Human beings create their own essence through action rather than inheriting a fixed nature

Evidence

Sartre put this principle into a three-word slogan, which for him defined existentialism: ‘Existence precedes essence’. What this formula gains in brevity it loses in comprehensibility. But roughly it means that, having found myself thrown into the world, I go on to create my own definition (or nature, or essence), in a way that never happens with other objects or life forms. You might think you have defined me by some label, but you are wrong, for I am always a work in progress. I create myself constantly through action, and this is so fundamental to my human condition that, for Sartre, it is the human condition, from the moment of first consciousness to the moment when death wipes it out. I am my own freedom: no more, no less. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 27

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the core existentialist slogan ‘existence precedes essence’ in accessible terms.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s ongoing existentialism reading; this is the single most-cited capsule definition of the movement. — connects to: Character is not a fixed trait but a freely chosen project the self maintains. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1284; All human projects aim at becoming God through self-causation — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1445; Existence precedes essence and carries a subjective quality in human reality. (+19 more)

Broader Connections

• Human beings are processes of their own actions, not fixed essences #corroborates (0.95) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1256
• Human existence means transcendence and constant action, not passive repose #corroborates (0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 516
• Freedom requires choosing one’s own essence, not merely one’s acts #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1126
• Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence #qualifies (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517
• Individual identity forms dialogically through a constitutive outside, not autonomously. #qualifies (0.80) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 363
• Persons are understood as free unifications of responsibility rather than as substances #corroborates (0.80)
• Freedom precedes essence and is indistinguishable from being human #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 226
• Human reality creates place yet receives its own place without choice #qualifies (0.75)