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Originated by Jean-Paul Sartre, the phrase “existence precedes essence” has come to be a classic, even defining, formulation of the heart of existentialist philosophy. It’s an idea which turns traditional metaphysics on its head because throughout Western philosophy, it was always assume..."
Originated by Jean-Paul Sartre, the phrase “existence precedes essence” has come to be a classic, even defining, formulation of the heart of existentialist philosophy. It’s an idea which turns traditional metaphysics on its head because throughout Western philosophy, it was always assumed that the “essence” or “nature” of a thing is more fundamental and eternal than its mere “existence.” Thus, if you want to understand a thing, what you must do is learn more about its “essence.”It should be understood that Sartre does not apply this principle universally, but only to humanity. Sartre argued that there were essentially two kinds of being. The first is being-in-itself (l’en-soi), which is characterized as fixed, complete, and having absolutely noreason for its being — it just is.This describes the world of external objects.
The second is being-for-itself (le pour-soi), which is characterized as dependent upon the former for its existence. It has no absolute, fixed, eternal nature and describes the state of humanity.
Sartre, like Husserl, argued that it is an error to treat human beings in the same way we treat external objects. When we consider, for example, a hammer, we can understand its nature by listing its properties and examining the purpose for which it was created. Hammers are made by people for certain reasons — in a sense, the “essence” or “nature” of a hammer exists in the mind of the creator before the actual hammer exists in the world. Thus, one can say that when it comes to things like hammers, essence precedes existence.But is the same true of human beings? Traditionally this was assumed to be the case because people believed that humanswere created by God. According to traditional Christian mythology, humanity was created by God through a deliberate act of will and with specific ideas in mind — God knew what was to be made before humans ever existed. Thus, in the context of Christianity, humans are like hammers because the “essence” (nature, characteristics) of humanity existed in the eternal mind of God before any actual humans existed in the world.Even many atheists retained this basic premise despite the fact that they had dispensed with the accompanying premise of God. They assumed that human beings possessed some special “human nature” which constrained what a person could or could not be — basically, that they all possessed some “essence” that preceded their “existence.”Sartre, however, goes a step further and rejects this idea, arguing that it was necessary for anyone who was going to take atheism seriously. It isn’t enough to simplya......
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