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Reading Notes
Foundation of Existentialism: existence precedes essence — man is born without meaning or destiny. His essence is created by his own will and actions.
Anguish — in Existentialism, anguish is the knowledge that each man must create meaning for his own life, and also be a responsible representative for humanity. The anguish comes from the awareness of this awesome responsibility. This definition of anguish is actually optimistic and not in keeping with traditional views of despair.
Highlights
What do we mean here by “existence precedes essence”? We mean that man first exists: he materializes in the world, encounters himself, and only afterward defines himself. (location 341)
Man is not only that which he conceives himself to be, but that which he wills himself to be, and since he conceives of himself only after he exists, just as he wills himself to be after being thrown into existence, man is nothing other than what he makes of himself. This is the first principle of existentialism. (location 344)
Existentialists like to say that man is in anguish. This is what they mean: a man who commits himself, and who realizes that he is not only the individual that he chooses to be, but also a legislator choosing at the same time what humanity as a whole should be, cannot help but be aware of his own full and profound responsibility. (location 372)
“Man is nothing other than his own project. He exists only to the extent that he realizes himself, therefore he is nothing more than the sum of his actions, nothing more than his life.” (location 508)
There can be no other truth than this: I think therefore I am. This is the absolute truth of consciousness confronting itself. (location 549)
Life itself is nothing until it is lived, it is we who give it meaning, and value is nothing more than the meaning that we give it. (location 673)