Existentialists deny the independent existence of objective things, and think that only the existence that I feel is the real existence, and this real existence and objective reality are always opposed and cannot be unified. Sartre declared: "existence" means "self", "existence precedes essence, in other words, subjectivity must be the starting point." That is to say, the essence of objective things is determined by subjective consciousness.

2. The value of the individual is above everything else

Existentialism holds that the value of the individual is above everything else, and the individual and society are always separated and opposed. People are thrown into the world, and objective things and society are always against people and always threaten "self". Sartre has an existential famous saying in his play "The Confinement": "Others are (my) hell." Existentialists regard fear, loneliness, disappointment, disgust, abandonment and so on as the basic feelings of people in the world. In their view, the difference between people and other animals is that animals don't know their own death, and there is no fear of death; And people can know that they will inevitably die after all. Therefore, they believe that the process of existence is the process of death, thus reaching the pessimistic conclusion that "existence" equals "non-existence".

3. Denying the cognitive function of art

Existentialists deny the cognitive function of art, thinking that works of art can not reflect reality, but can only reveal people's spiritual impulses to some extent, give people the ability to "enjoy" and feel, and make people's irrational feelings clear and clear. They believe that the purpose of artists is to create their own world, express their philosophical thoughts and feelings, rather than reproduce the objective world artistically. Under the domination of this thought, the main content of existential literature is often to describe the dark psychology of loneliness, disappointment and infinite fear of individuals in the absurd world. 4. Negative attitude towards life

Existentialists have raised many thought-provoking questions, but their attitude towards life is negative. They regard the ugliness of capitalist reality as the eternal absurdity in the world, and advocate that life is nothing, that life has no purpose, and that all human activities are in vain. Existentialism not only reflects the aversion to capitalist reality, but also promotes subjective idealism and individualism with self as the core, and beautifies pessimistic and world-weary life philosophy in the name of "freedom". Because it denies the class attribute and social attribute of human beings, existentialism is completely contrary to Marx's argument that "the essence of human beings is the sum of all social relations".