Existentialism Is a Humanism
Jean-Paul Sartre · 1946
"Sartre's central claim, 'existence precedes essence' — humans have no predetermined nature or purpose; we define ourselves entirely through the choices we make, and that total freedom is also total responsibility."
Delivered as a 1945 lecture responding to critics who called existentialism nihilistic and pessimistic, Sartre's core move is 'existence precedes essence': unlike a manufactured object, built to a blueprint that exists before the object does, a human being exists first, with no given nature, and only afterward defines what they are through action. This makes humans radically free — and because there's no God or fixed human nature to lean on or blame, every choice is also, implicitly, a claim about what any human being should do in that situation.
Since there's no essence to fall back on, you can't excuse a choice by appeal to 'human nature' or circumstance — you are fully authoring yourself with every act, and by extension endorsing that act as a model for humanity, since choosing for yourself is, in his framing, choosing for all. Anguish, abandonment, and despair are three moods that necessarily follow from this radical freedom. Sartre insists this is not a doctrine of despair but the opposite: the only philosophy that takes human dignity seriously, since it refuses to let you offload responsibility onto God, circumstance, or a fixed 'nature.'
What does Sartre mean by 'existence precedes essence'?
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The explanation above is written with AI assistance. These are the originals — go to them to check it.
- Existentialism Is a Humanism (full text)Marxists Internet Archive
- Re-reading Sartre's lecture Existentialism Is a HumanismAeon Essays
The Myth of Sisyphus
"The absurd is the unresolvable collision between the human need for meaning and the universe's indifferent silence — the only honest response is conscious revolt, not suicide or false belief."