and admirable, or should it be viewed with suspicion as a hangover from traditional morality and religion?
- Sartre famously observed that "man is condemned to be free." He also wrote that "man is a futile passion." Explain what these statements mean and the reasoning that lies behind them. Would you describe the conception of humanity that emerges as optimistic or pessimistic?
- Sartre’s existentialism was labeled by one critic “the philosophy of the graveyard,” and existentialism strikes many as dominated by depressing ideas and outlooks. Why would someone think this? And why might others disagree? In Sartre’s thinking which tendencies do you see as depressing and which uplifting or inspiring?
- In his Portrait of the Anti-Semite , Sartre says the Anti-Semite feels the "nostalgia of impermeability." What does this mean? How does it help us understand anti-Semitism? Where else in Sartre's writings is this tendency examined?
- The climax of Sartre's novel Nausea is Roquentin's revelation in the park when he contemplates. What is the nature of this revelation? Should it be described as a form of enlightenment?
- Explain and discuss either Anny’s ideas about ‘perfect moments’ or Roquentin’s ideas about ‘adventures (or both). How do these notions relate to the major themes explored in Nausea ?
- It has been said that Nausea presents the world as it appears to one who experiences at a deep level what Nietzsche described as "the death of God". What supports this interpretation? Do you agree with it?
- Explain what Sartre means when he says that we make our decisions and perform our actions in anguish, abandonment, and despair. Do you find his reasons for viewing human action in this way convincing? [In answering this question, make sure you consider Sartrean texts beyond just his lecture Existentialism and Humanism .]
- At one point in Nausea , Roquentin says, “Beware of literature !” What does he mean? Why does he say this?
Kafka, Camus, Beckett
- Kafka's stories and parables have often praised for capturing certain aspects of the human condition in the modern age. With reference to the parables we discussed in class, explain which features of modernity Kafka' illuminates and what insights, if any, he has to offer.
- At the end of The Myth of Sisyphus Camus says that ‘one must imagine Sisyphus happy’? Why does he say this? Wherein lies Sisyphus’ happiness? Does Camus’ conclusion follow logically from the rest of the essay? How plausible do you find this conclusion?
- Is Meursault. the protagonist of The Stranger , an example of what Camus calls in The Myth of Sisyphus an ‘absurd hero’? Justify your answer with close reference to both the novel and the essay.
- Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot , is—obviously—about waiting. But Vladimir and Estragon wait in different ways and with different attitudes. How do their ways of waiting express different possible responses to their situation and, by implication, to what Beckett sees as the human condition?
Existentialism in General
- From Tolstoy's account of his suicidal despair in his Confession to Beckett's Waiting for Godot, there is much in existentialist writing that seems to offer a bleak view of the human condition. On the basis of the texts you have studied, would you say that existentialism is indeed, a bleak philosophy, excessively concerned with mortality and meaninglessness? Or does it have a positive aspect also?
- According to William Barrett, existentialism belongs to a longstanding tradition of intense, passionate reflection on life and the human condition, yet it is also in some ways an essentially modern phenomenon. What is it about the modern world that has given rise to existentialism? And what aspects of existentialism are particularly modern?
- What Is Liberalism in Politics?
- 4 Ways to Study for a Philosophy Exam
- Philosophical Quotes on Beauty
- Philosophical Quotes on Violence
- Top 10 Beatles Songs With Philosophical Themes
- Rationalism in Philosophy
- The Paradox of Tragedy
- Philosophical Empiricism
- 10 Tips for Understanding Philosophical Texts
- Soft Determinism Explained
- Three Basic Principles of Utilitarianism, Briefly Explained
- The Slave Boy Experiment in Plato's 'Meno'
- Philosophy of Food
- Moral Philosophy According to Immanuel Kant
- How Can I Be Happy? An Epicurean and Stoic Perspective
- Understand the Philosophical Theories of Nominalism and Realism
The A.I. Dilemma: Growth versus Existential Risk
Advances in artificial intelligence (A.I.) are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they may increase economic growth as A.I. augments our ability to innovate. On the other hand, many experts worry that these advances entail existential risk: creating a superintelligence misaligned with human values could lead to catastrophic outcomes, even possibly human extinction. This paper considers the optimal use of A.I. technology in the presence of these opportunities and risks. Under what conditions should we continue the rapid progress of A.I. and under what conditions should we stop?
Nothing to disclose. I’m grateful to Jean-Felix Brouillette, Tom Davidson, Sebastian Di Tella, Maya Eden, Joshua Gans, Tom Houlden, Pete Klenow, Anton Korinek, Kevin Kuruc, Pascual Restrepo, Charlotte Siegmann, Chris Tonetti, Phil Trammell and seminar participants at the Markus Academy, the Minneapolis Fed, the NBER A.I. conference, Oxford, PSE Macro Days 2023, and Stanford for helpful comments and discussions. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
MARC RIS BibTeΧ
Download Citation Data
Conferences
More from nber.
In addition to working papers , the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter , the NBER Digest , the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability , the Bulletin on Health , and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship — as well as online conference reports , video lectures , and interviews .
![existentialism research paper topics 2024, 16th Annual Feldstein Lecture, Cecilia E. Rouse," Lessons for Economists from the Pandemic" cover slide](https://www.nber.org/sites/default/files/styles/promo/public/2024-07/SI%202024%20Martin%20Feldstein.png?itok=iMIwiSar)
![existentialism research paper topics Cart](https://hbr.org/resources/css/images/cart-icon.png)
- SUGGESTED TOPICS
- The Magazine
- Newsletters
- Managing Yourself
- Managing Teams
- Work-life Balance
- The Big Idea
- Data & Visuals
- Reading Lists
- Case Selections
- HBR Learning
- Topic Feeds
- Account Settings
- Email Preferences
Research: How to Build Consensus Around a New Idea
- Devon Proudfoot
- Wayne Johnson
![existentialism research paper topics existentialism research paper topics](https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2024/08/Aug24_20_1211347152.jpg)
Strategies for overcoming the disagreements that can stymie innovation.
Previous research has found that new ideas are seen as risky and are often rejected. New research suggests that this rejection can be due to people’s lack of shared criteria or reference points when evaluating a potential innovation’s value. In a new paper, the authors find that the more novel the idea, the more people differ on their perception of its value. They also found that disagreement itself can make people view ideas as risky and make them less likely to support them, regardless of how novel the idea is. To help teams get on the same page when it comes to new ideas, they suggest gathering information about evaluator’s reference points and developing criteria that can lead to more focused discussions.
Picture yourself in a meeting where a new idea has just been pitched, representing a major departure from your company’s standard practices. The presenter is confident about moving forward, but their voice is quickly overtaken by a cacophony of opinions from firm opposition to enthusiastic support. How can you make sense of the noise? What weight do you give each of these opinions? And what does this disagreement say about the idea?
![existentialism research paper topics existentialism research paper topics](https://hbr.org/resources/css/images/hmm/HBR-learning-icon.png)
- DP Devon Proudfoot is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Studies at Cornell’s ILR School. She studies topics related to diversity and creativity at work.
- Wayne Johnson is a researcher at the Utah Eccles School of Business. He focuses on evaluations and decisions about new information, including persuasion regarding creative ideas and belief change.
Partner Center
Information
- Author Services
Initiatives
You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.
All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .
Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.
Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.
Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.
Original Submission Date Received: .
- Active Journals
- Find a Journal
- Proceedings Series
- For Authors
- For Reviewers
- For Editors
- For Librarians
- For Publishers
- For Societies
- For Conference Organizers
- Open Access Policy
- Institutional Open Access Program
- Special Issues Guidelines
- Editorial Process
- Research and Publication Ethics
- Article Processing Charges
- Testimonials
- Preprints.org
- SciProfiles
- Encyclopedia
![Sustainability sustainability-logo](https://pub.mdpi-res.com/img/journals/sustainability-logo.png?8600e93ff98dbf14)
Article Menu
![existentialism research paper topics existentialism research paper topics](https://www.mdpi.com/profiles/12194/thumb/C._Michael_Hall.jpg)
- Subscribe SciFeed
- Recommended Articles
- Author Biographies
- Google Scholar
- on Google Scholar
- Table of Contents
Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.
Please let us know what you think of our products and services.
Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.
JSmol Viewer
A bibliometric review of innovations in sustainable tourism research: current trends and future research agenda.
1. Introduction
2. theoretical background, 3. materials and methods, 4.1. contribution and citation trends of countries, 4.2. contribution of the institutions, 4.3. contributions of the authors, 4.4. prolific journals and publishers, 4.5. most common keywords, 4.6. citation analysis, 5. discussion.
- Inter-country collaboration. Forming a research cluster encompassing several countries not only extends the boundaries of the research to the international (or global) level but also enables generating higher-quality research and obtaining more reliable and widely applicable results.
- Leading institution. Considering inter-institutional (or inter-country) collaboration, authors are encouraged to evaluate the familiarity of the institution among scholarly society. Partnering with a well-known institution may lead to wider dissemination of the research results as the name of the institution can attract researchers’ interest in the publication [ 18 ].
- Journal choice. It is acknowledged that the multidisciplinary or more general areas representing journals may reach wider audiences considering that domain-related journals are crucial for the smoother development of the field of knowledge. Therefore, publishing in tourism-related journals should be considered regarding the further perspectives of acknowledgment by scholarship and the researcher’s reputation. The number of citations of tourism research in non-tourism disciplines is very small compared to the tens of thousands of internal citations within tourism research [ 92 ].
- Topic choice. Two extremes can be envisioned in this regard. On the one extreme, exceptionally tourism-focused research can be chosen. However, such a choice is extremely conceptual and hardly performable. Therefore, the collaboration and adoption of know-how from other disciplines can be chosen. The academic discourse surrounding tourism’s interdisciplinary approach has long piqued the interest of the scholarly community [ 93 ].
6. Conclusions
Author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.
- Dimitrijević, M.S. Technological Progress in the Function of Productivity and Sustainability of Agriculture: The Case of Innovative Countries and the Republic of Serbia. J. Agric. Food Res. 2023 , 14 , 100856. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Sharma, G.; Dahlstrand, Å.L. Innovations, Informality, and the Global South: A Thematic Analysis of Past Research and Future Directions. Technol. Soc. 2023 , 75 , 102359. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Al-Sulaiti, A.; Madhoun, I.T.; Abdella, G.M.; Al-Yafei, H.; Hamouda, A.M. Innovation Ecosystems in Hydrocarbon-Based Economies: Opportunities and Challenges. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 14194. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Dodds, R. Introduction: Innovations in Sustainable Tourism. Téoros 2012 , 31 , 55–58. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- El Archi, Y.; Benbba, B.; Kabil, M.; Dávid, L.D. Digital Technologies for Sustainable Tourism Destinations: State of the Art and Research Agenda. Adm. Sci. 2023 , 13 , 184. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Li, Y.; Liu, Y.; Solangi, Y.A. Analysis of Factors and Strategies for the Implementation of Sustainable Tourism in a Green Economic Structure in China. J. Clean. Prod. 2024 , 434 , 140011. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Grigaliūnaitė, V.; Pažėraitė, A.; Račkauskas, M. Save Myself or Others? The Influence of Attitude toward FMCG Products from Recycled Material on the Intention to Buy Them: Hidden Motives and the Role of Income. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 11528. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- De Bruyn, C.; Ben Said, F.; Meyer, N.; Soliman, M. Research in Tourism Sustainability: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis from 1990 to 2022. Heliyon 2023 , 9 , e18874. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Hjalager, A.-M. Innovation Patterns in Sustainable Tourism. Tour. Manag. 1997 , 18 , 35–41. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Tsekouropoulos, G.; Gkouna, O.; Theocharis, D.; Gounas, A. Innovative Sustainable Tourism Development and Entrepreneurship through Sports Events. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 4379. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Tuzunkan, D. The Relationship between Innovation and Tourism: The Case of Smart Tourism. Int. J. Appl. Eng. Res. 2017 , 12 , 14861–14867. [ Google Scholar ]
- Gretzel, U.; Sigala, M.; Xiang, Z.; Koo, C. Smart Tourism: Foundations and Developments. Electron Mark. 2015 , 25 , 179–188. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Williams, A.M.; Rodriguez, I.; Makkonen, T. Innovation and Smart Destinations: Critical Insights. Ann. Tour. Res. 2020 , 83 , 102930. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Ivars-Baidal, J.A.; Vera-Rebollo, J.F.; Perles-Ribes, J.; Femenia-Serra, F.; Celdrán-Bernabeu, M.A. Sustainable Tourism Indicators: What’s New within the Smart City/Destination Approach? J. Sustain. Tour. 2023 , 31 , 1556–1582. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Edwards, D.; Martinac, I.; Miller, G. Research Agenda for Innovation in Sustainable Tourism. Tour. Hosp. Res. 2008 , 8 , 56–61. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Chen, C. Science Mapping: A Systematic Review of the Literature. J. Data Inf. Sci. 2017 , 2 , 1–40. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Abdi Khalife, M.; Dunay, A.; Illés, C.B. Bibliometric Analysis of Articles on Project Management Research. Period. Polytech. Soc. Man. Sci. 2020 , 29 , 70–83. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Pilelienė, L.; Jucevičius, G. A Decade of Innovation Ecosystem Development: Bibliometric Review of Scopus Database. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 16386. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Antolini, F.; Terraglia, I.; Cesarini, S. Integrating Multiple Data Sources to Measure Sustainable Tourism in Italian Regions. Socio-Econ. Plan. Sci. 2024 , 95 , 101959. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Vargáné Csobán, K. The Assessment of Sustainable Tourism. Acta Agrar. Debr. 2005 , 16 , 414–421. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Pan, S.-Y.; Gao, M.; Kim, H.; Shah, K.J.; Pei, S.-L.; Chiang, P.-C. Advances and Challenges in Sustainable Tourism toward a Green Economy. Sci. Total Environ. 2018 , 635 , 452–469. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Bayrak, G.Ö. Sustainable Tourism. In Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility ; Idowu, S.O., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Gupta, A.D., Eds.; Springer Berlin Heidelberg: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2013; pp. 2483–2489. ISBN 978-3-642-28035-1. [ Google Scholar ]
- Torres-Delgado, A.; Saarinen, J. Using Indicators to Assess Sustainable Tourism Development: A Review. Tour. Geogr. 2014 , 16 , 31–47. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Kilipiris, F.; Zardava, S. Developing Sustainable Tourism in a Changing Environment: Issues for the Tourism Enterprises (Travel Agencies and Hospitality Enterprises). Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 2012 , 44 , 44–52. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Seraphin, H.; Korstanje, M.; Gowreesunkar, V. Diaspora and Ambidextrous Management of Tourism in Post-Colonial, Post-Conflict and Post-Disaster Destinations. J. Tour. Cult. Chang. 2020 , 18 , 113–132. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Hall, C.M. Constructing Sustainable Tourism Development: The 2030 Agenda and the Managerial Ecology of Sustainable Tourism. J. Sustain. Tour. 2019 , 27 , 1044–1060. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Gössling, S. Global Environmental Consequences of Tourism. Glob. Environ. Chang. 2002 , 12 , 283–302. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Peeters, P.; Çakmak, E.; Guiver, J. Current Issues in Tourism: Mitigating Climate Change in Sustainable Tourism Research. Tour. Manag. 2024 , 100 , 104820. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Fu, M.; Huang, S.; Ahmed, S. Assessing the Impact of Green Finance on Sustainable Tourism Development in China. Heliyon 2024 , 10 , e31099. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
- Rehman, S.U.; Khan, S.N.; Antohi, V.M.; Bashir, S.; Fareed, M.; Fortea, C.; Cristian, N.P. Open Innovation Big Data Analytics and Its Influence on Sustainable Tourism Development: A Multi-Dimensional Assessment of Economic, Policy, and Behavioral Factors. J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2024 , 10 , 100254. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Hussain, S.; Ahonen, V.; Karasu, T.; Leviäkangas, P. Sustainability of Smart Rural Mobility and Tourism: A Key Performance Indicators-Based Approach. Technol. Soc. 2023 , 74 , 102287. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Vo Thanh, T.; Seraphin, H.; Okumus, F.; Koseoglu, M.A. Organizational Ambidexterity in Tourism Research: A Systematic Review. Tour. Anal. 2020 , 25 , 137–152. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Wilkerson, B.; Trellevik, L.-K.L. Sustainability-Oriented Innovation: Improving Problem Definition through Combined Design Thinking and Systems Mapping Approaches. Think. Ski. Creat. 2021 , 42 , 100932. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Shafiee, S.; Rajabzadeh Ghatari, A.; Hasanzadeh, A.; Jahanyan, S. Developing a Model for Sustainable Smart Tourism Destinations: A Systematic Review. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 2019 , 31 , 287–300. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Singh, S.; Aggarwal, Y. In Search of a Consensus Definition of Innovation: A Qualitative Synthesis of 208 Definitions Using Grounded Theory Approach. Innov. Eur. J. Soc. Sci. Res. 2022 , 35 , 177–195. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Sardak, S.; Dzhyndzhoian, V.; Samoilenko, A. Global Innovations in Tourism. Innov. Mark. 2016 , 12 , 45–50. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Buckley, R. Sustainable Tourism: Research and Reality. Ann. Tour. Res. 2012 , 39 , 528–546. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Séraphin, H.; Butcher, J. Tourism Management in the Caribbean: The Case of Haiti. Caribb. Q. 2018 , 64 , 254–283. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Séraphin, H.; Smith, S.M.; Scott, P.; Stokes, P. Destination Management through Organisational Ambidexterity: Conceptualising Haitian Enclaves. J. Destin. Mark. Manag. 2018 , 9 , 389–392. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Buhalis, D.; Harwood, T.; Bogicevic, V.; Viglia, G.; Beldona, S.; Hofacker, C. Technological Disruptions in Services: Lessons from Tourism and Hospitality. JOSM 2019 , 30 , 484–506. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Sustacha, I.; Baños-Pino, J.F.; Del Valle, E. The Role of Technology in Enhancing the Tourism Experience in Smart Destinations: A Meta-Analysis. J. Destin. Mark. Manag. 2023 , 30 , 100817. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Lee, S.M.; Trimi, S. Innovation for Creating a Smart Future. J. Innov. Knowl. 2018 , 3 , 1–8. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Alsharif, A.H.; Salleh, N.Z.M.; Al-Zahrani, S.A.; Khraiwish, A. Consumer Behaviour to Be Considered in Advertising: A Systematic Analysis and Future Agenda. Behav. Sci. 2022 , 12 , 472. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Alsharif, A.H.; Salleh, N.Z.M.; Abdullah, M.; Khraiwish, A.; Ashaari, A. Neuromarketing Tools Used in the Marketing Mix: A Systematic Literature and Future Research Agenda. SAGE Open 2023 , 13 , 215824402311565. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Shukla, A.K.; Muhuri, P.K.; Abraham, A. A Bibliometric Analysis and Cutting-Edge Overview on Fuzzy Techniques in Big Data. Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell. 2020 , 92 , 103625. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Moher, D.; Shamseer, L.; Clarke, M.; Ghersi, D.; Liberati, A.; Petticrew, M.; Shekelle, P.; Stewart, L.A. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 Statement. Syst. Rev. 2015 , 4 , 1. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
- Page, M.J.; McKenzie, J.E.; Bossuyt, P.M.; Boutron, I.; Hoffmann, T.C.; Mulrow, C.D.; Shamseer, L.; Tetzlaff, J.M.; Akl, E.A.; Brennan, S.E.; et al. The PRISMA 2020 Statement: An Updated Guideline for Reporting Systematic Reviews. BMJ 2021 , 372 , n71. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Alsharif, A.; Md. Salleh, N.Z.; Pilelienė, L. A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis of fNIRS and fMRI Technology in Neuromarketing. Sci. Ann. Econ. Bus. 2023 , 70 , 459–472. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Moustakas, L. A Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Social Cohesion from 1994–2020. Publications 2022 , 10 , 5. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Khan, M.; Woo, M.; Nam, K.; Chathoth, P. Smart City and Smart Tourism: A Case of Dubai. Sustainability 2017 , 9 , 2279. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Kumpulainen, M.; Seppänen, M. Combining Web of Science and Scopus Datasets in Citation-Based Literature Study. Scientometrics 2022 , 127 , 5613–5631. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- De Granda-Orive, J.I.; Alonso-Arroyo, A.; Roig-Vázquez, F. Which Data Base Should We Use for Our Literature Analysis? Web of Science versus SCOPUS. Arch. De Bronconeumol. 2011 , 47 , 213. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
- Eysenbach, G. Citation Advantage of Open Access Articles. PLoS Biol. 2006 , 4 , e157. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
- Dorta-González, P.; Dorta-González, M.I. Citation Differences across Research Funding and Access Modalities. J. Acad. Librariansh. 2023 , 49 , 102734. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- McAllister, J.; Torres, J. Discovering Open Access Trends in Engineering: A Bibliometric Analysis of Open Access Publications at a Large Research University. Sci. Technol. Libr. 2023 , 42 , 50–67. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Alsharif, A.H.; Mohd Isa, S. Revolutionizing Consumer Insights: The Impact of fMRI in Neuromarketing Research. Futur Bus J 2024 , 10 , 79. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Hjalager, A.-M. Tourism and the Environment: The Innovation Connection. J. Sustain. Tour. 1996 , 4 , 201–218. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Lawton, L.J.; Weaver, D.B. Normative and Innovative Sustainable Resource Management at Birding Festivals. Tour. Manag. 2010 , 31 , 527–536. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Chao, R.-F. Development of Slow Tourism Challenge and Operation Architecture: A Case Study on Green Island, Taiwan. Acta Oeconomica 2015 , 65 , 351–367. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Nair, V.; Hussain, K.; Lo, M.C.; Ragavan, N.A. Benchmarking Innovations and New Practices in Rural Tourism Development: How Do We Develop a More Sustainable and Responsible Rural Tourism in Asia? WW Hosp. Tour. Themes 2015 , 7 , 530–534. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Grančay, M. COVID-19 and Central European Tourism: The Competitiveness of Slovak Tourist Guides. CEBR 2020 , 9 , 81–98. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Bhaskara, G.I.; Filimonau, V.; Wijaya, N.M.S.; Suryasih, I.A. Innovation and Creativity in a Time of Crisis: A Perspective of Small Tourism Enterprises from an Emerging Destination. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 2023 , 46 , 101093. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Andrés, A. Author Production. In Measuring Academic Research ; Elsevier: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009; pp. 23–30. ISBN 978-1-84334-528-2. [ Google Scholar ]
- Della Corte, V.; Del Gaudio, G.; Sepe, F.; Sciarelli, F. Sustainable Tourism in the Open Innovation Realm: A Bibliometric Analysis. Sustainability 2019 , 11 , 6114. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Chau, K.Y.; Lin, C.-H.; Tufail, B.; Tran, T.K.; Van, L.; Nguyen, T.T.H. Impact of Eco-Innovation and Sustainable Tourism Growth on the Environmental Degradation: The Case of China. Econ. Res. Ekon. Istraživanja 2023 , 36 , 2150258. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Xu, F.; Nash, N.; Whitmarsh, L. Big Data or Small Data? A Methodological Review of Sustainable Tourism. J. Sustain. Tour. 2020 , 28 , 144–163. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Cardoso, C. The Contribution of Tourism towards a More Sustainable and Inclusive Society: Key Guiding Principles in Times of Crisis. WHATT 2020 , 12 , 679–689. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Garcia, D.A.; Cumo, F.; Sforzini, V.; Albo, A. Eco Friendly Service Buildings and Facilities for Sustainable Tourism and Environmental Awareness in Protected Areas ; WIT Press: A Coruna, Spain, 2012; pp. 323–330. [ Google Scholar ]
- Candia, S.; Pirlone, F.; Spadaro, I. Integrating the Carrying Capacity Methodology into Tourism Strategic Plans: A Sustainable Approach to Tourism. IJSDP 2020 , 15 , 393–401. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Szromek, A.R. The Sustainable Business Model of Spa Tourism Enterprise—Results of Research Carried Out in Poland. J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2021 , 7 , 73. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- González-Reverté, F.; Gomis-López, J.M.; Díaz-Luque, P. Reset or Temporary Break? Attitudinal Change, Risk Perception and Future Travel Intention in Tourists Experiencing the COVID-19 Pandemic. JTF 2022 . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Santosa, H.; Yudono, A.; Adhitama, M.S. The Digital Management System of the Tangible Culture Heritage for Enhancing Historic Building Governance in Malang, Indonesia. IOP Conf. Ser. Earth Environ. Sci. 2021 , 738 , 012056. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Florido, C.; Jacob, M.; Payeras, M. How to Carry out the Transition towards a More Circular Tourist Activity in the Hotel Sector. The Role of Innovation. Adm. Sci. 2019 , 9 , 47. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Weaver, D. Creative Periphery Syndrome? Opportunities for Sustainable Tourism Innovation in Timor-Leste, an Early Stage Destination. Tour. Recreat. Res. 2018 , 43 , 118–128. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Idris, I.; Adi, K.R.; Firmansyah, R.; Nadhianty, A.; Mobaroq, M.H.; Putri, P.G.; Pratama, A.S.; Wahono, E.R. Developing smart tourism using virtual reality as a tourism promotion strategy in indonesia. GTG 2021 , 35 , 332–337. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Ito, J.Y.; Silveira, F.F.; Munhoz, I.P.; Akkari, A.C.S. International Publication Trends in Lean Agile Management Research: A Bibliometric Analysis. Procedia Comput. Sci. 2023 , 219 , 666–673. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Sharma, G.D.; Thomas, A.; Paul, J. Reviving Tourism Industry Post-COVID-19: A Resilience-Based Framework. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 2021 , 37 , 100786. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Hall, J.; Matos, S.; Sheehan, L.; Silvestre, B. Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid: A Recipe for Inclusive Growth or Social Exclusion? J Manag. Stud. 2012 , 49 , 785–812. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- He, P.; He, Y.; Xu, F. Evolutionary Analysis of Sustainable Tourism. Ann. Tour. Res. 2018 , 69 , 76–89. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Coghlan, A. Facilitating Reef Tourism Management through an Innovative Importance-Performance Analysis Method. Tour. Manag. 2012 , 33 , 767–775. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Van, N.T.T.; Vrana, V.; Duy, N.T.; Minh, D.X.H.; Dzung, P.T.; Mondal, S.R.; Das, S. The Role of Human–Machine Interactive Devices for Post-COVID-19 Innovative Sustainable Tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 9523. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Garau, C. Perspectives on Cultural and Sustainable Rural Tourism in a Smart Region: The Case Study of Marmilla in Sardinia (Italy). Sustainability 2015 , 7 , 6412–6434. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Aman, J.; Abbas, J.; Mahmood, S.; Nurunnabi, M.; Bano, S. The Influence of Islamic Religiosity on the Perceived Socio-Cultural Impact of Sustainable Tourism Development in Pakistan: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Sustainability 2019 , 11 , 3039. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Elmo, G.C.; Arcese, G.; Valeri, M.; Poponi, S.; Pacchera, F. Sustainability in Tourism as an Innovation Driver: An Analysis of Family Business Reality. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 6149. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Li, Z.; Wang, D.; Abbas, J.; Hassan, S.; Mubeen, R. Tourists’ Health Risk Threats Amid COVID-19 Era: Role of Technology Innovation, Transformation, and Recovery Implications for Sustainable Tourism. Front. Psychol. 2022 , 12 , 769175. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
- Nitti, M.; Pilloni, V.; Giusto, D.; Popescu, V. IoT Architecture for a Sustainable Tourism Application in a Smart City Environment. Mob. Inf. Syst. 2017 , 2017 , 1–9. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Coles, T.; Dinan, C.; Warren, N. Energy Practices among Small- and Medium-Sized Tourism Enterprises: A Case of Misdirected Effort? J. Clean. Prod. 2016 , 111 , 399–408. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Karagiannis, D.; Metaxas, T. Sustainable Wine Tourism Development: Case Studies from the Greek Region of Peloponnese. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 5223. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Bornmann, L.; Daniel, H. What Do Citation Counts Measure? A Review of Studies on Citing Behavior. J. Doc. 2008 , 64 , 45–80. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Devkota, N.; Kmeco, Ľ.; Thapa, S.; Houška, P.; Poudel, U.R. Tourists’ Perception of Travel Risk and Management in Destination amid COVID-19 Pandemic: Empirical Evidence from Nepal. J. Tour. Serv. 2022 , 25 , 90–119. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Pilelienė, L.; Alsharif, A.H.; Bader Alharbi, I. Scientometric analysis of scientific literature on neuromarketing tools in advertising. BJES 2022 , 8 , 1–12. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Wardle, C.; Buckley, R. Tourism Citations in Other Disciplines. Ann. Tour. Res. 2014 , 46 , 166–168. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Cardoso, L.; Araujo, A.; Silva, R.; Almeida, G.G.F.D.; Campos, F.; Santos, L.L. Demystifying Neurotourism: An Interdisciplinary Approach and Research Agenda. EJTR 2023 , 36 , 3618. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Jafari, J.; McCabe, S. Emergence: Annals and the Evolving Research and Publishing Landscape in Tourism. Ann. Tour. Res. 2024 , 104 , 103720. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Nowacki, M.; Nurkowska, M. Crisis Management in Restaurants: The Case of Polish Restaurants during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 14631. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Simpson, J.J.; Schuler Scott, A. Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend: War Volunteer Tourism. Ann. Tour. Res. 2023 , 101 , 103612. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Dolnicar, S.; McCabe, S. Solidarity Tourism How Can Tourism Help the Ukraine and Other War-Torn Countries? Ann. Tour. Res. 2022 , 94 , 103386. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Gong, Y.; Schroeder, A. A Systematic Literature Review of Data Privacy and Security Research on Smart Tourism. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 2022 , 44 , 101019. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Ladkin, A.; Mooney, S.; Solnet, D.; Baum, T.; Robinson, R.; Yan, H. A Review of Research into Tourism Work and Employment: Launching the Annals of Tourism Research Curated Collection on Tourism Work and Employment. Ann. Tour. Res. 2023 , 100 , 103554. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Saito, H.; Ruhanen, L. Power in Tourism Stakeholder Collaborations: Power Types and Power Holders. J. Hosp. Tour. Manag. 2017 , 31 , 189–196. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Nowacki, M.; Kowalczyk-Anioł, J. Experiencing Islands: Is Sustainability Reported in Tourists’ Online Reviews? J. Ecotour. 2023 , 22 , 59–79. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Pilelienė, L.; Grigaliūnaitė, V. Elaboration of holistic tourist satisfaction index model for Lithuania. BJES 2019 , 5 , 17. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Almeida, G.G.F.D.; Cardoso, L. Discussions between Place Branding and Territorial Brand in Regional Development—A Classification Model Proposal for a Territorial Brand. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 6669. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Almeida, G.G.F.D.; Almeida, P.; Cardoso, L.; Lima Santos, L. Uses and Functions of the Territorial Brand over Time: Interdisciplinary Cultural-Historical Mapping. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 6448. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Séraphin, H.; Chaney, D. A Research Agenda for the Sustainability of the Tourism Industry: A Childism Perspective on Overtourism. J. Clean. Prod. 2023 , 414 , 137556. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Seraphin, H.; Sheeran, P.; Pilato, M. Over-Tourism and the Fall of Venice as a Destination. J. Destin. Mark. Manag. 2018 , 9 , 374–376. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Dias, F.T.P.; Góis, S.M.R.; Gomes, G.N.D.C.O. Tourism Monitoring as a Strategic Tool for Tourism Management: The Perceptions of Entrepreneurs from Centro de Portugal. Adm. Sci. 2023 , 13 , 205. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Beal, L.; Séraphin, H.; Modica, G.; Pilato, M.; Platania, M. Analysing the Mediating Effect of Heritage Between Locals and Visitors: An Exploratory Study Using Mission Patrimoine as a Case Study. Sustainability 2019 , 11 , 3015. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Nowacki, M.; Niezgoda, A. What Experiences Do Tourists Seek in National Parks? Analysis of TripAdvisor Reviews. EiS 2023 , 84 , 341–359. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Bauer, I. Response to ‘Tourism Citations in Other Disciplines’. Ann. Tour. Res. 2015 , 53 , 99–100. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Dresler, E. Multiplicity of Moral Emotions in Educational Dark Tourism. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 2023 , 46 , 101094. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Batyk, I.M.; Žukovskis, J.; Pilelienė, L. Determinants of Cross-Border Food Purchases on the European Union Market: Research Results from the Lithuanian–Polish Border. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 10288. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Pilelienė, L.; Batyk, I.M.; Žukovskis, J. Cross-Border Shopping on the European Union Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Market: Determinants of Lithuanian Shoppers’ Behavior in Poland. Sustainability 2023 , 16 , 102. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Michalko, G.; Ratz, T. Typically Female Features in Hungarian Shopping Tourism. Mijracijske I Enticke Teme 2006 , 22 , 79–93. [ Google Scholar ]
- Moradi, E.; Ehsani, M.; Saffari, M.; Norouzi Seyed Hosseini, R. Developing an Integrated Model for the Competitiveness of Sports Tourism Destinations. J. Destin. Mark. Manag. 2022 , 26 , 100743. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Castro, D.; Kim, S.; Assaker, G. An Empirical Examination of the Antecedents of Residents’ Support for Future Film Tourism Development. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 2023 , 45 , 101067. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Polat, N. Technical Innovations in Cruise Tourism and Results of Sustainability. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 2015 , 195 , 438–445. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Łapko, A.; Hącia, E.; Strulak-Wójcikiewicz, R.; Çınar, K.; Panai, E.; Lučić, L. Eco-Friendly Tourism Decision Making during COVID-19—Sailing Tourism Example. Sustainability 2021 , 14 , 134. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Liu, J.; An, K.; Jang, S. Threshold Effect and Mechanism of Tourism Industrial Agglomeration on Green Innovation Efficiency: Evidence from Coastal Urban Agglomerations in China. Ocean Coast. Manag. 2023 , 246 , 106908. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Luongo, S.; Sepe, F.; Del Gaudio, G. Regional Innovation Systems in Tourism: The Role of Collaboration and Competition. J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2023 , 9 , 100148. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Salgado-Criado, J.; Mataix-Aldeanueva, C.; Nardini, S.; López-Pablos, C.; Balestrini, M.; Rosales-Torres, C.S. How Should We Govern Digital Innovation? A Venture Capital Perspective. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 2024 , 200 , 123198. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Zhang, S.; Liu, W.; Han, W.; Xie, J.; Sun, M. Influence Mechanism of Tourists’ Impulsive Behavior in E-Sports Tourism: Mediating Role of Arousal. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 2022 , 44 , 101032. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Balsalobre-Lorente, D.; Abbas, J.; He, C.; Pilař, L.; Shah, S.A.R. Tourism, Urbanization and Natural Resources Rents Matter for Environmental Sustainability: The Leading Role of AI and ICT on Sustainable Development Goals in the Digital Era. Resour. Policy 2023 , 82 , 103445. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Mihalache, M.; Mihalache, O.R. Organizational Ambidexterity and Sustained Performance in the Tourism Industry. Ann. Tour. Res. 2016 , 56 , 142–144. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Goo, J.; Huang, C.D.; Yoo, C.W.; Koo, C. Smart Tourism Technologies’ Ambidexterity: Balancing Tourist’s Worries and Novelty Seeking for Travel Satisfaction. Inf Syst Front 2022 , 24 , 2139–2158. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
- Alsharif, A.H.; Md Salleh, N.Z.; Pilelienė, L.; Al-Zahrani, S.A. Exploring the Tourism, Neuro-Tourism, and Hospitality Nexus: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis. JoTS 2023 , 14 , 197–221. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
- Song, H.; Van Der Veen, R.; Li, G.; Chen, J.L. The Hong Kong Tourist Satisfaction Index. Ann. Tour. Res. 2012 , 39 , 459–479. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
Click here to enlarge figure
DBR | Country | No. of Documents (2010–2023 *) | TCs | CPD | CBR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Italy | 28 | 626 | 22.36 | 1 |
2 | China | 25 | 495 | 19.80 | 4 |
3 | Spain | 19 | 205 | 10.79 | 7 |
4 | Indonesia | 19 | 114 | 6.00 | 10 |
5 | United Kingdom | 10 | 263 | 26.30 | 6 |
6 | Portugal | 10 | 81 | 8.10 | 15 |
7 | Greece | 9 | 196 | 21.78 | 8 |
8 | Taiwan | 9 | 70 | 7.78 | 16 |
9 | United States | 7 | 507 | 72.43 | 3 |
10 | Hungary | 6 | 37 | 6.17 | 22 |
11 | Poland | 6 | 36 | 6.00 | 23 |
12 | Malaysia | 6 | 21 | 3.50 | 32 |
13 | Pakistan | 5 | 98 | 19.60 | 12 |
14 | Netherlands | 5 | 61 | 12.20 | 17 |
CBR | Country | No. of Documents (2010–2023 *) | TCs | CPD | DBR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Italy | 28 | 626 | 22.36 | 1 |
2 | India | 4 | 508 | 127.00 | 17 |
3 | United States | 7 | 507 | 72.43 | 9 |
4 | China | 25 | 495 | 19.80 | 2 |
5 | Canada | 3 | 310 | 103.33 | 21 |
6 | United Kingdom | 10 | 263 | 26.30 | 6 |
7 | Spain | 19 | 205 | 10.79 | 4 |
8 | Greece | 9 | 196 | 21.78 | 7 |
9 | Australia | 4 | 194 | 48.50 | 15 |
10 | Indonesia | 19 | 114 | 6.00 | 3 |
11 | Vietnam | 3 | 109 | 36.33 | 27 |
Country | Institution | Total Documents (2010–2023 *) | Total Citations |
---|---|---|---|
Italy | Sapienza Università di Roma | 4 | 34 |
Poland | Silesian University of Technology | 4 | 30 |
Hungary | Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences | 4 | 24 |
China | Southeast University | 3 | 191 |
Italy | Università degli Studi di Cagliari | 3 | 176 |
Australia | Griffith University | 3 | 156 |
Italy | Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II | 3 | 128 |
Spain | Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria | 3 | 46 |
Italy | Università degli Studi di Genova | 3 | 38 |
Hungary | John von Neumann University | 3 | 24 |
Morocco | Université Abdelmalek Essaadi | 3 | 19 |
Portugal | Universidade do Algarve | 3 | 15 |
Author Name | Total Articles * | Total Citations | H-Index | Affiliation | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dávid, Lóránt Dénes | 4 | 24 | 16 | John von Neumann University | Hungary |
Xu, Feifei | 3 | 191 | 18 | Southeast University | China |
Pirlone, Francesca | 3 | 38 | 7 | Università degli Studi di Genova | Italy |
El Archi, Youssef | 3 | 19 | 5 | Université Abdelmalek Essaadi | Morocco |
Benbba, Brahim | 3 | 19 | 3 | Université Abdelmalek Essaadi | Morocco |
Sharma, Gagan Deep | 2 | 426 | 28 | Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University | India |
Abbas, Jaffar | 2 | 146 | 48 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China |
Della Corte, Valentina | 2 | 126 | 15 | Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II | Italy |
Del Gaudio, Giovanna | 2 | 126 | 9 | Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II | Italy |
Sepe, Fabiana | 2 | 126 | 7 | Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II | Italy |
He, Yong | 2 | 123 | 26 | School of Economics & Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology | China |
He, Peng | 2 | 123 | 10 | Chongqing Technology and Business University | China |
Martini, Umberto | 2 | 44 | 11 | Università di Trento | Italy |
Buffa, Federica | 2 | 44 | 10 | Università di Trento | Italy |
Chung, Namho | 2 | 35 | 39 | Kyung Hee University | South Korea |
Spadaro, Ilenia | 2 | 27 | 6 | Università degli Studi di Genova | Italy |
Candia, Selena | 2 | 25 | 5 | Università degli Studi di Genova | Italy |
Szromek, Adam R. | 2 | 16 | 17 | Silesian University of Technology | Poland |
Ragavan, Neethiahnanthan Ari | 2 | 12 | 9 | Taylor’s University Malaysia | Malaysia |
Joime, Gian Piero | 2 | 8 | 1 | Universita degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi | Italy |
Lo, Wei-Shuo | 2 | 8 | 6 | Meiho University | Taiwan |
Pranita, Diaz | 2 | 5 | 4 | Universitas Indonesia | Indonesia |
Source/Journal | CS, 2022 | TDs * | TCs | CPD | The Most-Cited Document | TC | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sustainability (Switzerland) | 5.8 | 58 | 1115 | 19.22 | Sustainable tourism in the open innovation realm: A bibliometric analysis [ ] | 112 | Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), (Basel, Switzerland) |
Economic Research-Ekonomska Istrazivanja | 6.2 | 7 | 30 | 4.29 | Impact of eco-innovation and sustainable tourism growth on the environmental degradation: the case of China [ ] | 20 | Taylor & Francis (Abingdon, UK) |
Journal of Sustainable Tourism | 18.9 | 5 | 146 | 29.2 | Big data or small data? A methodological review of sustainable tourism [ ] | 68 | Taylor & Francis (Abingdon, UK) |
Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes | 3.5 | 4 | 40 | 10 | The contribution of tourism towards a more sustainable and inclusive society: key guiding principles in times of crisis [ ] | 13 | Emerald Publishing (Leeds, UK) |
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment | 0.9 | 4 | 30 | 7.5 | Eco friendly service buildings and facilities for sustainable tourism and environmental awareness in protected areas [ ] | 21 | WIT Press (Southampton, UK) |
International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning | 1.7 | 4 | 29 | 7.25 | Integrating the carrying capacity methodology into tourism strategic plans: A sustainable approach to tourism [ ] | 14 | International Information and Engineering Technology Association (Edmonton, AB, Canada) |
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity | 7.5 | 4 | 27 | 6.75 | The sustainable business model of spa tourism enterprise—results of research carried out in Poland [ ] | 12 | Elsevier (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) |
Journal of Tourism Futures | 8.7 | 4 | 24 | 6 | Reset or temporary break? Attitudinal change, risk perception and future travel intention in tourists experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic [ ] | 11 | Emerald Publishing (Leeds, UK) |
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science | 0.8 | 4 | 8 | 2 | The digital management system of the tangible culture heritage for enhancing historic building governance in Malang, Indonesia [ ] | 5 | IOP Publishing Ltd. (Conference Proceeding) (Bristol, UK) |
Administrative Sciences | 3.0 | 3 | 27 | 9 | How to carry out the transition towards a more circular tourist activity in the hotel sector. The role of innovation [ ] | 27 | Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), (Basel, Switzerland) |
Tourism Recreation Research | 8.9 | 3 | 24 | 8 | Creative periphery syndrome? Opportunities for sustainable tourism innovation in Timor-Leste, an early stage destination [ ] | 14 | Taylor & Francis (Abingdon, UK) |
Geojournal of Tourism and Geosites | 3.2 | 3 | 22 | 7.33 | Developing smart tourism using virtual reality as a tourism promotion strategy in Indonesia [ ] | 14 | Editura Universitati din Oradea (Oradea, Romania) |
E3S Web of Conferences | 1.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | EDP sciences (Conference Proceeding) (Les Ulis, France) |
No. | Keyword | Occurrences | TLS | No. | Keyword | Occurrences | TLS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | sustainable tourism | 63 | 48 | 15 | smart cities | 4 | 5 |
2 | tourism | 21 | 25 | 16 | social innovation | 4 | 6 |
3 | sustainability | 17 | 18 | 17 | tourism planning | 4 | 3 |
4 | innovation | 16 | 23 | 18 | climate change | 3 | 3 |
5 | smart tourism | 13 | 13 | 19 | destination management | 3 | 5 |
6 | sustainable development | 13 | 11 | 20 | economic growth | 3 | 3 |
7 | COVID-19 | 10 | 12 | 21 | entrepreneurship | 3 | 3 |
8 | sustainable tourism development | 9 | 6 | 22 | responsible behavior | 3 | 5 |
9 | rural tourism | 6 | 8 | 23 | smart city | 3 | 3 |
10 | bibliometric analysis | 5 | 7 | 24 | smart tourism destinations | 3 | 2 |
11 | China | 5 | 5 | 25 | social media | 3 | 4 |
12 | cultural heritage | 5 | 5 | 26 | stakeholders | 3 | 3 |
13 | resilience | 5 | 7 | 27 | tourism industry | 3 | 2 |
14 | open innovation | 4 | 5 | 28 | tourism management | 3 | 4 |
Research Trend | Keywords | Number of Keywords (Occurrences) |
---|---|---|
Tourism | sustainable tourism, tourism, smart tourism, sustainable tourism development, rural tourism, tourism planning, smart tourism destinations, tourism industry, tourism management | 9 (125) |
Sustainability | sustainable tourism, sustainability, sustainable development, sustainable tourism development, climate change, responsible behavior | 6 (108) |
Management | sustainable development, COVID-19, sustainable tourism development, resilience, open innovation, tourism planning, destination management, economic growth, entrepreneurship, social media, stakeholders, tourism industry, tourism management | 13 (66) |
Scope | rural tourism, China, cultural heritage, smart cities, destination management, smart city, smart tourism destinations, tourism industry | 8 (32) |
Innovation | innovation, open innovation, social innovation | 3 (24) |
Smart | smart tourism, smart cities, smart city, smart tourism destinations | 4 (23) |
Method | bibliometric analysis | 1 (5) |
Source | Title of the Paper | Journal | TCs * |
---|---|---|---|
[ ] | Reviving tourism industry post-COVID-19: A resilience-based framework | Tourism Management Perspectives | 426 |
[ ] | Entrepreneurship and innovation at the base of the Pyramid: A recipe for inclusive growth or social exclusion? | Journal of Management Studies | 275 |
[ ] | Sustainable tourism in the open innovation realm: A bibliometric analysis | Sustainability (Switzerland) | 110 |
[ ] | Evolutionary analysis of sustainable tourism | Annals of Tourism Research | 97 |
[ ] | Facilitating reef tourism management through an innovative importance-performance analysis method | Tourism Management | 92 |
[ ] | The role of human–machine interactive devices for post-COVID-19 innovative sustainable tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | Sustainability (Switzerland) | 80 |
[ ] | Perspectives on cultural and sustainable rural tourism in a smart region: The case study of Marmilla in Sardinia (Italy) | Sustainability (Switzerland) | 79 |
[ ] | The influence of Islamic religiosity on the perceived socio-cultural impact of sustainable tourism development in Pakistan: A structural equation modeling approach | Sustainability (Switzerland) | 76 |
[ ] | Sustainability in tourism as an innovation driver: An analysis of family business reality | Sustainability (Switzerland) | 74 |
[ ] | Tourists’ Health Risk Threats Amid COVID-19 Era: Role of Technology Innovation, Transformation, and Recovery Implications for Sustainable Tourism | Frontiers in Psychology | 70 |
[ ] | Big data or small data? A methodological review of sustainable tourism | Journal of Sustainable Tourism | 68 |
[ ] | IoT Architecture for a sustainable tourism application in a smart city environment | Mobile Information Systems | 64 |
[ ] | Energy practices among small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises: A case of misdirected effort? | Journal of Cleaner Production | 57 |
[ ] | Sustainable wine tourism development: Case studies from the Greek Region of Peloponnese | Sustainability (Switzerland) | 56 |
Document Title | TCs | Focus |
---|---|---|
Reviving tourism industry post-COVID-19: A resilience-based framework | 462 | Management |
Entrepreneurship and innovation at the base of the Pyramid: A recipe for inclusive growth or social exclusion? | 275 | |
Facilitating reef tourism management through an innovative importance-performance analysis method | 92 | |
Tourists’ Health Risk Threats Amid COVID-19 Era: Role of Technology Innovation, Transformation, and Recovery Implications for Sustainable Tourism | 70 | |
Energy practices among small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises: A case of misdirected effort? | 57 | |
Sustainable tourism in the open innovation realm: A bibliometric analysis | 110 | Sustainability |
Evolutionary analysis of sustainable tourism | 97 | |
The influence of Islamic religiosity on the perceived socio-cultural impact of sustainable tourism development in Pakistan: A structural equation modeling approach | 76 | |
Sustainability in tourism as an innovation driver: An analysis of family business reality | 74 | |
Sustainable wine tourism development: Case studies from the Greek Region of Peloponnese | 56 | |
Perspectives on cultural and sustainable rural tourism in a smart region: The case study of Marmilla in Sardinia (Italy) | 79 | Smart/ICTs |
The role of human–machine interactive devices for post-COVID-19 innovative sustainable tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | 80 | |
Big data or small data? A methodological review of sustainable tourism | 68 | |
IoT Architecture for a sustainable tourism application in a smart city environment | 64 |
Research Focus | Key Considerations |
---|---|
1 Tourism | Providing research on innovations in sustainable tourism that would contribute to the literature on the development of tourism in general. The emergence of new avenues and hot topics might be introduced by the authors to lead the general development of the field as it is “[t]ime for tourism to become sustainable, not just to achieve sustainability in the business sense but also in respect to climate change” [ ]. However, it is necessary to notice that, as tourism encompasses a wide range of interconnected aspects, including economics, geography, sociology, psychology, marketing, environmental science, and more [ ], the latter disciplines might serve as pillars for the general development of sustainable tourism thought. |
2 Sustainability | The research focus is on sustainability issues in the field of tourism. Those researchers focusing on sustainability might apply their know-how in the field of tourism. Thus, the innovativeness and technological developments from other disciplines might be adapted and, therefore, reinforce the application of innovations to contribute to tourism sustainability. Over 70% of the articles in non-tourism journals were written specifically about tourism, for example, reviewing tourism from their own disciplinary perspective [ ]. |
3 Management | Managerial issues of sustainable tourism are of high importance for industry and academia. In order to develop and maintain a high-level scientifically based sustainable tourism management system, managerial issues must also be addressed with proper attention because it is “[t]ime for the academia to transfer its knowledge by publishing short, digestible articles for the industry” [ ]. Several trends might be envisioned: coping with global crises like (but not limited to) COVID-19 [ , ] and wars [ , ]; data privacy and security [ ]; work and employment opportunities [ ]; stakeholder collaboration and governance [ ]; tourism experience management [ ]; tourist satisfaction [ ]; place and territorial branding [ , ]; overtourism [ , ]; tourism monitoring [ ]; tourism-related SMEs [ ]; etc. Also, developing a sense of community through the development and fostering of social capital is very important [ ]. |
4 Scope | Focusing on the scope can be considered in three main levels: (1) destination level, (2) asset level, and (3) kind of tourism level. In this regard, one particular scope that shapes the entire research process is chosen. At the destination level, research can be focused on tourism development in some particular destination, region, country, or city. Analyzing organizational ambidexterity in tourism research, authors [ ] suggest providing future studies on more specific destinations (e.g., urban, rural, cultural, coastal, sport tourism, or wine tourism destinations, etc.) At the asset level, some particular scopes of interest include cultural heritage [ ], national parks [ ], tourism industry [ ], rural tourism [ , ], etc. Finally, focusing on different kinds of tourism would also enhance the body of knowledge. Examples demonstrate the link between tourism and health, especially travel medicine [ ]; war volunteer tourism [ ]; dark tourism [ ]; shopping tourism [ , , ]; sport or fan tourism [ ]; film tourism [ ]; cruise tourism [ ]; sailing tourism [ ]; etc. |
5 Innovation | The research in the field of sustainable tourism may focus on various kinds of innovation, thus developing a background for innovation adoption in the industry. In this regard, the authors might concentrate on researching the implementation procedures and effects of different innovations, for example, green innovation [ ], technical innovations [ ], regional innovations [ ], and digital innovations [ ] like e-sport tourism [ ] or artificial intelligence (AI) or information and communication technologies (ICT) in tourism [ ]. Also, the process of innovation contains issues to be explored [ ]. Mihalache, M. and Mihalache, O.R. [ ] propose that “the key to obtaining high performance over the long term in the tourism industry rests on firms’ ability to combine exploratory and exploitative innovation, a concept referred to as organizational ambidexterity”, and the research on exploratory and exploitative innovation, which are contradictory activities, in the sustainable tourism context is scarce. |
6 Smart | Smart environments deserve special attention. The concept of “smart” encompasses technological, economic, and social advancements driven by technologies employing sensors, big data, open data, innovative connectivity methods, information exchange, and reasoning processes [ ]. In the framework of innovations in sustainable tourism, researchers may focus on various smart environments, including smart cities, smart destinations, smart hospitality, smart communities, and other forms of smart environments [ ]. Also, travelers’ use of smart tourism technologies enriches their travel experience and satisfaction by reducing worries and facilitating novelty seeking [ ]; thus, the development of smart tourism technologies and their application possibilities should also gain researchers’ attention. |
7 Method | Methodological development of tourism research is also an important focus contributing to sustainability issues. New ontological and epistemological understandings of research are necessary [ ]. In this regard, the researchers can choose either to apply some particular method like bibliometric analysis [ ], neurotourism [ ], or case study; or contribute to the field of knowledge by introducing scales (for example, Hong Kong tourist satisfaction index [ ]) and frameworks for the research. Also, under-researched groups such as children can be engaged to gain a deeper/truer understanding of visitors [ ]. |
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
Share and Cite
Pilelienė, L.; Grigaliūnaitė, V.; Bogoyavlenska, Y. A Bibliometric Review of Innovations in Sustainable Tourism Research: Current Trends and Future Research Agenda. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 7124. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167124
Pilelienė L, Grigaliūnaitė V, Bogoyavlenska Y. A Bibliometric Review of Innovations in Sustainable Tourism Research: Current Trends and Future Research Agenda. Sustainability . 2024; 16(16):7124. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167124
Pilelienė, Lina, Viktorija Grigaliūnaitė, and Yuliya Bogoyavlenska. 2024. "A Bibliometric Review of Innovations in Sustainable Tourism Research: Current Trends and Future Research Agenda" Sustainability 16, no. 16: 7124. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167124
Article Metrics
Article access statistics, further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.
![MDPI Open Access Journals MDPI](https://pub.mdpi-res.com/img/design/mdpi-pub-logo-white-small.png?71d18e5f805839ab?1724142374)
Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals
![](http://pechenka.online/777/templates/cheerup1/res/banner1.gif)
IMAGES
COMMENTS
The Range of Existentialism Research Paper Topics. Existentialism, a philosophical movement that originated in the 19th and 20th centuries, has been a significant influence on various aspects of modern thought and culture. This philosophical approach focuses on the individual's experience and emphasizes freedom, choice, and responsibility.
Existentialism is a 'philosophy of existence': According to a widely accepte d definition, 'Existentialism' may be defined as a. philosophic stand point which gives priority to existence ...
Existentialism - Science topic. Philosophy based on the analysis of the individual's existence in the world which holds that human existence cannot be completely described in scientific terms ...
This essay offers a revised and updated edition to Charles Guignon's comprehensive introduction to the core ideas of existentialism with a focus on its historical development, accounts of being-in-the-world, freedom and responsibility, everyday existence, anxiety, and authenticity, as well as criticisms and an assessment of its contemporary relevance.
Existentialism. First published Fri Jan 6, 2023. As an intellectual movement that exploded on the scene in mid-twentieth-century France, "existentialism" is often viewed as a historically situated event that emerged against the backdrop of the Second World War, the Nazi death camps, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of ...
Sartre's Philosophy of Existentialism. The main thesis of the theory of existentialism is that existence precedes essence and that one has to start from subjectivity. Postmodern Existentialism and Spirituality. The road, referred to in the title of the book, is connected to humans' idea that they are the prodigal son.
notion of existentialism is freedom, which is the third major charac-teristic of existentialism as I see it. All the major existentialist philoso-phers note the importance of freedom in some way. Even Nietzsche, who at one point in his writings admits to a complete determinism, at the same time celebrates the free spirit.
Existentialism is a philosophical idea that existence precedes essence, which means that above the labels, roles, or stereotypes that one may be given, we are first and foremost independently acting conscious beings. Quoting Jean-Paul Sartre from "Existentialism is a Humanism", his famous essay defending existentialism (Sartre, 1946):
Existentialism is an ethical theory that rests on a substantive and sophisticated existential philosophy. It is a theory of how best to live that rests on a specific analysis of the distinctive structures of human existence. The pressures that led to the conflation of these two terms no longer apply.
Here are 127 existentialism essay topic ideas and examples to get you started: The concept of authenticity in existentialism. The role of freedom in existentialist thought. The meaning of life in a world without inherent purpose. Existentialist views on death and mortality.
Relevant answer. S J Malik. Jul 20, 2023. Answer. Yes, there is a growing global awareness of the existential threat posed by climate change to the human race. In recent years, climate change has ...
Introduction Existentialism is a philosophical movement that emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries, with roots extending to the thoughts of philosophers like Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Martin Heidegger. This school of thought emphasizes individual freedom, choice, and subjective experience over deterministic...
Existential education aims to develop individuality. When man takes himself as an individual seriously only then he can focus on his individual growth and thus progress. Existentialism is the most thoroughgoing philosophy of individualism in present time. To think that existentialism overemphasize individualism would not be correct.
Ideas for Research Paper regarding Existentialism and "The Metamorphosis" ... Everything pertaining to the technological singularity and related topics, e.g. AI, human enhancement, etc. Members Online. Stable Video AI Watched 600,000,000 Videos! youtube upvotes ...
Furthermore, the research paper delves into the influences that shaped Kafka's philosophy, particularly his Jewish identity and experiences living in a rapidly changing, industrializing society. Kafka's writing reflects the anxieties and struggles of individuals in a modernized world, highlighting the existential dilemmas faced by those ...
An Existential Perspective on Anxiety integrating with Phenomenology. Anxiety term deriving from "Angst" in german which has same semantic roots in latin "angustia" word means that "getting choked" or "getting narrowed". The aim of this paper was bring an existential perspective on anxiety disorders which... more. Download.
Discussion of themes and motifs in Existentialism. eNotes critical analyses help you gain a deeper understanding of Existentialism so you can excel on your essay or test.
Here is a set of essay questions you can use. They relate to the following classic existentialist texts: Tolstoy, My Confession. Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground. Dostoyevsky, The Grand Inquisitor. Nietzsche, The Gay Science. Beckett, Waiting for Godot. Sartre, The Wall.
Existential psychology research cuts across almost every domain of contemporary psychological science, such as. Across these domains, researchers employ a range of quantitative strategies, using experimental and non-experimental methods, and collect data in both laboratory and field studies. As a result, this work is often published in leading ...
Individual authenticity and guidance: An existential research supervisor guides students in their academic pursuits while encouraging them to explore topics that resonate authentically with their interests and beliefs. Tension might emerge when there is a conflict between adhering to academic standards or expectations and allowing the student's ...
Issue Date November 2023. Advances in artificial intelligence (A.I.) are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they may increase economic growth as A.I. augments our ability to innovate. On the other hand, many experts worry that these advances entail existential risk: creating a superintelligence misaligned with human values could lead to ...
Previous research has found that new ideas are seen as risky and are often rejected. New research suggests that this rejection can be due to people's lack of shared criteria or reference points ...
This bibliometric review explores the existing publications regarding innovations in sustainable tourism. The aim of the review was to determine the existing research trends in the field of innovations in sustainable tourism by mapping the research on the innovations and "smart" aspects in sustainable tourism and contributing to the field by outlining the recent research trends ...