The Philosophy Book

268

EXISTENCE

PRECEDES

ESSENCE

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905–1980)

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Ethics

APPROACH

Existentialism

BEFORE

4th century BCE Aristotle

asks the question “How should

we live?”

1840 S Søren Kierkegaard

writes Either/Or, exploring

the role played by choice in

shaping our lives.

1920 S Martin Heidegger

says that what is important

is our relationship with our

own existence.

AFTER

1945 Sartre’s friend and

companion, Simone de

Beauvoir, publishes The

Second Sex, which applies

Sartre’s ideas to the question

of the relationship between

men and women.

S

ince ancient times, the

question of what it is to

be human and what makes

us so distinct from all other types

of being has been one of the main

preoccupations of philosophers.

Their approach to the question

assumes that there is such a thing

as human nature, or an essence of

what it is to be human. It also tends

to assume that this human nature

is fixed across time and space. In

other words, it assumes that there

is a universal essence of what it is

to be human, and that this essence

can be found in every single human

that has ever existed, or will ever

exist. According to this view, all

human beings, regardless of their