Existentialism Unpacked: Sartre's 'Existence Precedes Essence'

Sartre wrote many crucial and influential essays and books, including his 1943 critical essay Being and Nothingness and Existentialism is a Humanism in 1946. He lived a rich and fulfilled life, winning a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964 but refused it, was a prisoner of war and a playwright. He contributed significantly to existentialism and helped popularise it in the 1960s, making him a lasting figure in philosophy that is still relevant today. This is existence precedes essence essay in which Sartre's philosophical viewpoints will be discussed.

To understand Sartre, we must first investigate what existentialism is and how he perceives this. Existentialism in philosophy is looking at how humans exist as free individuals and their place in the world, it is the sense of self. Sartre famous phrase “existence precedes essence” is a critical and influential belief on the traditionally thought of idea that essence comes before existence. This previous belief was that man is pre-requisitely/ innately selfish and that they only think of themselves first and foremost, then their meaning of life comes second to that. Existentialism essentially states that we were all born a certain way and that the essence we were born with gives you a purpose in life. We all have an essence as human beings, our essence is essential for us to be us. Sartre claims that we are not hard wired with a purpose but that we exist first and then it is up to us to decide on own what our purposes are in life. His idea says that we have no essential self, rather only an individual can define their essence. “Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards'. The actions of a person and their experiences make a person and gives them a purpose. Our memories and history, even our relationships make us what we are, they are our existence. When we are born however we have no essence as we don’t have any history, therefore we are a vacant being that goes on to make decisions and pathways in life that create our essence. It shows that we exist first, as we are foremost born, then we create would essence. Accordingly, Sartre states this in his famous phrase “existence precedes essence.” As well as “each man makes his essence as he lives”.

To develop this point Sartre uses a knife to show what the essence of an object is, it has to look a certain way and has characteristics that are attributed to it. A knife is used to cut and has a specific purpose. Sartre would state that a knife was constructed with a determined and discrete purpose in mind, meaning that the idea of the knife is first as thought of it (the essence) precedes the existence of it. However, for Sartre this would be much like the idea of God creating mankind according to an idea He has of them. The knife is used by a person to do what they wish; therefore, the knife is established by you, and you decide its very essence.

Sartre had formed his opinion and thoughts off the previous workings of Heidegger and Kierkegaard he focused on humankind’s anguish caused by their freedom. Sartre inquires into how we as human beings are all free, so much so that he sees it as a detriment “Man is condemned to be free because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. This means we are all born free to make our own choices. We are born into existence and must make our own choices. The relationship one has with oneself is crucial and through our understanding of how we live allows our Being-In-Itself to show. The authenticity of such freedom is a key idea and is the opposite to bad faith. Bad Faith was a concept that Sartre developed along with Simone De Beauvoir, which essentially looks at how individuals do not follow their natural principles and instead act the opposite of them and thus are inauthentic. On a fundamental level bad faith is self -deception, as human beings deceive themselves into thinking that they do not have the freedom to make their own decisions. A major idea in existentialism is that human beings have the freedom to make their own individual choices, even deciding not to make a choice is making a choice. This may cause anguish as we continually need to construct and fashion ourselves by settling on decisions. We know we must make a choice and that it will influence our lives and these consequences can be too much, therefore the freedom is too great and becomes a difficulty producing anguish. We realise our own freedom as everything is frighteningly possible because nothing had any preordained purpose, we as human beings can choose what we want in life. Many people thus chose to fall into the easiest choices that society values and becomes more of an object. This relates to a person being-in-itself. it is neither active nor passive, it just is, it’s the brute being and therefore the person becomes more of an object without a consciousness. A well-known example of bad faith by Sartre is the idea of a waiter who tries to exhibit the optimum behaviour of what a waiter should be like.

“Let us consider this waiter in the café. His movement is quick and forward, a little too precise, a little too rapid…his voice, his eyes express an interest a little too solicitous for the order of the customer. Finally, there he returns, trying to imitate in his walk the inflexible stiffness of some kind of automaton. All his behavior seems to us a game...But what is he playing? We need not watch long before we can explain it: he is playing at being a waiter in a café.” This example of a waiter shows how he chooses not to make any choices for himself, but rather he falls into the role of a waiter which shows that he is a conscious being who is choosing to act like a waiter, therefore he is deceiving himself which is bad faith. He acts as waiter before anything else, then as a free human being. He has convinced himself that he is a waiter and does not act as free human being.

Sartre’s work Being and Nothingness delves into our relations with others, specifically investigating how we are perceived by other people. Sartre calls this “the look” we become aware of ourselves through the eyes of another as we are only made conscious of their gaze do we become aware of our own presence. Sartre states that “The appearance of the Other in the world corresponds therefore to a fixed sliding of the whole universe, to a decentralization of the world which undermines the centralization which I am simultaneously effecting.” This allows the person’s judgement to become attached to us, and through their perception of you. The person establishes a risk as it restricts our freedom as we become a “fixed” individual in their world. When you are being looked at by an individual you are being judged by your appearance and your age and how you act. This means that you take on an importance for them in their reality/world. This then in turn influences how we view ourselves. The simple presence of a person watching you makes you an object as they view you like one, and then you start to look at yourself as an object since that is what we are being viewed as by the Other. The “look” means that we view people as objects and that they are only seen as such, ultimately reflecting how we become an object through the gaze of others.

Another aspect that Sartre explores regarding relations to other people is solipsism. This is the view whereby one can only be sure of one’s own existence. Sartre looks at solipsism in relation to the Other. He does this by looking at the problem with solipsism, how do we know that others exist. He finds that we know this because of the effect that the Other has on our own consciousness. It is the relations to yourself and the existing world. Adrian Mirvish in his article Sartre and the problem of other (Embodied) Minds states that Sartre offers a counter to Solipsism. “By making use of the phenomenon of the look, he can show how not only one person immediately apprehend the actual existence of another, but also that there is no need for interference...”. This shows that the influence of other people impacts our own lives and alters our own reality, therefore we are positive of our existence.

Sartre examines how sex is Sado-masochism. He states that all sex is necessarily sado-masochistic. This is the sexual pleasure involving pain and humiliation during intimate acts. It can be pleasure received or given. For Sartre he states that there are two possible methods in the act of sex; active and passive. The active role includes the role of focusing on the pleasure of your partner and their joy and not on yourself. This means that the person (the Other) becomes an object and lessens their freedom, which in turn makes us lose our acknowledgment, thus it is as Sartre calls sadism. The other role is the passive role. This concentrates on being touched by the Other, focusing on our pleasure. Therefore, the opposite of the active role is true. We give ourselves the chance to be objectified. By losing our freedom this is what Sartre calls Masochism, as the pain from lessening our freedom is a painful sort of enjoyment.

To conclude Sartre’s claim that “existence precedes essence” is a popular philosophical statement that allows a new way of thinking, built upon pre-existing ideas and thoughts. He contributed greatly to existentialism and his critical thinking helped modernise existential ways of thinking and is a name that is known today in philosophy for his unprecedented way of thinking. He also had many ideas and thought concerning relations with others, including relations with oneself. His original thoughts on anguish and freedom are still popular today and his individual and contemporary way of assessing human existence is one that is lasting.

References

• Mirvish, A (1996) Sartre and the problem of other (Embodied) Minds, Berghahn Books
• Sartre, J, (1943) Being and Nothingness Éditions Gallimard, Philosophical Library
• Sartre, J, (1946) Existentialism is a Humanism, Les Editions Nagel, Methuen & Co

Bibliography

• Sartre, (1956), Existentialism Is a Humanism [Online] (Viewed 26 March 2019) 
• Manzi, Y, (2013) Jean-Paul Sartre: Existential “Freedom” and the Political [online] accessed 27 March 2019 
• Berenpas, M (2011) Jean-Paul Sartre and the Possibility of Authentic Love [online] accessed 27 March 2019 
• SparkNotes Being and Nothingness [online] accessed 27 March 2019 
• Warburton, N (1996) A student’s guide to Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism and Humanism [online] accessed 28 March 2019 
• Study Moose, A student’s guide to Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism and Humanism [online] accessed 27 March 2019 
• Mirvish, A (1996) Sartre and the Problem of Other (Embodied) Minds [online] Accessed 28 March 2019
• Shmoop. Jean-Paul Sartre Introduction. [online] Accessed 26 March 2019