Existentialism Is a Humanism

Originally a public lecture, this is Sartre's accessible defense of existentialism against charges that it is gloomy or amoral. He argues that because there is no God-given human nature, we are wholly responsible for what we make of ourselves — and, in choosing for ourselves, we implicitly affirm an image of what a human being should be.

Freedom, then, is not a license for despair but a call to engaged, responsible action. Anxiety, abandonment, and despair are simply honest names for the human condition once illusions of a fixed essence are dropped. Far from pessimistic, Sartre presents existentialism as a demanding humanism centered on action and responsibility.