Existentialists share the belief that existence precedes essence

Evidence

The question is only complicated because there are two kinds of existentialists. There are, on the one hand, the Christians, amongst whom I shall name Jaspers and Gabriel Marcel, both professed Catholics; and on the other the existential atheists, amongst whom we must place Heidegger as well as the French existentialists and myself. What they have in common is simply the fact that they believe that existence comes before essence – or, if you will, that we must begin from the subjective. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 7

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the core existentialist slogan and shows the Christian/atheist split within the movement.
• XREF: Connects to Beauvoir’s pairing for this reading purpose; Christian existentialism (Jaspers, Marcel) is a useful contrast to her atheist framing. — connects to: For consciousness, existence precedes and grounds any essence — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 137; Existence precedes essence and carries a subjective quality in human reality.; Essence is one’s accumulated past, made by living rather than predetermined. (+5 more)

Related

• Existence precedes essence and carries a subjective quality in human reality. (similarity 0.90)
• For consciousness, existence precedes and grounds any essence (similarity 0.86)
• The idea that essence precedes existence survives even in atheist and Enlightenment thought. (similarity 0.85)
• Essence is one’s accumulated past, made by living rather than predetermined. (similarity 0.82)
• Existentialist ethics demand acting as if the fate of humanity rests on each choice (similarity 0.80)
• Kierkegaard inverted Descartes so that existence precedes thought (similarity 0.80)
• Existential humanism rests on transcendence and subjectivity, not a cult of man. (similarity 0.78)
• Human beings create their own essence through action rather than inheriting a fixed nature (similarity 0.78)
• Kierkegaard coined existential thought as concerning the problems of human existence (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The idea that essence precedes existence survives even in atheist and Enlightenment thought. #contradicts (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 9