WHAT IS MAN?

An existentialist is someone who focuses his or her mind merely in the pursue of his or her sole purpose in the world. Many renowned philosophers define the term existence. Most prominence of these philosophers is Jean Paul Satre. Satre proposed his superb terminology of existence precedes essence. His opinion, human comes to the world without any pre-conception of his purpose in the world. His essence is solely built by his existence. Human define his/her own reality.



Existentialistic view of human reality come in opposition of the traditional believe which has come way back since the Greek era where human existence comes after his or her essence already there. In this believe, human already has a purpose even before he or she exists.

Hard core existentialists such as Satre, Hegel, etc denied the existence of God where as other existentialists such as Paul Tillich, Gabriel Marcel, and Martin Bauber who their existentialism based on Christian theology except the existence of God. However, both atheistic and theological existentialists share the same themes and tenets in their existentialism. The choice of believe or not believe of God is a personal choice.

Apart from atheistic and theological existentialism, the third group is the agnostic where in this side; they do not claim to know or not knowing the ‘great picture’. The existence of God for agnostic is something beyond human comprehension. And because of this reason the pursue of explanation of relation between human and God has little interest for them.

In his Essay In Existentialism, Satre said that if man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward he is something, and he himself will have made what he will be. In this sense, it is not God or any other thing will responsible for human action but it is man himself responsible for what he does and become. Later Satre argued that human consciousness is the one which responsible for human action from the choice he made regardless any consequences will follow. Human is condemned of his free choice and he himself will receive the consequence of his choices. Following Satre’s guideline, man could only be what he be when his consciousness leads him to a state where man decision becoming reality.
Consciousness in Satre’s term is a being for-itself where as being for-itself, consciousness may change into what it is not. However, further, Satre divide consciousness into two as positional and non-positional. Positional consciousness will create man awareness of his surrounding because it will put consciousness in relation of its surrounding. In the other hand, non-positional consciousness is only being conscious of man surrounding.

Satre stressed his existentialism in the subjectivity of man since man is the one who form and build his purpose. But he did not deny the objectivity of man where man tend to think of something based on other thought rather than purely rely on his own thought. And this reality creates clash of freedom where one’s being become object of another subjectivity. In this case, although a man is responsible of his own choice, the choice he made is under influence of other’s gaze. And man’s existences become ‘in-itself’ or object rather than the subject of authority.