Jean Paul Sartre Research Paper

476 Words2 Pages
Essay 4 Jean-Paul Sartre was an influential philosopher of the 19th century because of his thought on existentialism. Sartre believed that there was no God or mother nature. “God makes man according to a procedure and a conception, exactly as the artisan manufactures a paper-knife, following a definition and a formula.”(Solomon, p.622) He believed that “we first exist and then we define ourselves”(Johnston 5/12) Existentialism is the belief that “existence precedes their essence.”(Johnston 5/12) That means that humans production is different than objects, because objects are created with a fixed purpose while humans write their own destiny in the palm of their own hands. According to Sartre humans are “condemned to be free.”(Johnston 5/12)