Who Is Jean Paul Sartre Defending Existentialism

In Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism, he is essentially defending existentialism from the false charges coming from communists and Christians. He says there are 2 types of existentialists: the Christian and the Atheistic. He focuses on the atheistic existentialists. Atheistic existentialism sees that if God does not exist, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence: man. This means that man can exists before he can be defined by any concept. Sartre states, "It means that, first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only after words, defines himself." Man will become something, but he himself will have made what he will be. Essentially, there is no human nature because there is no God-- instead, man is what he conceives himself to be and is only what he wills himself to be. Sartre states, "Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself." Sartre goes on to state that the first principle of existentialism is subjectivity. This means that man exists first--steering himself toward a future

Sartre writes, "it is very distressing that God does not exists, because all possibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disappears along with Him; there is no longer a priori Good, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it." However, this does not have to be a bad thing. Dostoievsky stated, "If God didn't exist, everything would be possible." This is essentially the main idea behind existentialism. Since there is no God, there is no human nature, and man cannot make excuses for himself. Since there is no God, we do not have values or commands to turn to which legitimize our conduct. Instead, we must create our own values and live accordingly. He states, "man, with no support and no aid, is condemned every moment to invent man." Man is condemned to be free, and is responsible for everything he does. Thus, man will live to create the best man