Sayre's Claim: "Existence Precedes Essence"
Sayre claims that "existence precedes essence". The statement means that human beings have no defined form of existence. Human beings define themselves depending on the lives they live. The lives we live determine who we are but not any set of characteristics such as socioeconomic factors and subconscious drive. Even God cannot determine the behavior of human beings but themselves can. It is us who influences the essence of our life. To elaborate more on the statement, Sartre challenges people to have freedom in their decisions and stop being bound by the world and social beliefs. No one should live according to the expectations of the other people. Instead, we should just evaluate the beliefs and assumptions we hold so that we can create our own values and acts. One's character is influenced by personal choices and commitments.
Sartre's Argument: Creating Our Purpose in Life
Unless we create and define our purpose in life, Sartre believes that in his argument, we were created without any apparent reason. Apart from human beings, other things that exist have an essence. The existence of anything can be interpreted differently. For instance, we should not think that it is only a knife that we can use in our kitchen to cut the cooking ingredients. There are other objects which can be used. To understand something or an object, one should first know its essence. In our existence, we create our essence.
Work cited
Sayre, Henry M. The Humanities: Culture, Continuity & Change. Prentice Hall, 2012.
