Editing Existentialism (section)

== Definitional issues and background ==
The labels ''existentialism'' and ''existentialist'' are often seen as historical conveniences in as much as they were first applied to many philosophers long after they had died. While existentialism is generally considered to have originated with Kierkegaard, the first prominent existentialist philosopher to adopt the term as a self-description was Sartre. Sartre posits the idea that "what all existentialists have in common is the fundamental doctrine that [[existence precedes essence]]", as the philosopher [[Frederick Copleston]] explains.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Copleston |first1=F. C. |date=January 1948 |title=Existentialism |journal=Philosophy |volume=23 |issue=84 |pages=19–37 |doi=10.1017/S0031819100065955 |issn=0031-8191 |s2cid=262276911 |jstor=3747384}}</ref> According to philosopher [[Steven Crowell]], defining existentialism has been relatively difficult, and he argues that it is better understood as a general approach used to reject certain systematic philosophies rather than as a systematic philosophy itself.{{sfn|Crowell|2020}} In a lecture delivered in 1945, Sartre described existentialism as "the attempt to draw all the consequences from a position of consistent [[atheism]]".<ref>See [[James Wood (critic)|James Wood]]'s introduction to {{Cite book |last=Sartre |first=Jean-Paul |author-link=Jean-Paul Sartre |year=2000 |title=Nausea |location=London |publisher=[[Penguin Classics]] |isbn=978-0-141-18549-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=CGbBbtDOZbwC&pg=PT4 vii] }}</ref> For others, existentialism need not involve the rejection of God, but rather "examines mortal man's search for meaning in a meaningless universe", considering less "What is the good life?" (to feel, be, or do, good), instead asking "What is life good for?".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Abulof |first1=Uriel |title=Episode 1: The Jumping Off Place [MOOC lecture] |url=https://www.edx.org/course/hope-human-odyssey-to-political-existentialism |website=Uriel Abulof, Human Odyssey to Political Existentialism (HOPE) |publisher=edX/Princeton |access-date=12 January 2021 |archive-date=5 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805204711/https://www.edx.org/course/hope-human-odyssey-to-political-existentialism }}</ref>

Although many outside [[Scandinavia]] consider the term existentialism to have originated from Kierkegaard, it is more likely that Kierkegaard adopted this term (or at least the term "existential" as a description of his philosophy) from the Norwegian poet and literary critic [[Johan Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Welhaven og psykologien: Del 2. Welhaven peker fremover |trans-title=Welhaven and psychology: Part 2. Welhaven points forward |url=https://psykologtidsskriftet.no/fagessay/2008/10/welhaven-og-psykologien-del-2-welhaven-peker-fremover |access-date=2022-07-14 |journal=Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening |date=October 2008 |volume=45 |issue=10 |language=nb |last1=Klempe |first1=Hroar}}</ref> This assertion comes from two sources:

* The Norwegian philosopher Erik Lundestad refers to the Danish philosopher Fredrik Christian Sibbern. Sibbern is supposed to have had two conversations in 1841, the first with Welhaven and the second with Kierkegaard. It is in the first conversation that it is believed that Welhaven came up with "a word that he said covered a certain thinking, which had a close and positive attitude to life, a relationship he described as existential".<ref>Lundestad, 1998, p. 169.</ref> This was then brought to Kierkegaard by Sibbern.
* The second claim comes from the Norwegian historian [[Rune Slagstad]], who claimed to prove that Kierkegaard himself said the term ''existential'' was borrowed from the poet. He strongly believes that it was Kierkegaard himself who said that "[[Hegelianism|Hegelians]] do not study philosophy 'existentially;' to use a phrase by Welhaven from one time when I spoke with him about philosophy."<ref>Slagstad, 2001, p. 89.</ref>