JeanPaul_Sartre_JeanPaul_Sartre_Basic_Writing

Existentialism25someone could write a philosophical novel, call it Ecstasy, or Exuberance,in which the central character discovers that existence, including his ownexistence, is necessary and inherently meaningful. Not only do particularthings exist but they really are objectively divided into sorts where this divisiondepends neither on our language nor our pragmatic interests. The problemof induction emerges as a pseudo-problem which need cause noone anypsychological, still less physical, discomfort. Not only is everything as it is, itcould not be other than as it is. The staggering realisation of this Essentialismis accompanied by profound sensations of well-being and harmony called‘ecstasies’ or ‘exuberances’. The existentialist solutions to philosophicalproblems in Nausea are as plausible as their experience by Roquentin iscredible.In Existentialism and Humanism Sartre clarifies and partly revises hisview of existence and essence. He divides the things that exist into threekinds: human beings, artefacts, and naturally occurring objects. In the caseof human beings existence precedes essence. In the case of artefactsessence precedes existence and in the case of naturally occurring objectsexistence and essence coincide.We need to understand the relation precedes. ‘Precedes’ admits of botha chronological and a logical reading, both of which Sartre intends.Chronologically, ‘precedes’ means ‘predates’ or ‘occurs before’. Logically,‘precedes’ means ‘is a necessary condition for’ or ‘is a prerequisite for’.Take the case of artefacts first. If a person makes a paper-knife the ideaof the paper-knife in the mind of the manufacturer predates the existence ofthe paper-knife itself. The idea of the object is also necessary for the objectto exist. Essence precedes existence in this case because there is ananswer to the question What is it? before, and independently of, a correctaffirmative answer to the question Is it? The essence of the paper-knifepredates and is required by its existence. The ‘what’ precedes the ‘is’.In the case of naturally occurring objects, such as stones and trees, theirbeing what they are does not predate their being and their being does notpredate their being what they are. They are and they are what they aresimultaneously. Their being and their being what they are are mutuallydependent. In this sense the existence and essence of natural thingscoincide.In the case of human beings, in contrast with both of these, existencecomes before essence. Sartre means there is no predetermined human