For consciousness, existence precedes and grounds any essence
Evidence
This means also that the type of being of consciousness is the opposite of that which the ontological proof reveals to us. Since consciousness is not possible before being, but since its being is the source and condition of all possibility, its existence implies its essence. Husserl expresses this aptly in speaking of the “necessity of fact.” In order for there to be an essence of pleasure, there must be first the fact of a consciousness (of) this pleasure. It is futile to try to invoke pretended laws of consciousness of which the articulated whole would constitute the essence. A law is a transcendent object of knowledge; there can be consciousness of a law, not a law of consciousness. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 137
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘existence precedes essence’ thesis here is the systematic backdrop Beauvoir explicitly builds her ethics on — precisely the connection the reader is hunting for. — connects to: Existentialists share the belief that existence precedes essence — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 7; Consciousness grounds itself and precedes all nothingness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 138; Existence precedes essence and carries a subjective quality in human reality. (+6 more)
- DEFINE: Defines the necessity of fact and why laws cannot constitute consciousness’s essence.
Broader Connections
- Existence precedes essence and carries a subjective quality in human reality.
#expands(0.85) - Consciousness grounds itself and precedes all nothingness
#corroborates(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 138 - Existentialists share the belief that existence precedes essence
#expands(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 7 - Consciousness is a temporary fold in being, not separate from it
#complicates(0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 739 - The idea that essence precedes existence survives even in atheist and Enlightenment thought.
#contradicts(0.70) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 9