Existentialism: What's Your Big Question?

Imagine you're a superhero, but instead of a cape, you have a super-brain! Existentialism is like a philosophy for superheroes. It's all about YOU and how you make your life special.

It asks big questions like 'Why am I here?' and 'What should I do?' It says that you are super free to choose what kind of person you want to be. You get to decide what's important and what makes your life meaningful. It's like having a blank canvas and deciding to paint your own amazing picture!

This big thinking started a long, long time ago with people like Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. They were like detectives of the mind, trying to understand why life felt so strange sometimes. Later, in the 1900s, more thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir talked about these ideas.

They didn't have fancy schools for it back then, but they wrote books and shared their thoughts. The word 'existentialism' itself wasn't even invented until the middle of the 1900s, but the ideas were growing for years before that!

Existentialism matters because it's all about YOUR life! It helps you understand that you have the power to make choices. Even when things seem a bit silly or don't make sense, you can still choose to be brave and be yourself.

It's like when you're at the playground and can choose to go on the swings or the slide. Existentialism encourages you to be 'authentic,' which means being true to who you really are. It's about finding your own purpose and living a life that feels right for you.

So, how does this 'existentialism' work? It's pretty simple: you are free! You can choose what you believe, what you like, and what you want to do.

This freedom is super important, but it also means you are responsible for your choices. If you choose to be kind, that's your choice! If you choose to study hard, that's your choice too!

Existentialism says that by making these choices, you discover who you are and what your life is all about. It's like building with LEGOs; you decide what to build!