🏛 Western Thought

Existentialism — Being

"Existence precedes essence"

쇠얀 키르케고르 (Søren Kierkegaard, 1813~1855) · 장 폴 사르트르 (Jean-Paul Sartre, 1905~1980) · 19~20세기

📜 Origin

Kierkegaard in Copenhagen broke off his engagement and rethought it for life. He asked — is there a pre-given meaning to life? No. Meaning is made in each moment. A century later, Sartre in Nazi-occupied Paris voiced the same: "Existence precedes essence." A knife has its essence (a cutter) before being made. A human is thrown first and makes essence afterward.

💡 Meaning

Existentialism's freedom is heavy freedom. Not "live as you wish" but "whatever you become is entirely your responsibility." No excuses — not parents, not society, not God. You are the sum of every moment's choice. Sartre called this "condemned to be free."

🌏 Eastern Classic Cross-link

Zhuangzi: "The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror." Reflects what comes; grips nothing. Free in each moment, bound to no outcome. What existentialism calls "freedom and responsibility," Zhuangzi calls "the mirror posture." East and West paint the same freedom.

存

Compressed into One Hanja

"存" = 才 (talent) + 子 (child) — "talent existing as a child." Being is the process of latency awakening into form. Sartre's "existence precedes essence" is already drawn into this character — form is made afterward.