Existentialist ethics demand acting as if the fate of humanity rests on each choice
Evidence
Sartrean existentialism was precisely a philosophy of mattering: he called on his readers to take decisions as though the whole future of humanity depended upon what they did. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 919
Categorization
- DEFINE: Captures the core normative heart of Sartrean existentialism in one line — the ‘mattering’ and universalizing responsibility.
- XREF: connects to: Absurdity means the choice grounds all reasons and reasons-for-being; Existentialism is by nature applied to real individual lives — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 687; Existentialist philosophy values active engaged form over abstract speculation — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 38 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Existentialists share the belief that existence precedes essence
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 7 - Existentialist philosophy values active engaged form over abstract speculation
#expands(0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 38 - Existentialism sought lived experience rather than explaining it away through abstract systems
#expands(0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1025 - Intentionality grounds existentialist freedom by dissolving any fixed inner nature
#expands(0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 157