Retrieve it. If by any chance you spot an inappropriate image within your search results please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. Term » Definition. Word in Definition. Wikipedia 0. How to pronounce existence precedes essence? Alex US English. David US English. Mark US English. Daniel British. Libby British. Mia British. Karen Australian.
Humans are nothing more or less than what they make themselves to be. People who criticize existentialism may claim that we cannot choose who we are because there are certain aspects of life that every human is born with and cannot control. For example, we cannot control the fact that humans are going to eat, sleep, breathe and die.
We also have no control over our culture, class, age or family history. Sartre classifies these limitations as the human condition. Although this human condition exists for everybody, we cannot say that it prevents us from making choices. We are forced to make decisions every day that we are alive. Sartre believes that these limitations do not fully determine who we are. Humans get to choose how to react to these limitations. However, by not choosing to react to these limitations, the person is still making a choice.
The human condition exists for everyone who is alive. Humans are incapable of changing things such as their: heritage, family history, age or height. Despite the fact that we cannot change all limitations, we can certainly react to them.
For example, I was born a female. I had no control over being born as a female. I can either accept and live my life as a female or get a sex change. Either way, I am making a choice on how to react to my limitations. The human condition may be a set of limitations that humans have no control over. Even so, humans are constantly making a choice to react to these limitations or choosing to not react. Humans are forced to always make choices.
By making choices, each individual becomes responsible for everyone else. By choosing ourselves, we are creating an image of what human beings should be. Thus, each person becomes responsible for all other human beings.
As a result, every human being has influence over everybody else. In addition, every single person is a leader. For example, if I skip class because I do not feel like going to class, I am creating an image. Camus's metaphysical rebellion is a successful argument for the creation of a code of conduct for ethical behavior, and one that remains relevant in the world today.
Existentialism is a curious philosophy for many reasons; it is considered by some to not even be philosophy, but rather a social movement. Despite this, it is probably the philosophy that has had the greatest impact and influence outside of philosophical circles. While existentialism as philosophy can be debated, most scholars agree that existentialism is certainly not a systematic type of analytic philosophy in the usual sense Academy of Ideas, n.
Despite the fact that there is great disagreement about the nature of existentialism some of the most famous philosophical names outside of philosophy are usually placed underneath the umbrella of existentialism: Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Camus. There are other names associated with this movement, of course, but students in disciplines outside philosophy are likely to learn some of the works from these philosophers.
This paper aims to explore the concepts of Camus and his particular work, The Rebel. Camus explores the concept of the absurd life of humanity in existentialist fashion before the smoke had cleared after World War II and during the Algerian War, both of which affected him personally. Camus's rebellion implies a human essence that puts him at odds with most existentialists, but this human essence is not necessary to establish the ethic of rebellion that Camus seeks to create, and which remains relevant in the world today.
But it does not matter. Camus presents a strong argument for using rebellion as a source for a moral code of conduct. It is important to understand Camus's background along with the social and political environment of his time. Like any author or philosopher these social factors played a role in Camus's work and in his philosophy, particularly the views expressed in The Rebel.
Rebellion, which is the focus of The Rebel , was occurring right before Camus's eyes in the Algerian War. Camus was born in in Algiers to an illiterate mother and a father who would be killed in World War I, but he also spent a great deal of time living in Paris.
Camus grew up in poverty but was able to attend university and receive a quality education. The resistance that the French and many other countries performed against the Nazis during World War II was seen as inspirational to Algerians who were fed up with the colonial life and thus Camus's home country of Algeria became embroiled in the Algerian War that killed approximately one million Algerians Evans n. Camus died tragically in an automobile accident in , but during his rather short life he was surrounded by what he saw as totalitarian type regimes taking advantage of less powerful groups of people.
Experiencing both World War II and the Algerian War firsthand, and being a part of the resistance in those situations likely inspired Camus to think about the human situation and about how people remedy those situations; through rebellion.
This is hardly surprising; during Camus's life France had been involved in the kind of conflict that is occurring today in the Middle East and portions of Northern Africa Royal These experiences made Camus an incredibly influential writer, winning the Nobel Prize for literature in , so his influence cannot be doubted even if some choose to find no true philosophy in his works. Camus saw murder and exploitation of people as inevitable under the rule of some kind of regime.
This promise of some future promised land at the expense of the present was what Camus came to detest, and for that reason he saw religion and ethical systems as removing the meaning from the present in hopes of a better future state Duran Camus thought that we must come to grips with our true situation and using religious views to mask the truth was undermining the real value of life.
The debate about whether or not Camus was an existentialist is as ambiguous as the debate over what existentialism even means or the debate about the analytic and continental split in philosophy. Despite this fact it is nonetheless important to determine whether or not the views expressed by Camus are in fact within the parameters of existentialism.
Since there is disagreement about the value of Camus's work as philosophy then whether or not Camus fits into the definition of existentialism, an influential and well-known philosophy is important.
But is it even possible to narrow down the nature of existentialism? Existentialism is not a philosophical system by which one can understand the world in the analytical sense or come to a morally correct solution by inputting the dimensions of an ethical dilemma in the same way one may be able to with Kant. Existentialism is more of a way of thinking or a philosophy that sees the world with a few distinct themes. These themes are: personal responsibility, an emphasis on individual experience, the importance of passion, and the concept of personal freedom Solomon n.
Existentialism has the reputation of being an atheistic philosophy but this is not the case as one of the original and most influential existential thinkers, Soren Kierkegaard, is proof. Kierkegaard happened to be a very devoutly Christian man. This theme is of particular importance because of the ramifications this idea has on the ideas presented by Camus in The Rebel.
It is illuminating to note that Sartre, likely the most famous existentialist, and Camus were close friends until Camus published The Rebel at which time the friendship deteriorated Royal For a paper-cutter, essence precedes existence because the idea and purpose of a paper-cutter must exist prior to a craftsman creating the paper-cutter; no person would create a paper-cutter without having any idea what it was used for Sartre This same concept can be extended to any object created by humanity for use: automobiles, firearms, computers, and swimming pools are all created to fulfill an idea or serve a specific purpose.
For Sartre, humanity is the opposite of these created objects; humanity is born and comes into existence but one decides what kind of person they are going to be after their birth. People are not born to serve specific purposes or for specific roles. For existence to precede essence it is obvious where the other themes of existentialism come into play; people are free to choose what to make of their lives and their individual passions are what drive them.
It is easy to see how this idea can be at odds with many of those in religious communities. Sartre specifically claims that this idea is what holds all of the existentialists together despite any other differences Understanding what kinds of themes run through existentialism will help explain why there was a split between Camus and Sartre after the publishing of The Rebel.
Keeping the scope and perspective of all writers and philosophers in mind is important to understanding their philosophy or works, and it is important to remember that just because one encounters a value, story, or philosophy that does not neatly fit into an already established category does not mean that it does not qualify as true, persuasive, or does not make the grade as philosophy.
Examining the themes and ideas in Camus's works is the next step in the investigation of Camus's philosophy and his inclusion in the group known as existentialists. The importance of this fact is that much of Camus's philosophy is laid out in these two earlier works and The Rebel is a kind of evolution in the works or it at least begins assuming what Camus sought to establish in the two earlier works.
For these reasons it is important to understand two concepts from earlier in Camus's career; absurdity and the contemplation of suicide. It does not just mean that something is illogical or unreasonable; it is a very specific notion that has to do with the way humans interact with and understand the world. Human life is absurd because individuals are always seeking some kind of answers, reasons, or justifications for the wrongs and rights that occur in the world, but the universe is completely indifferent to our plight Solomon n.
Another way to look at this issue is to see how people always hope or expect that their lives will amount to something worthwhile, but in the long run it is meaningless Solomon n. This point can be further illustrated by considering the professions that people seem to value most in society. Doctors, nurses, firefighters, military, and police officers are all striving to make the world a better place so they have a special place in society, but Camus wants to point out that it is ultimately meaningless.
Doctors will never eliminate disease, doctors save people that will ultimately die in the end, firefighters extinguish fires but one day the earth may be engulfed by the sun, and police officers will never win the war on drugs.
It might be an innately human instinct to ask about the meaning of life or to try and assign value to a certain way of living. Religion and God are perfect examples of this kind of quest to answer these questions or create these values.
Camus, of course, was an atheist but it does not matter whether one believes in God or not, for this concept of the absurd. It is that humanity is in this situation in the first place that makes it absurd; atheists find themselves in a world apparently without value, and the various religions fight over which values are correct or the devout may sometimes struggle with their faith.
This is the absurd life that is the starting block of Camus's philosophy. It seems reasonable, some may say, especially for an atheist, to wonder what should stop them from committing suicide. Camus recognized that in a world without externally assigned value many people may think suicide is an appropriate response to this absurdity. Camus took the prospect of suicide as a very important ethical consideration, so much so in fact that in The Myth of Sisyphus Camus can be interpreted as saying the most important philosophical question is whether or not suicide is permissible Aronson n.
Camus illustrates the answer to this question through Sisyphus and his place in the world. Sisyphus is condemned to roll a boulder up a hill every day for all of eternity just to have the boulder roll back down. Camus wants to claim that Sisyphus is a hero because Sisyphus accepts his lot in life and he continues to roll his rock up the hill every day. Sisyphus does not long for something outside his predicament and he does not try to rationalize the situation, he just accepts his situation and, as Professor Bob Solomon says, Sisyphus comes to love his rock n.
This is not to say that Camus did not think that humanity could learn factual things about the world through scientific endeavor, but that scientific endeavor could not answer the questions to which we most wanted the answers.
Sisyphus is the hero because he does not kill himself, he does not seek outside justification for his situation, and he does not hide behind a false hope like religion. Camus views suicide as the same kind of escape as these things that Sisyphus avoids; suicide negates the here and now, it says that there is nothing to live for when what Camus wants to say is that life is the meaning of life.
The age of negation is Camus's term for what has been previously discussed; the realization of the absurdity of life because there is no meaning or purpose. This age of negation brought about the question of suicide and whether or not one should take his or her own life.
Ideologies are a way of coping with the absurd position of humanity because it allows some way for people to define themselves and to decide what is good and what is bad. Camus points out that it seems that if the human condition is absurd in the way that he describes it then it at first appears that there can be no value to anything, and to take Camus's example, a murderer is not acting correctly or incorrectly 5.
With no supreme being like a god to make universal rules and without some other universal code of conduct established outside humanity itself some may say that there can be no right or wrong. Like Ivan Karamazov states in The Brothers Karamazov, if there is no god then everything is permitted, but the lesson of The Rebel and of Camus's rebellion is that this is not actually the case.
Rebellion is evidence that there is some kind of value in life despite the absurd human condition. Existence precedes essence- What Sartre means when he says Existence precedes essence that we as people exist first then we do things in our life that will determine who we are. Forlorn- He baisically means that there basically no meaning to life as there is no end goal.
The basic principle of existentialism is that existence precedes essence for human beings. Essence precedes existence for objects. Objects always have a definite purpose and this purpose is known prior to the creation of the object.
On the other hand, humans are not born with a definite purpose. Entry 1 of 2 1 : ridiculously unreasonable, unsound, or incongruous an absurd argument : extremely silly or ridiculous absurd humor. Definitively is a stronger word — anything definitive is official or conclusive.
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