Existentialism Is a Humanism Themes

The driving observation behind Sartre’s existentialism is his notion that “existence precedes essence.” For Sartre, there is no preexisting human essence, set by God or nature, that determines what people should or will do. As a result, each individual must define their own essence, and their essence is merely the sum of their actions.

Essence, broadly, refers to the necessary properties that make a thing what it is. For at least two thousand years…

Sartre’s search for a new way to think about human life’s value is largely a response to the decline of religion in the modern world. Sartre is explicit about his atheism and believes that humans create morality for their own purposes, rather than receiving it from some supernatural source. Because of this, he suggests that people are “abandoned” in the world, and he thinks that, whether people choose to recognize it or hide…

In Existentialism is a Humanism, Sartre has two central motives: responding to his critics, and explaining his philosophy for a broader audience that has begun using the term “existentialism” without understanding what it really means. Sartre is stuck in the difficult position of answering critics from two opposite sides. On the first side are Christians who think existentialism has no hope for humanity, makes values too relative, and remains too focused on…