Existence Preceding Essence: An Atomic Shift of Modern Philosophy from Descartes’ Essentialist Rationalism to Sartre’s Existentialism

Abstract

This paper discusses the philosophical revolution of Rene Descartes rationalism into Jean-Paul Sartre existentialism, which is a major philosophical revolution in contemporary philosophy. Descartes gave the basis of the modern rationalism and stressed human thinking as the main source of insights and said in his most famous proposition “Cogito ergo sum”. Although this viewpoint was a challenge to empiricism, it was also very stimulating to the Renaissance movement and to the intellectual discourses since it helped form a chain of human beings under societal demands that establish human value in terms of predetermined identities and successes. Conversely, existentialism of Sartre denies those essentialist modes of perception and claims that existence comes before essence based on the argument that human beings are essentially free to make their own lives uninhibited by socialized roles and identity. To expose the relevance of this debate of Descartes vs Sartre to the 21st century young generations, the study includes a survey of 92 Bangladeshi university students regarding psychological pressure created by socially imposed “essences” such as academic success, physical appearance, profession, and property. The findings show that the majority experience heavy pressure from these societal expectations to prove themselves fit and successful. It is mixed research incorporating both qualitative and quantitative typology based on content analysis method and survey method. A questionnaire is used as a tool of the survey to collect primary data from the students. The secondary data are collected from different online and printed sources relevant to the theoretical ground of the research.