Existentialism is by nature applied to real individual lives

Evidence

If sexism and the existentialist language were not to blame, another reason for The Second Sex’s intellectual sidelining might be that it presents itself as a case study: an existentialist study of just one particular type of life. In philosophy, as in many other fields, applied studies tend to be dismissed as postscripts to more serious works. But that was never existentialism’s way. It was always meant to be about real, individual lives. If done correctly, all existentialism is applied existentialism. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 687

Categorization

• APHORISMS: A compact statement of method: the applied case study is not derivative of philosophy but is the philosophy itself.
• XREF: connects to: Existential psychoanalysis decodes behavior to reveal each person’s fundamental choice of being. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1346; Existential psychoanalysis remains an unbuilt method with possible future exemplars.; Existentialism is accused of teaching passive despair and quietism — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 2 (+16 more)

Broader Connections

• Existentialism sought lived experience rather than explaining it away through abstract systems #expands (0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1025
• Existentialist philosophy values active engaged form over abstract speculation #corroborates (0.80) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 38
• Existentialist ethics demand acting as if the fate of humanity rests on each choice #expands (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 919
• Reified social wholes are objective forces that decide individual existence #contradicts (0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 735
• Existentialist philosophy demands literary form to convey embodied lived experience #expands (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 37