PHIL 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Existence Precedes Essence, Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 1000
• Professor: Ingrid L.Stefanovic

Document Summary

In 1964, sartre received nobel prize for literature which he turned down. Most well known works: la nausea, l" tre et le neant, huis clos, l"idiot de la famille, le sursis, existentialism is a humanism (1946) He common feature of all type of existentialism (christian or atheist existentialism to which he belongs the principle): existence precedes essence. Sartre"s example: the paper-knife and god as the creator: in both example conception comes before production. Man is the realization of a certain conception which dwells in the divine understanding . Even if god is out of the picture, as kant did, philosopher still believe that there is such a thing as human nature which precedes human existence. Human being is a particular instance of a universal conception of humanness". Existentialist: man"s existence comes always before any essence/conception: man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world and defines himself afterwards .