Existentialism is Humanism. Existentialism is a Humanism, to be human is defined by an existence (physical existence) that precedes its essence (true nature). As such, if existence is problematic, and it is towards the development of a full existentialist theory of what it is to be human that Sartre's work logically evolves.
“Existentialism Is a Humanism” Jean-Paul Sartre My purpose here is to offer a defense of existentialism against several reproaches that have been laid against it. First, it has been reproached as an invitation to people to dwell in quietism of despair.
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Thus, in the 1950’s, for example, Erich Fromm used the phrase “existential humanism” to characterize his particular orientation (Fromm, 1955; Burston 1991), while Hazel Barnes referred to the “humanistic existentialism” of Jean-Paul Sartre, among others (Barnes, 1959). Existentialism is a Humanism. Christians especially reproach us for denying the reality and seriousness of human society, since, if we ignore God's eternal values, no-one is able to condemn anyone else. Existentialism is being seen as ugliness; our appeal to nature as scandalous, our writings sickening.

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Analysis

Sartre opens his lecture by declaring his goal: “to defend existentialism against some charges that have been brought against it.” He names four charges: two from Communists and two from Christians. The Communist accusations are that, first, existentialism is an action-averse, merely contemplative philosophy, and secondly, that it remains caught in the “pure subjectivity” of Descartes—in other words, that existentialism’s focus on the meaning of the individual self leads it to ignore the interconnections among people and their projects. The Chrstians’ accusations are, first, the suggestion that existentialism focuses disproportionately on the negative aspects of life and, secondly, that its individualism would destroy any means by which people could condemn others’ actions.

From the start, Sartre confronts his public image head-on, focusing on the misunderstandings that lead his critics to dismiss existentialism outright. His framing of the objections also foreshadows some of the central arguments he later makes for existentialism: that it is the only intellectually honest framework for human action because it forces people to take responsibility for their moral actions and judgments, that it is therefore an optimistic rather than pessimistic philosophy, and that it recognizes the intersubjectivity of the human world—the fact that each person’s understanding of their existence depends on the existence and contributions of other people. .

Sartre briefly elaborates on the lecture’s title by acknowledging that his audience might be surprised that Sartre sees existentialism as a kind of humanism. This is largely because the public mistakenly views existentialism as pessimistic. He suggests that, in fact, existentialism’s critics are the true pessimists: the public fears Sartre’s aversion to traditional concepts of morality only because they are so afraid of the evil they see that they resign themselves to the repressive status quo and refuse the “possibility of individual choice” that existentialism offers.

Sartre believes that his critics willfully misunderstand his theory in order to avoid confronting the existentialist conclusion that they are morally responsible for their actions and beliefs. He later defines this kind of avoidance as bad faith: blaming external factors for one’s moral errors in order to pretend that one did not freely choose to make them.

Sartre then tries to more explicitly define “existentialism.” He suggests that the public uses the term as a fashionable insult rather than actually understanding what it means and he reminds the audience that existentialism is “strictly intended for specialists and philosophers.” Sartre distinguishes Christian existentialists from atheist existentialists like himself, but he declares that their commonality is the concept that “existence precedes essence.” What he means is that human existence is the opposite of the existence of a manufactured product, such as a paper knife, whose essence precedes its existence because its manufacturer creates it to fulfill a particular purpose.

Sartre is suggesting that the source of his notoriety might be the inadequate explanation of his specialist theories to the public, rather than the content of that philosophy itself. “Existence precedes essence” is the foundational proposition of Sartre’s philosophy, but it was also important for earlier existentialists like Kierkegaard and Heidegger, although they did not express it in the same words. He introduces the paper knife to draw a distinction between things that have a definite purpose – and therefore are not free – and humans, who are free because they define their own purposes in living.

Sartre likens the knife’s manufacturer to the traditional idea of God as creator: under this view, humans are the material forms of God’s ideas. Sartre suggests that early atheist philosophers, despite dispensing with the idea of God, nevertheless maintained the traditional view that essence precedes existence by trying to explain people through a primordial “human nature” that defines people’s essence in advance. These atheists’ views contrast with Sartre’s atheistic existentialism, which maintains that for humans existence precedes essence. In other words, one finds oneself in the world before one becomes anything—people have the power to define themselves through acts of their own will, rather than their essence being determined by some nebulous “human nature.” He calls this power to define the self ‘subjectivity.’

Sartre’s concept of subjectivity builds directly from his notion that existence precedes essence and it allows him to carefully differentiate his views from other forms of atheism. He introduces the traditional Christian idea of God to contrast existentialism, which sees humans as lacking an inherent purpose and therefore free to determine their own purpose. In his view, the Christian notion that humans are designed for a particular destiny is restrictive. For Sartre, Christianity and atheistic notions of fixed “human nature” deprive people of their characteristic freedom.

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Sartre turns to the concept of subjectivity and argues that a human subject is a “project”—both in the sense of a continuous undertaking, and in the sense that a person projects into their own future, imagining what they will become and forming an idea of themselves. This makes everyone responsible for their own person, but also “responsible for all men” because people express values through their actions. When someone chooses to do something, they are affirming that they believe what they choose to be good—otherwise, they would not have chosen it. But, since the human “good” should be the same for everyone, whenever anyone chooses something “good” for themselves, they reflect a view of what is “good” for humanity as a whole. Sartre argues that existentialism’s “fundamental meaning” lies in the fact that people cannot overcome this condition of subjectivity. Sartre says that he will next clarify three concepts: anguish, abandonment, and despair.

The basic outline of Sartre’s argument is now complete: existence precedes essence, so human life should be viewed as a project of creating purpose. Furthermore, every person is just a sum of their actions, and therefore those actions determine that person’s moral character. Each human project is a response to the shared human condition and so every action expresses a set of values common to all people. Although he does not say so

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