  A central, shared assumption of existentialist aesthetics, beyond the stark religious and political differences of the existentialists, is the essential ambiguity of the human condition: I am radically free as consciousness, yet radically determined by my facticity, the physical, social and other circumstances in which my consciousness comes to the world. On this particular point Heidegger’s existential analytic is a shared reference that brings together otherwise diverse (or, indeed, antagonistic) thinkers. An important implication of the emphasis on human facticity is that it forges a vital link between philosophy and the arts, which from this perspective similarly aim to explore the metaphysical ambiguity of the human condition.