Thoughts on Existentialism

Thoughts on Jean-Paul Sartre’s — Existentialism is a Humanism

I am writing this so I can finally stop talking about existentialism, once and for all. Try saying “existentialism” three times and you’d understand why I want to stop talking about it. I fell in love with the existentialist’s philosophy the first time I came across it. It was exactly the woke stuff I needed that would let me live a free life without any moral responsibility. But reading Jean-Paul Sartre’s essay on existentialism titled “Existentialism is a Humanism” made me realise my initial idea of the philosophy was a bit contrary to what it actually was.

To better understand Existentialism, we first of all have to understand Nihilism.

What is Nihilism?

Nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. It suggests that each human and even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose, and unlikely to change in existence’s totality.

It is popularly assumed to be pretty dark (understandably so). But I don’t really think it’s so dark. Nihilism is more of an acceptance of the meaninglessness of life, rather than the belief in it. And with acceptance, comes clarity. But Nihilism felt a bit incomplete. If life is meaningless, and everything is pointless, do we just… kill ourselves? How do we create meaning to life then? Initially and conventionally, humanity finds meaning and purpose in religion. But with the decline in religion in the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche emphatically declared “God is dead” and expressively created cohesive bodies of work which acts as the foundation of Nihilism and even Existentialism. If God is truly dead, and life has no intrinsic meaning, what then is the point of existing?

I present to you ✨Existentialism✨

What is Existentialism?

Existentialism builds upon Nihilism and fills the missing gap that defines life’s meaning for those of us who thinks that God is dead. Existentialism emphasises the individual person’s responsibility in defining his/her own life’s meaning.

In Jean-Paul’s essay, he used two key words in explaining Existentialism — existence, and essence. He broke existentialism down into two kinds: Christian Existentialism, and Atheistic Existentialism. According to him, Christian Existentialists believe that their essence precedes their existence. Christian Existentialists believe that God created them with a purpose in mind — just like how man creates a chair for sitting, or food for eating. According to the Christian Existentialists, nothing exists without a predisposed essence or purpose for existing.

Whereas, the Atheist Existentialist believes that existence precedes our essence. These amazing individuals believe that man has the sole responsibility of determining our essence, because if God does not exist, there is at least one being whose essence comes after his existence. That being is us. And furthermore, if man happens to not be able to define himself, that essentially means he was nothing in the first place.

Existentialism has been criticised for its seemingly totally subjective nature. That means that it appears to be a philosophy that propounds the lack of social responsibility in the human experience. According to the critics, the existentialist only cares about defining himself, without giving a damn about community or his contribution to society. But this is not so. The implications of defining one’s own essence can be found in how that person perceives the world around him/her. Not only does the existentialist shapes himself, he also shapes his world by shaping his perception of it. The existentialist’s actions is typically reflective of how he perceives the world. This means that if the existentialist litters, it means he is willing the world into becoming a world filled with trash on the ground.

So how exactly does one define his/her essence?

Defining one’s essence doesn’t necessarily mean verbally stating his/her purpose for existing. According to Jean-Paul Sartre, man’s essence takes shape in his actions. Our actions — in this context — encapsulates our choices too. This means that a painter would never be a painter if he doesn’t paint, or Einstein would never have been recognised today as a genius if he never created genius work — General Relativity. So in that sense, we define our essence everyday.

In defining one’s essence, according to the existentialist, there is no wrong choice or decision. As long as the choice is an authentic one. Jean Paul Sartre advocates for authenticity in making choices. Man should always stay true to himself. The only wrong choice or decision, that could possibly be, is the one that wasn’t authentically made.

Why is Existentialism a Humanism then?

Humanism is the belief that the human race would thrive even without the existence of God. Humanists places value and trust in man’s ability to define morality for himself without ascribing such responsibility to God.

The above definition makes Existentialism mutually inclusive with Humanism. In the grand scheme of things, the existentialist believes that if everyone individually took responsibility for his essence or actions, we’d be alright collectively. Where Existentialism, according to Jean-Paul Sartre, doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Humanism, is in how Humanism places over-bloated value in humans and their judgement. Humanists, in a way, view humans as some sort of gods.

Conclusion

Existentialism is definitely not a lazy woke man’s philosophy. There is heavy emphasis by Jean-Paul Sartre on the burden and responsibility of the freedom of this philosophy, and in defining one’s essence and his/her world. He goes as far as calling people who run away from this freedom to a deterministic ideology, where life has a purpose and meaning— cowards. And he calls those that try to show that their existence is necessary rather than the accident that it is — scum.

Others, who try to show that their existence is necessary, when it is merely an accident of the appearance of the human race on earth — I shall call scum.

My key takeaway from Existentialism, is in the call to act. Basically, you are not, and would never be who you think you are, unless you take action. If you are of the opinion of being a genius, you aren’t actually one unless you do something genius. The “you” in your head, does not… I repeat, does not exist unless it is expressed in your actions.