Existentialism Is a Humanism

CONTEXT Sartre is trying to defend existentialism against some disapproval to it. The Communist criticized existentialism as an invitation to people to take interest in hopeless world affairs. On the other hand, Christians reproached from the fact that people deny the need of attention in human affairs. People have the will to do anything they want and wish. With the example given, about ignoring the Ten Commandments, we can people deny the value of following the commandments and will only follow it if they wish.

THE MEANING OF EXISTENTIALISM According to Sartre, existentialism is a principle that provides human life possible. It also determines that every truth and action we know involves both an environmental and a human subjectivity. The two types of existentialist are the Christians and Existential Atheists. What they have in common is that they both believe in “existence comes before essence”, which means that a human has no predetermined essence or nature. “Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.” If a man cannot define himself, then he is bound to happen that he is nothing. The paper-knife example talks about how an artisan conceptualized an object, how he paid close attention to it and knew what the purpose of the object would be. The paper-knife is existentially different from human because for Existential Atheists, which Sartre is included, man defines himself and not the creator that conceived him.

RESPONSIBILITY An implication given in the lecture is how a being would be able to existence would come before its essence even if God does not exist. Sartre mentioned that there is no human nature because we define ourselves and not by any force that lives inside us. By Sartre saying that “in choosing for himself, he chooses for all men”, he means that when humans make decisions, it affirms that value of which he had chosen. The choices we consider are always the better, and nothing can be better for us unless it is