Nietzsche and Kierkegaard defined existence as choice, action and self-assertion

Evidence

Both were individualists, and both were contrarians by nature, dedicated to making people uncomfortable. Both must have been unbearable to spend more than a few hours with. Both sit outside the main story of modern existentialism, as precursors, but had a great impact on what developed later. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 56 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Chantal plays the existentialist: “Your resignation is in fact a defi nite choice: you chose peace.” But Anne begs her: “Don’t torment me… . I can’t take it anymore” (W, 140; A, 238–39). — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 561 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Existentialist despair means relying only on what lies within one’s own will and action — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 16; Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were deliberately provocative contrarian precursors to existentialism — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 56; Hegel and Kierkegaard together form the twin sources of existentialism — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 460 (+9 more)

Related

• Nietzsche and Kierkegaard founded existentialism as lived philosophy of choice and anguish (similarity 0.91)
• Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were deliberately provocative contrarian precursors to existentialism (similarity 0.89)
• Hegel and Kierkegaard together form the twin sources of existentialism (similarity 0.86)
• Kierkegaard coined existential thought as concerning the problems of human existence (similarity 0.85)
• Existentialism fused German phenomenology with Kierkegaard and French literary sensibility. (similarity 0.82)
• Existentialist ‘choice’ rhetoric can become a form of torment toward the suffering (similarity 0.81)
• Beauvoir’s system-based definition of philosophy would exclude Kierkegaard and Nietzsche (similarity 0.81)
• Philosophy as a way of life survived among non-academic mavericks like Kierkegaard and Nietzsche (similarity 0.80)
• Existentialist despair means relying only on what lies within one’s own will and action (similarity 0.80)
• Sartre bridged generations of students back to Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. (similarity 0.79)
• Kierkegaard rejected absorption into Hegel’s Absolute Spirit (similarity 0.79)
• Kierkegaard inverted Descartes so that existence precedes thought (similarity 0.78)
• Kierkegaard deliberately provoked people into feeling existence’s passion rather than abstraction (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were deliberately provocative contrarian precursors to existentialism #exemplifies (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 56
• Existentialist ‘choice’ rhetoric can become a form of torment toward the suffering #complicates (0.78) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 561
• Beauvoir’s system-based definition of philosophy would exclude Kierkegaard and Nietzsche #contradicts (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 34
• Hegel and Kierkegaard together form the twin sources of existentialism #qualifies (0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 460