Two of the main principles of Existentialist Human Condition are: That man exists and then createshimself and what man chooses for himself he chooses for everyone else as well. Lets examine the firstprinciple: man exists and then defines himself. What it means is that man is created on this earth and isnothing but a body, blood and guts. What he chooses to do and to be is what makes him a man.
If a mancomes into this world and chooses to steal, cheat, kill and lie then that is what that man has made himself tobe. While society may see him as a “evil” person, that is what is right for him. Now on the other hand if aperson chooses to be generous, kind, honest and loving, society may see him as a “good” person while it isstill right for him. According to the Existentialists, a person is placed on this earth with no predisposed”good” or “evil” values, one man is not created with any more good or evil than the next. By the decisionswe make in life we create oursel!ves.
Next the second view, what man chooses for himself he chooses for everyone else. This is a view Ireally believe in. Everything we do in life effects someone else, whether we no it or not. Every time wedrive our car. Every time we eat something, spend money, go for a jog someone else is effected. For anexample: a man goes to the store and buys a stereo.
First of all the clerk the clerk is effected because they have to check you out, so you have taken some oftheir time. The store is effected because they are minus one radio from their store. The manufacturer nowhas to make one more to replace the one that was bought from the store. The manufacturing employees areeffected because put the radio together, and so on. On the other hand a man who chooses to steal that samestereo will effect even more people.
If he get caught the store, the manufacturer, the police, the courts, thejails and all the people who are involved with those organizations. So now the question is raised “what ifeveryone acted the same way that man did?” Well there could be nothing but anarchy, no laws, orgovernment. Basically we would revert to a type of Neanderthal type state. This is why many classicphilosophers have problems with the Existentialist point of view, because of the “what if” questions.
