Manufactured objects have their essence fixed before their existence

Evidence

If one considers an article of manufacture as, for example, a book or a paper-knife – one sees that it has been made by an artisan who had a conception of it; and he has paid attention, equally, to the conception of a paper-knife and to the pre-existent technique of production which is a part of that conception and is, at bottom, a formula. Thus the paper-knife is at the same time an article producible in a certain manner and one which, on the other hand, serves a definite purpose, for one cannot suppose that a man would produce a paper-knife without knowing what it was for. Let us say, then, of the paperknife that its essence – that is to say the sum of the formulae and the qualities which made its production and its definition possible – precedes its existence. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 8

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sartre’s canonical paper-knife example clearly defines essence-before-existence as applied to artifacts, the foil for human existence.
• CANDY: The paper-knife is a delightfully dated object and a clean, quotable example of the essence/existence distinction.
• XREF: connects to: Manufactured objects channel the user’s possible movements toward ends built into their design.; The other must be given before objects can appear as manufactured. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1039