Martin Heidegger's Theory Of Existentialism

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Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of an individual’s existence in a hostile and indifferent environment; regarding human existence as unexplainable. People are responsible for what they make of themselves, and the world is determined from the meaning humans give it. Others simply exist to confirm the belief that ourselves exist, thus reason is powerless and man is alienated from God, nature, other men, and one’s true self. Martin Heidegger, a “preeminent 20th century German philosopher and seminal theorist of existentialism” (Michelman 170) has made many impacts to existential literature and has influenced many works. The Woman in the Dunes, written by Kobo Abe, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, written by Tom Stoppard, and No Exit, written by Jean-Paul Sartre, contain components of existentialist philosophy, reflecting Heidegger’s strong beliefs of the world. In these three works and in the many works written by Martin Heidegger, there are characteristics reflecting the ideas of an isolated, hostile environment and a meaningless world, which both lead to a lack of individual identity, Martin Heidegger’s first work, Being in Time, brought him fame and was a foundational statement of his start in examining existential philosophy (Encyclopedia of World Biography). His work was a manifesto of existentialist philosophy, which conducted a radical reappraisal of the meaning of being in general, and put forth a renewed understanding

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