While I do not believe that existentialism has had a significant direct influence upon our society, it seems clear that a kind of latent, unacknowledged existentialism is the defining philosophy for our time: we come to feel that our existence is the only thing we can truly know, and to live authentically to that existence means to choose our identity. It’s not that people are reading Sartre and becoming convinced of his arguments. Instead, we naturally adopt our society’s understanding of the human person as we grow up in society, and that understanding leads to a kind of existentialist
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