Modern existentialism fused German phenomenology with Danish philosophy and French literary sensibility

Evidence

When he returned at the end of his year, he brought back a new blend: the methods of German phenomenology, mixed with ideas from the earlier Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and others, set off with the distinctively French seasoning of his own literary sensibility. He applied phenomenology to people’s lives in a more exciting, personal way than its inventors had ever thought to do, and thus made himself the founding father of a philosophy that became international in impact, but remained Parisian in flavour: modern existentialism. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 23

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines existentialism’s genealogical composition — phenomenology plus Kierkegaard plus literary sensibility — which grounds the movement’s identity.
• XREF: Connects to later Continental thought and to the continuity between Husserl’s phenomenology and Sartre’s existentialism, a through-line a reader orienting in the movement would want. — connects to: Modern Philhellenism fused barbarism and culture in German scholarship; Existentialist philosophy was shaped by the wars and politics of the European century — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 103; Existentialist philosophy demands literary form to convey embodied lived experience — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 37 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Existentialist philosophy demands literary form to convey embodied lived experience #expands (0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 37
• Hegel and Kierkegaard together form the twin sources of existentialism #qualifies (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 460
• Existentialism sought lived experience rather than explaining it away through abstract systems #corroborates (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1025
• Heidegger’s Nazi past made acknowledging existentialism’s German origins awkward for both France and America #expands (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 555
• Existentialist philosophy values active engaged form over abstract speculation #expands (0.80) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 38
• Existentialism holds that philosophy grows out of concrete lived experience #corroborates (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 54
• Phenomenology rediscovers philosophy by describing lived things rather than questioning reality #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 12