Jean-Paul Sartre · Philosophy
Sartre’s founding formula: a human being has no fixed nature given in advance. Unlike a manufactured object, we first exist - thrown into the world without a blueprint - and only afterward define what we are, through our choices. We are, Sartre says, ‘condemned to be free.’
You learned that for Sartre, existence precedes essence : there is no human nature fixed in advance, because there is no God or designer to fix it. We first exist, then define ourselves by what we do. Explain the paper-knife contrast and why it leads to radical responsibility.
Leads to Aristotle.
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