Even Heidegger’s partner could not define what existentialism was

Evidence

The young French writer Frédéric de Towarnicki, having accompanied Heidegger on his quest to collect his manuscripts, next became keen to introduce him and Sartre to each other. He had already given Heidegger a series of articles on Sartrean existentialism by his fellow Frenchman Jean Beaufret. When they discussed these on a later visit, Heidegger marvelled at how Sartre managed to be at once philosopher, phenomenologist, dramatist, novelist, essayist and journalist. Elfride, who was also present, asked, ‘Mais enfin, qu’est-ce que l’existentialisme?’ (‘So what is this existentialism anyway?’) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 637

Categorization

• CANDY: A light, tweetable human moment: the movement’s defining question posed by the philosopher’s own wife at his own dinner table.
• XREF: connects to: Almost no major existentialist philosopher accepted the existentialist label — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 111