Existentialism & Sense of Community & Ethics

Atheistic existentialism . . . states that if God does not exist, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence, a being who exists before he can be defined by any concept, and that being is man. . . .

Existence precedes essence . . . means that . . . man . . . appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. (Sartre 1965, 36).

Ideally, however, the individual acts as if he is the representative of all mankind, so that he behaves with care and ethics. This would suggest relationship and community are indeed possible. In reality, however, the tremendous weight existentialism puts on the individual isolates him rather than bringing him nearer relationship and community. He experiences "anguish, forlornness, despair" (Sartre 1965, 38). Sartre and other atheistic existentialists simply put too much responsibility on the individual in a meaningless universe without God. Most actual human beings cannot live effectively as individuals in such an existential universe, much less engage in ethical relationship or community.

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s only the rare individual who is able to do so. Most real human beings in the real world are simply too overwhelmed by circumstances to be able to do this. To the existentialists, in theory at least, the individual human being is capable of connecting in a very significant way with other human beings and with the greater human community. As Sartre writes, The essential consequence [of existentialism] is that man being condemned to be free carries the weight of the whole world on his shoulders; he is responsible for the world and for himself as a way of being. . . . He is the one by whom it happens that there is a world; since he is also the one who makes himself be. . . . He must assume the situation with the proud consciousness of being the author of it (Sartre 1965, 63). Again, this sounds fine in the ideal. The human being must act ethically with a high concern for the impact of his actions, just as if his actions were to be repeated by every other human being. However, the real human being in the real world experiences far too much anguish and anxiety in an existentialist context to be able to think of anybody but himself and his own painful situation. Whatever the ideals of existentialism in terms of ethics, relationship an
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Approximate Word count = 2365
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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