Existentialism
The big questions, the thinkers who asked them, and your own answer.
Learn existentialism as a beginner
The big questions, the thinkers who asked them, and your own answer. When it opens, this beginner course breaks existentialism into short Steps that each link the best free lessons online, with a small group who start when you do. It begins with five thinkers and your first position paper and ends with an essay on your own philosophy of meaning.
The path
- 1
Level 1Free when it opens The Big Questions
Five thinkers and your first position paper
15 Steps, about 47 minutes each. Anyone who has asked 'what's the point?' and wanted a real answer. No philosophy background needed.
- Chapter 1: Questions and the first leap. Write the questions you actually care about, learn the core idea, and meet Kierkegaard, the first existentialist.
- Chapter 2: God is dead, now what?. Nietzsche's challenge, Sartre's radical freedom, the trap of bad faith, and de Beauvoir's answer about other people.
- Chapter 3: The absurd and your answer. Camus and Sisyphus, a comparison of all five thinkers, a real conversation, and your own position paper.
- 1Show your groupWrite your questionsA page of the five questions about life you most want answered, ranked.
Existentialism is a way of doing philosophy that starts from your own life rather than from abstract systems. Its thinkers, from Kierkegaard in the 1840s to Sartre, de Beauvoir and Camus in the 1940s, asked questions like: what should I do with my life when nothing outside me can decide it for me? What makes a life meaningful? How do I live honestly with death and uncertainty?
They didn't agree on the answers. Kierkegaard was a devout Christian; Nietzsche and Sartre were atheists; Camus rejected the label "existentialist" altogether. What they shared was the conviction that these questions are personal and can't be handed off to experts, tradition or society.
The detail beginners miss is that your own questions matter more than theirs. You'll read better, and remember more, if you go in looking for answers to something you actually care about.
Here's how to find your questions. Write ten fast, without filtering: "Does my job matter?" "Why do I keep doing what others expect?" "What if nothing means anything?" Cross out any question a fact could answer, like "Should I move to Denver?" Keep the ones only you can answer. Rank your top five, and write a three-sentence honest answer to your top question today. You'll come back to it at the end.
- 2Learn the core ideaExplain 'existence precedes essence' in your own words, with an example from your life.
- 3Meet KierkegaardA page on Kierkegaard's idea of anxiety as the 'dizziness of freedom', with one choice of yours it explains.
See all 15 Steps
- 4Map the three stagesPlace yourself on Kierkegaard's stages: aesthetic, ethical, religious.
- 5Show your groupWrite your first answerA one-page answer to your top question, using at least two ideas you've met so far.
- 6Face 'God is dead'Read Nietzsche's madman passage and write what it means for where your values come from.
- 7Take the eternal testApply Nietzsche's eternal recurrence to your current life and write your answer.
- 8Feel the weight of freedomFinish Sartre's lecture and apply his idea that every choice is a choice for all people.
- 9Catch your bad faithThree moments of bad faith from your own week, written up honestly.
- 10Show your groupRead de BeauvoirExplain de Beauvoir's claim that your freedom depends on other people's freedom.
- 11Name the absurdDefine Camus's absurd and find three moments in your life where you felt it.
- 12Imagine Sisyphus happyRead the final chapter of The Myth of Sisyphus and write about your own boulder.
- 13Compare all fiveA one-page table comparing the five thinkers, written from your notes without rewatching anything.
- 14Argue it out loudA 20-minute conversation with one person about your top question, and notes on what changed.
- 15Show your groupWrite your position paperA 1,000-word paper answering your top question, using at least three of the five thinkers.
- 2
Level 2Unlocks after Level 1 Novels and Your Answer
Three novels read and your essay on meaning
15 Steps, about 63 minutes each. People who finished Existentialism 1, or readers who want to think hard about meaning through fiction.
- Chapter 1: Kafka and the Underground. Read The Metamorphosis and Notes from Underground, and write a response essay on what they say about freedom and worth.
- Chapter 2: The Stranger. Read Camus's novel, the full Sisyphus essay, and work out why Camus and Sartre split.
- Chapter 3: Your philosophy of meaning. Draft, workshop and revise a 2,000-word essay on your own philosophy of meaning, then discuss it with the group.
- 1Show your groupRead Kafka's first pagesRead the opening of The Metamorphosis and write what Gregor worries about first.
Philosophers argue. Novelists show. In this Era you'll read three short novels that test the ideas you met in Level 1 by putting them inside people's lives, then use them to rewrite your own answer to what makes a life meaningful.
We start with Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, published in 1915. Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who supports his parents and sister, wakes up one morning transformed into a giant insect. Kafka never explains why. The detail beginners miss is that the transformation isn't the strange part of the opening. The strange part is what Gregor worries about first. Pay attention to that, because it tells you how he has been living.
Here's how to read it as a philosopher. Don't try to decode what the insect "means". Kafka resisted that. Instead, watch how Gregor thinks and how everyone around him reacts. Write down his worries in the order they come. That list is your evidence.
Before you start reading, place your library holds. The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus are still in copyright, so you'll borrow them, and popular titles can have waits of several weeks. Placing holds today means they arrive by the time you need them, around Step 6.
- 2Finish The MetamorphosisRead Parts I to III and track how the family's view of Gregor changes.
- 3Think through KafkaA page on what The Metamorphosis says about worth, using one idea from Level 1.
See all 15 Steps
- 4Go undergroundRead Part 1 of Notes from Underground and summarize the Underground Man's argument against reason.
- 5Show your groupWrite a response essayRead Part 2 of Notes from Underground and write a 600-word response essay on both books.
- 6Read The Stranger, Part 1Read Part 1 and track how Meursault reacts to the big events in his life.
- 7Read The Stranger, Part 2Finish the novel and write what Meursault is actually condemned for.
- 8Meet the absurd heroConnect Meursault to Camus's idea of the absurd hero, and decide if he's a model or a warning.
- 9Read Sisyphus wholeRead the first section of The Myth of Sisyphus, 'An Absurd Reasoning', and outline Camus's argument.
- 10Show your groupSettle the Camus-Sartre splitA page on why Camus and Sartre stopped speaking, and whose side you're on.
- 11Test your paperReread your Level 1 position paper and list how each novel challenges it.
- 12Outline and draftAn outline and a full first draft of a 2,000-word essay on your philosophy of meaning.
- 13Get a real readerShare your draft with one person, and get three specific comments.
- 14Revise without helpA revised draft, done from your notes and outline alone, with no videos or readings.
- 15Show your groupShare it with the groupYour finished essay shared, and a 20-minute discussion of it with your group or a friend.
Where it ends: an essay on your own philosophy of meaning
Questions about learning existentialism
How long does it take to learn existentialism?
Level 1 is 15 Steps of about 47 minutes each, around 12 hours in all, split into 3 chapters. Go at your own speed: one Step a day, or a whole chapter in a sitting.
What do I need to start existentialism?
You'll need a notebook and a library card, with a hold placed in Step 1. There's nothing you have to buy to start.
Can a complete beginner learn existentialism?
Anyone who has asked 'what's the point?' and wanted a real answer. No philosophy background needed.
What will I have made by the end of Level 1?
Five thinkers read in their own words, and a 1,000-word paper on where you stand.
Is this existentialism course free?
Yes. Level 1 of every hobby on Eras is free, and every Step links free lessons from great teachers online. Eras Plus is an optional subscription that opens the levels after it.
Free lessons in The Big Questions come from BBC Ideas, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, CrashCourse, Jean-Paul Sartre (Marxists.org), The School of Life, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Philosophy Vibe, Project Gutenberg, Friedrich Nietzsche (Project Gutenberg), Pursuit of Wonder, Overthink Podcast, Simone de Beauvoir (Marxists.org), Nina Medvinskaya (TED-Ed), Philosophize This!. We link to their work and never copy it.
Cover photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash