Existentialism: Existence Precedes Essence and Freedom

Existentialism: Fundamental Analysis of Existence

Existentialism: This is the fundamental philosophical analysis of human existence as a starting point for any reflection on what is real. The precursors of this movement included Husserl, Kierkegaard, and others. We can outline the points:

1. Existential experience: Existentialism emphasizes existential experiences—fragility, the imminence of death, and feelings such as general nausea.
2. Primary topic: Its primary focus is existence as a "way of being human." Humans are the only animals for whom existence precedes essence.
3. Freedom and self-creation: Existence is conceived as something that creates itself in freedom; it belongs only to beings capable of living in freedom.
4. Subjectivity and creativity: The human being is understood as radical subjectivity and the deployment of creativity: to create oneself freely is to exercise one’s freedom.
5. Relation to the world: The human being is closed in itself yet linked to the world and to other human beings.
6. Subject–object distinction: Existentialists reject the strict subject/object distinction; lived experience of reality prevails over abstract knowledge. The opposition subject/object is annulled. Reality is experienced through anxiety or panic—by which a person realizes their finitude and the fragility of their position in the world.

Representatives of existentialism include Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Gabriel Marcel. Their attitudes toward God differ: Jaspers and Marcel were more theistic, whereas Sartre was an atheist. The philosophy of existence is often presented as pessimistic: human existence can appear meaningless or absurd because there is no fixed essence or predetermined place in which one must develop. Sartre is the most famous existentialist not only because of his philosophical work but also because of his extensive literary production, including novels and plays such as The Wall, Nausea, and The Respectful Prostitute.

Notion of Existence: Existence Precedes Essence

Notion of existence: The fundamental characteristic of existentialism is the claim that "existence precedes essence." The distinction between essence and existence has traditionally been used to justify the difference between contingent beings and a necessary being. God is the only being in which essence is identified with existence—the only being whose essence is to exist. In all other beings, existence is not part of their essence, so they are contingent: they may exist or not. Many Western philosophers considered such a distinction unnecessary.

Sartre provides a different explanation of what is meant by existence. With God removed from the traditional picture, the idea of an eternal essence given by a supreme being disappears. Human existence cannot be reduced to the performance of a substance conceived by God. Human beings "are there" (they exist) and are determined only by their mode of existing as humans. Their existence is prior to any given essence; their realization as human beings depends on their freedom. They are not subject to the need to correspond to a predefined essence; they are free.

Existence is not simply being there; there is no necessity. Those who have tried to overcome this contingency have invented a necessary self or a cause of the self. No one can ultimately explain existence: contingency is absolute—the radical freedom.