Existence precedes essence

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"Existence precedes essence", is a philosophic concept based on the idea of existence without essence. For humanity, it means that humanity may exist, but humanity's existence does not mean anything at least at the beginning. This concept can be applied at the individual level as well. The value and meaning of this existence—or essence—is created only later. It directly and strongly rejects many traditional beliefs including religious beliefs that humankind is given a knowable purpose by its creator or other deity. The idea of "existence precedes essence" is a key foundational concept of existentialism.

The idea can be found in the works of Averroes in the 12th century^[1] and Mulla Sadra in the 17th century,^[2] and was later more explicitly formulated by Jean-Paul Sartre in the 20th century. Simone de Beauvoir also uses this concept in her feminist existentialism to develop the idea that "one is not born a woman, but becomes one".

Whereas previous methods of philosophical thought held that "essence precedes existence", a concept which dates back to Avicenna^[1] and Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi,^[3] Sartre flips this around arguing that for humans, existence precedes essence. In the former mode of thought, there is some creator who conceives of an idea or purpose of an object, say a knife for example, and then creates it with the essence of the object already present. The essence of what the knife will be exists before the actual knife itself. Sartre, who did not believe in God as the creator of humanity, believed that if there is no God to have conceived of our essence or nature, then we must come into existence first, and then create our own essence out of interaction with our surroundings and ourselves. With this come serious implications of self-responsibility over who we become and who we are. There is no longer, for Sartre, some universal "human nature".

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^ ^a ^b Irwin, Jones (Autumn 2002), “Averroes' Reason: A Medieval Tale of Christianity and Islam”, The Philosopher LXXXX (2)
^ (Razavi 1997, p. 130)
^ (Razavi 1997, p. 129)