Sartres thesis is that existentialism is the beli Essays

Sartre's thesis is that existentialism is the belief that man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. If I claimed to be a loving person but always talked down to people, or made fun of them, embarrass them, talk about them, I couldn't claim that I am a loving person. If I am a loving person, my actions should show it. When Sartre states "Existence precedes essence," he means who we are is defined by what we do. We cannot pretend to act like someone different than who we are. Who we are is defined by what we do. If I want to be nice, I will have to start acting nice towards everyone. If I want to be happy, I will only be happy when I start to be happy. According to Sartre, we cannot think ourselves into being nice or happy. It is our actions that will make us be what we want to be. That is what existence preceding essence means. Sartre describes anguish as "the feeling of total and deep responsibility" somebody has when they realize that "he is not only the person he chooses to be, but also a lawmaker who is, at the same time, choosing all mankind as well as himself". Anguish demonstrates itself when people realize that they have to make decisions that impact others. These decisions will make our path become the only reality we will ever know. Forlornness is saying "that God does not exist and that we have to face all the consequences of this". This causes problems that we will have to come upon when we realize that there is no God who had been leading us in certain directions all this time. Sartre claims that this will lead us to a point where we will have to use our intuition to decide what decisions we should really make in life. Despair means "we shall confine ourselves to reckoning only with what depends upon our will, or on the ensemble of probabilities which make our action possible". The real definition of despair is a total loss of hope. Sartre tried to redefine despair to mean a way of thinking that we can only deal with and that only we as humans can control. Sartre is guilty of what he claims Christians do. The word despair is not being used with the right meaning. He uses the word for impact, but uses the word in a completely different way than what it really means. "I shall have no illusions and shall do what I can" To Sartre, that is what despair really is.