The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

by Robert Pantano

In Sartre’s lecture, Existentialism is a Humanism, he famously summarized the primary principle of existentialism with the line: “Existence precedes essence.” Essence, here, means the qualities of a thing that create its purpose. For example, Sartre referenced how a paper knife is designed with a specific purpose in mind before it is made, and only once it is given a predetermined purpose and designed accordingly, is it manufactured into being; in which case, its essence precedes its existence. With the exception of itself, humanity does this with nearly everything it makes. As rational beings, we create things for reasons. Even if the reason is to make the point that we can create things for no reason, we have merely found ourselves in the paradox of creating for the reason of having none. We exist with the innate desire for reasons—reasons for what we do, who we are, why we are, and so on. And here lies the beginning of our existential problem.