Ocampo, Reanne Nicole P.

Sir Pol Silva

BMLS-2A

Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre (19051980) is arguably the best known philosopher of the twentieth century. His
indefatigable pursuit of philosophical reflection, literary creativity and, in the second half of his
life, active political commitment gained him worldwide renown, if not admiration. He is
commonly considered the father of Existentialist philosophy, whose writings set the tone for
intellectual life in the decade immediately following the Second World War. Among the many
ironies that permeate his life, not the least is the immense popularity of his scandalous public
lecture Existentialism is a Humanism, delivered to an enthusiastic Parisian crowd October 28,
1945.
The sartrean claim is best understood in contrast to an established principle of
metaphysics[dubious discuss] that essence precedes existence, i.e. that there is such a thing
as human nature, determined by the cosmic order (or a god), laid down by religious tradition,
or legislated by political or social authority. A typical claim for this traditional thesis would be
that man is essentially selfish, or that he is a rational being.
To Sartre, the idea that "existence precedes essence" means that a personality is not built over
a previously designed model or a precise purpose, because it is the human being who chooses
to engage in such enterprise. While not denying the constraining conditions of human
existence, he answers to Spinoza who affirmed that man is determined by what surrounds him.
Therefore, to Sartre an oppressive situation is not intolerable in itself, but once regarded as
such by those who feel oppressed the situation becomes intolerable. So by projecting my
intentions onto my present condition, It is I who freely transform it into action. When he said
that the world is a mirror of my freedom, he meant that the world obliged me to react, to
overtake myself. It is this overtaking of a present constraining situation by a project to come
that Sartre names transcendence. He added that we are condemned to be free.
When it is said that man defines himself, it is often perceived as stating that man can "wish" to
be something - anything, a bird, for instance - and then be it. According to Sartre's account,
however, this would be a kind of bad faith. What is meant by the statement is that man is (1)
defined only insofar as he acts and (2) that he is responsible for his actions. To clarify, it can be
said that a man who acts cruelly towards other people is, by that act, defined as a cruel man
and in that same instance, he (as opposed to his genes, for instance) is defined as being
responsible for being this cruel man. Of course, the more positive therapeutic aspect of this is
also implied: You can choose to act in a different way, and to be a good person instead of a
cruel person. Here it is also clear that since man can choose to be either cruel or good, he is, in
fact, neither of these things essentially.
To claim that existence precedes essence is to assert that there is no such predetermined
essence to be found in humans, and that an individual's essence is defined by him or her
through how he or she creates and lives his or her life. As Sartre puts it in his Existentialism is a
Humanism: "man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world and defines
himself afterwards."
Existentialism tends to focus on the question of human existence and the conditions of this
existence. What is meant by existence is the concrete life of each individual, and his concrete
ways of being in the world. Even though this concrete individual existence must be the primary
source of information in the study of man, certain conditions are commonly held to be
"endemic" to human existence. These conditions are usually in some way related to the
inherent meaninglessness or absurdity of the earth and its apparent contrast with our pre-
reflexive lived lives which normally present themselves to us as meaningful. A central theme is
that since the world "in-itself" is absurd, that is, not "fair," then a meaningful life can at any
point suddenly lose all its meaning. The reasons why this happens are many, ranging from a
tragedy that "tears a person's world apart," to the results of an honest inquiry into one's own
existence. Such an encounter can make a person mentally unstable, and avoiding such
instability by making people aware of their condition and ready to handle it is one of the central
themes of existentialism. Albert Camus, for instance, famously claimed that "there is only one
truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide."
Aside from these "psychological" issues, it is also claimed that these encounters with the absurd
are where we are most in touch with our condition as humans. Such an encounter cannot be
without philosophical significance, and existentialist philosophers derive many metaphysical
theories from these encounters. These are often related to the self, consciousness and freedom
as well as the nature of meaning.
The proposition that existence precedes essence (French: l'existence prcde l'essence) is a
central claim of existentialism, which reverses the traditional philosophical view that the
essence or nature of a thing is more fundamental and immutable than its existence. To
existentialists, human beingsthrough their consciousnesscreate their own values and
determine a meaning for their life because, in the beginning, the human being does not possess
any inherent identity or value. By posing the acts that constitute him or her, he or she makes
his or her existence more significant.