What Is Existentialism?

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Guy Cleary: Buhvoir was an important feminist philosopher, especially at a time when that was not necessarily the popular position there. He says she's very much in this existentialist tradition and some people do dismiss it as sort of a mood of the 20th century. But he says we still have questions about why are we here? What should we do? How do we get along with other people? And so these are all very solid existential questions - which is one of the reasons why people like me continue to write books about existentialism.

God is dead, as Nietzsche’s madman memorably reminded us. So what are we going to do about it? If there is no powerful force out there to guide us and give meaning to our lives, how are we supposed to live? Do we have to come up with meaning and purpose ourselves? Apparently so, and how to pull it off was a major question addressed by the existentialist movement. Skye Cleary turns to Simone de Beauvoir, in particular, for thoughts on how to construct an authentic life. Her recent book is How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment.

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Skye Cleary received a Ph.D. and an MBA from Macquarie University. She is an author and philosopher and also teaches at Columbia University and the City College of New York. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Aeon, The Times Literary Supplement, TED-Ed, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among other outlets. She won the 2017 New Philosopher Writers’ Award and was a 2021 MacDowell Fellow.

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