PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Existence Precedes Essence, Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism
Document Summary
Two characteristics of existentialism: existence precedes essence or, subjectivity must always be the point of departure. Material cause > what something is made up/ clue to what it can and cannot do. Efficient cause > gives rise to another cause (events rather than things or facts) Formal cause > explanation of essential nature of something/ the nature that makes it be a thing of that kind/ intimately related to the final cause. To understand what it is, you much understand why it was produced. Produced in a way that serves a definite purpose > capacity to serve purpose is what makes it a thing of that kind. The blueprint is there before you make the object. The blueprint tells how it is constituted and what it is for. Idea of the object exists before the object. Of else you would not know who to manufacture the object (is with manufactured objects but not biological products)