Existentialism Is a Humanism

In 1945, Jean-Paul Sartre gave a public lecture in Paris defending existentialism against its critics. The result was the clearest, most accessible summary of existentialist philosophy ever written, just over a hundred pages that lay out the core ideas without the technical density of his major works.

Why Start Here

Sartre’s “Being and Nothingness” is over 800 pages of dense phenomenological analysis. “Existentialism Is a Humanism” distills the essential ideas into a text you can read in a single sitting. It was written for a general audience, people who had heard about existentialism and wanted to understand what the fuss was about. That makes it perfect for the same purpose today.

The central argument is built around Sartre’s famous line: “existence precedes essence.” Unlike a paper knife, which is designed with a purpose before it exists, human beings exist first and define themselves through their choices afterward. There is no fixed human nature, no divine plan, no predetermined purpose. You are what you do. That freedom is absolute, and so is the responsibility that comes with it.

Sartre addresses the most common objections to existentialism head-on: that it leads to despair, that it denies morality, that it is purely negative. His responses are clear and often surprising. The lecture format gives the text an energy that his academic philosophy sometimes lacks.

What to Expect

A short, direct philosophical argument written in plain language. Sartre uses concrete examples, a student torn between joining the Resistance and caring for his mother, a waiter performing his role, to illustrate abstract ideas. The Yale University Press edition (translated by Carol Macomber) includes the original lecture plus a transcript of the question-and-answer session that followed, which is fascinating in its own right.