“I can’t disagree with that.”
“Sartre said that man’s existence takes priority over whatever he might
otherwise be. The fact that I exist takes priority over what I am. ‘Existence
takes priority over essence.’ “
“That was a very complicated statement.”
“By essence we mean that which something consists of—the nature, or
being, of something. But according to Sartre, man has no such innate ‘nature.’
Man must therefore create himself. He must create his own nature or
‘essence,’ because it is not fixed in advance.”
“I think I see what you mean.”
“Throughout the entire history of philosophy, philosophers have sought
to discover what man is—or what human nature is. But Sartre believed that
man has no such eternal ‘nature’ to fall back on. It is therefore useless to
search for the meaning of life in general. We are condemned to improvise. We
are like actors dragged onto the stage without having learned our lines, with
no script and no prompter to whisper stage directions to us. We must decide
for ourselves how to live.”
“That’s true, actually. If one could just look in the Bible—or in a
philosophy book—to find out how to live, it would be very practical.”
“You’ve got the point. When people realize they are alive and will one
day die—and there is no meaning to cling to—they experience angst, said
Sartre. You may recall that angst, a sense of dread, was also characteristic of
Kierkegaard’s description of a person in an existential situation.”
“Yes.”
“Sartre says that man feels a//en in a world without meaning. When he
describes man’s ‘alienation,’ he is echoing the central ideas of Hegel and
Marx. Man’s feeling of alienation in the world creates a sense of despair,
boredom, nausea, and absurdity.”
“It is quite normal to feel depressed, or to feel that everything is just too
boring.”
“Yes, indeed. Sartre was describing the twentieth-century city dweller.
You remember that the Renaissance humanists had drawn attention, almost
triumphantly, to man’s freedom and independence? Sartre experienced man’s
freedom as a curse. ‘Man is condemned to be free,’ he said. ‘Condemned
because he has not created himself—and is nevertheless free. Because
having once been hurled into the world, he is responsible for everything he
does.’ “
“But we haven’t asked to be created as free individuals.”
“That was precisely Sartre’s point. Nevertheless we are free individuals,
and this freedom condemns us to make choices throughout our lives. There
are no eternal values or norms we can adhere to, which makes our choices
even more significant. Because we are totally responsible for everything we
do. Sartre emphasized that man must never disclaim the responsibility for his
actions. Nor can we avoid the responsibility of making our own choices on the
grounds that we ‘must’ go to work, or we ‘must’ live up to certain middle-class
expectations regarding how we should live. Those who thus slip into the
anonymous masses will never be other than members of the impersonal flock,
having fled from themselves into self-deception. On the other hand our
freedom obliges us to make something of ourselves, to live ‘authentically’ or
‘truly.’ “