Existence and Politics

Abstract

After the eclipse of existentialist philosophy, today we are witnessing a rediscovery of the existential. This renewed interest is complemented in this paper by three aspects. In the first part of the paper, I introduce the problem of existentialism and historicity and propose a new typology of existential problems. In the second part, I will discuss the relationship between existentialism and power relations, mainly through an analysis of implicit social expectations and implicit cultural logic. In the third part, I will try to shed light on the relationship between existentialism and politics, both from the point of view of the general concept of psychopolitics and from the critique of the modern concept of happiness as propagated by positive psychology.