Philosophers

Do Existentialists believe that all actions are permitted because there is no God and no meaning to life?

Comments

Existentialism is not really a single movement as it is a general outlook. Thinkers as diverse as Pascal, Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, and Sartre have been called 'existentialists.' Only the latter two were atheists. (Pascal is famous for his proof for the existence of God--Pascal's Wager.)

Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky agreed on the proposition, "If God is dead, then everything is permitted." But whereas Nietzsche found the prospect exhilarating, Dostoyevsky found it terrifying. Some existentialists are theists (e.g., Buber) and others are atheists (e.g., Nietzsche). I venture to say that of the existentialists who hold that there is no God, most would diesagree that everything is permitted. Existentialists (theists and atheists) are apt to hold that actions committed in "bad faith" are not "permitted". They are also apt to create or find meaning in life.

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