Kierkegaard inverted Descartes so that existence precedes thought

Evidence

For Kierkegaard, Descartes had things back to front. In his own view, human existence comes first: it is the starting point for everything we do, not the result of a logical deduction. My existence is active: I live it and choose it, and this precedes any statement I can make about myself. Moreover, my existence is mine: it is personal. Descartes’ ‘I’ is generic: it could apply to anyone, but Kierkegaard’s ‘I’ is the ‘I’ of an argumentative, anguished misfit. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 59

Categorization

• DEFINE: Grounds the core existentialist claim ‘existence precedes essence’ by contrasting Kierkegaard’s personal, active ‘I’ with Descartes’ generic thinking ‘I’.
• XREF: Directly foregrounds the ‘existence precedes essence’ theme that Sartre later systematizes—a useful anchor for orienting within existentialist doctrine. — connects to: Kierkegaard coined existential thought as concerning the problems of human existence — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 57; Nietzsche and Kierkegaard defined existence as choice, action and self-assertion; Descartes’ indubitable ‘I’ redirected philosophy inward toward certainty of the self. (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Descartes’ indubitable ‘I’ redirected philosophy inward toward certainty of the self. #responds-to (0.90)
• Nietzsche and Kierkegaard defined existence as choice, action and self-assertion #expands (0.85)
• Existentialists share the belief that existence precedes essence #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 7
• For consciousness, existence precedes and grounds any essence #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 137
• Pre-Cartesian Mediterranean thought conceived personhood as possessing reason, not a representing mind #corroborates (0.75) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 548
• Occultism’s spiritualism severs body and soul more cleanly than Descartes did #qualifies (0.70) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 264