Existentialist ethics proceeds from lived experience rather than abstract moral calculus.

Evidence

Sartre was not concerned with reasoning his way through an ethical calculus in the traditional way of philosophers, however — let alone ‘trolleyologists’, as they have become known. He led his audience to think about it more personally. What is it like to be faced with such a choice? How exactly does a confused young man go about dealing with such a decision about how to act? Who can help him, and how? — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 33

Categorization

• XREF: Directly contrasts existentialism with analytic moral philosophy’s trolley-problem tradition; connects to the reader’s apparent background in both traditions. — connects to: Existentialism’s core problem is choosing between duties without any ready formula — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 31; Existentialism sought lived experience rather than explaining it away through abstract systems — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 1025; Existentialism holds that philosophy grows out of concrete lived experience — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 54 (+3 more)
• DEFINE: Distinguishes existentialist ethical method from consequentialist thought experiments as an orientation point.

Broader Connections

• Existentialism sought lived experience rather than explaining it away through abstract systems #corroborates (0.93) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1025
• Existentialism holds that philosophy grows out of concrete lived experience #corroborates (0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 54
• Existentialist philosophy values active engaged form over abstract speculation #corroborates (0.88) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 38
• Existentialism is by nature applied to real individual lives #corroborates (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 687
• Existentialists drew on lived experience that philosophy itself had structured. #qualifies (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 99