The Central Claim: Existence Precedes Essence
Jean-Paul Sartre's famous inversion of classical philosophy captures the heart of existentialism in three words. Traditional philosophy — from Plato to Aquinas — held that things have a fixed essence, a nature that determines what they are and how they ought to be. Sartre rejected this for human beings. We are not born with a fixed nature or purpose. We exist first, and only through our choices do we create what we are.
This is simultaneously liberating and terrifying. If there is no pre-given human nature, then there is no authority — not God, not society, not biology — that can relieve us of the responsibility for who we become.
Key Concepts
Radical Freedom and Bad Faith
For Sartre, human beings are "condemned to be free." Even in refusing to choose, we are choosing. There is no escape from freedom, only self-deception about it. Sartre called this self-deception bad faith (mauvaise foi) — the pretense that we are determined by our circumstances, roles, or nature. The waiter who becomes entirely his role, denying any self beyond it, is acting in bad faith. Authenticity requires owning our freedom and its consequences.
Anguish, Forlornness, and Despair
Sartre identified three moods that accompany genuine recognition of our situation. Anguish arises when we realize that our choices are also implicit choices for all humanity — in choosing what I shall be, I choose an image of what humans ought to be. Forlornness reflects the absence of any divine guarantor of values. Despair is the acceptance that we can only rely on what is within our control.
The Absurd: Camus's Divergence
Albert Camus is often grouped with existentialists, though he rejected the label. His concept of the absurd describes the collision between the human hunger for meaning and a universe that offers none. The absurd is not in the world alone, nor in the human mind alone — it emerges from their confrontation.
Camus's response was neither despair nor the "leap of faith" he criticized in Kierkegaard. It was revolt: to live fully, defiantly, without illusion. His image of Sisyphus — condemned to roll a boulder uphill for eternity — ends with the radical claim: "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
De Beauvoir and Situated Freedom
Simone de Beauvoir extended existentialism into ethics and feminism. In The Second Sex, she argued that "one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" — applying the existence-precedes-essence thesis to gender. In her ethics, she insisted that genuine freedom is only possible in relation to others: I cannot be truly free in a world where others are oppressed. This gave existentialism a social and political dimension Sartre's early work lacked.
Existentialism vs. Nihilism
Existentialism is often confused with nihilism, the view that life has no meaning. In fact, existentialists explicitly opposed nihilism. The point is not that nothing matters, but that meaning is not found — it is made. The absence of cosmic purpose is not cause for despair but for seriousness: our choices matter precisely because they are not underwritten by anything beyond ourselves.
The Lasting Relevance
Existentialism emerged from the rubble of World War II, when inherited certainties had collapsed. Its insistence on personal responsibility, authenticity, and the courage to face uncertainty without illusion speaks as powerfully to contemporary readers navigating identity, alienation, and moral complexity as it did to its original audience.