Existentialism Is a Humanism

Sartre gave the lecture Existentialism is a Humanism in October 1945, intending to present in summary form the basic tenets of his philosophy and to defend it against certain common misconceptions. The lecture was delivered extemporaneously and was published as a book shortly thereafter, with minimal revisions. The book became perhaps the most widely read philosophical text of the 20th century.

Man is free, says Sartre, but he wants to imagine himself bound. He does this because he wants to disclaim the responsibility that his freedom entails. People create phantoms — God, fate, nature, history, society — that supposedly force them to behave as they do. By invoking these phantoms, they can then declare: "It wasn't my fault for what I did, I couldn't have done otherwise. I am not responsible for what I am, something else, outside of me, made me this way." Through this fundamental self-deception, people try to hide from themselves the anguish that comes from the fact that each of us inevitably defines our own destiny. As Sartre says, "man is condemned to be free."