RE: Existentialism
March 21, 2022 at 5:28 am
(This post was last modified: March 21, 2022 at 5:28 am by Belacqua.)
(March 19, 2022 at 9:15 am)Istvan Wrote: Existentialism is basically the concept that our actions and encounters throughout life are what define us.
This makes me wonder about the well-known phrase "existence precedes essence."
It seems like a really helpful phrase -- Existentialism in a nutshell -- if you sort of squint. But if I think about it carefully it's pretty difficult, simply because "essence" is not a word we use much any more.
I suspect that to Sartre and de Beauvoir, who had deep training in philosophy (École normale supérieure!) it had a very precise meaning. Just because a lot of those Aristotelian/Thomist words (like "cause") which used to be exact have now become fuzzy.
So what does it mean that I create my essence, after I come into existence? Is it just my personality? My likes and dislikes? My successes and failures?
Do I have to decide on some meaning for my life to have an essence ("I am here on this earth to save stray cats"), or can I just sort of fumble along?
