EXISTENTIALISM83natural selection, it is ipso facto good or
virtuous or more ethical than organisms
that perish. Darwin proposed that in
human beings compassion and ideals of
justice will tend to promote survivability,
but he also conceded that it might not do
so. Some environmental ethicists claim
that Darwinian and neo-Darwinian evo-
lution can provide reasons for thinking
that nonhuman animals deserve greater
moral attention (given our mutual ances-
tral descent) than if one adopts the view
that species are all separately created.
While some philosophers think evolu-
tionary theory and ethics are incompati-
ble with Christianity (Richard Dawkins),
others (Michael Ruse) see no essential
conflict.
EX NIHILO NIHIL FIT. Latin for “from
nothing, nothing comes.” If this precept
holds, something has always existed
rather than there being a time in the past
when there was nothing. Aristotle, for
example, believed in an uncreated cosmos
(one that has always existed).
EXCELLENCE. A term often used to
refer to a good-making property; e.g., wit
may be an excellence in oratory.
EXCLUSIVISM. In Christianity, a term
used to refer to the position that belief
(or trust) in Jesus Christ is essential for
salvation. More moderately, an exclusivist
may hold that salvation comes only
through Jesus Christ even if this does not
involve explicit belief or trust in Christ.
Philosophers of other religions may make
similar assertions about the exclusivity of
their truth claims.EXISTENCE. Some philosophers treat
“existence” as a property and distinguish
between the properties of existing contin-
gently and existing necessarily. Other
philosophers resist thinking of “existence”
as a property and claim that it is dispens-
able in our descriptions and explanations
of the world; e.g., rather than affirm
“Lions exist,” we should say “There are
lions.”EXISTENTIALISM. A philosophical
and literary movement that emerged
in Europe (most notably in France)
following World War II. Nineteenth cen-
tury writers such as Soren Kierkegaard,
Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Fredrich Nietz-
sche foreshadow many of the themes that
existentialists later picked up on and fur-
ther developed. The existentialist move-
ment itself encompassed a vast array of
thinkers, both theistic (e.g., Gabriel Marcel)
and atheistic (e.g., John-Paul Sartre).
Some consider existentialism to be more
of a general “mood” than a systematic
school of thought, making it a difficult
term to decisively pin down. In general,
existentialism was highly critical of essen-
tialism and the search for an abstract, uni-
versal “human nature,” focusing instead