The concept of essence is fundamental in existential philosophy. Existentialists consider all of reality—including the human being—only as an object, the “essence,” “existence” (existentia) in deep cognition. Applied to a person, they acquire their essence (“existence”) throughout life. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), the greatest representative of existentialism, carried out a comprehensive analysis of essences in various manifestations. However, another representative of existentialism—Albert Camus (1913–1960)—accused Sartre of needlessly complicating the problem and claimed that he managed to approach the true essence of a person more closely than other researchers. The book presents the most significant works of Sartre and Camus on this topic.
In PDF A4 format, the publisher’s layout is preserved.