Existentialism, uh, Marcel and copy cat Satre. It's that French snake oil a bunch of intellectuals co-opt'd to justify their opportunity to breathe and eat.
I think in more modern times it's been used to bore and depress college students.
sart, adj. Smart, but with something important missing. Generally, smart only inasmuch as not-smart, and apparently smart to those with severe vision problems. Hence the comparative "sartre" (Brit. sp.) meaning "more sart," i.e. more intelligible to exactly the extent that a thing is less intelligible.
(from the
philosophical lexicon)
Trying to define the feature that unifies existentialist philosophies is notoriously difficult; however, the common theme that seems to unify these strands of thought is the plight of man trying to find meaning in an essentially meaningless existence. Hence the thought that you ought to imbue existence with your own meaning, because meaning won't be found outside yourself. And it is here that existentialist thought crumbles, for they all agree that man needs meaning.
Try to ignore your need for meaning. It is existentially impossible. This is a truth that not even the existentialists can ignore, for its truth is independent from their minds, and so the meaning behind it is also independent from their minds, because meaning is more basic than truth.
Sarte thought hell is other people. I think hell is a meaningless existence, and there is no surer way to lead a meaningless existence than to try to will meaning into being apart from, or without consideration of, the objective reality that governs the rules for the discovery of what is meaningful, and therefore the discovery of what is true.