Although he was not the first to do so, and although he by no means denies the biological or behavioral similarities among people, Sartre nevertheless thinks that the essence of who any individual really is has nothing to do with humans’ universal traits. Sartre responds to the problem of determining the human essence by throwing out the accepted wisdom that such an essence is universal at all. In this view, the “idea” of someone exists before that person is born, and the person’s life consists of growing to fulfill the destiny already set out for them in that idea. Similarly, under the conventional Christian picture, God creates humans from the mental blueprint of his own image. The paper knife’s essence is present in the mind of its human creator (who designs it for the particular purpose of cutting paper) before the knife actually exists. Sartre gives two examples of normal cases where essence would precede existence: the paper knife and the conventional picture of God. The resulting picture of the human essence promised not only to define humanity and predict human behavior, but also allow a framework for human morality to emerge.
Generally, debates over the human essence concentrated on a problem inherited from Plato and Aristotle: did humans’ distinctive nature come from their form (an immaterial soul or mind) or their substance (biological matter)? Either way, determining the “essence” of humankind meant defining human nature in terms of its relationship to historical, biological, divine, and/or social forces.
For at least two thousand years before Sartre, philosophers looked for a human essence by asking about characteristics common to all people. As a result, each individual must define their own essence, and their essence is merely the sum of their actions.Įssence, broadly, refers to the necessary properties that make a thing what it is. 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.
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