After reading Sartre' on the bottom of page 72 - 74, and considering the actiivity in class with the paper cutter, discuss some or all of the following:
-Does a paper cutter only become a paper cutter when you can see it, or does it first exist as a form?
-Does a paper cutter's esistence come before or after its essence, and why?
-What is the essence of a paper cutter?
-How is the essence of a paper cutter different or similar to that of a whale?
-What is the essence of a person? Does existence precede essence, or does essence precede existence,and
what does that even mean?
-What doe you think existentialism is, and how does it fit into this discussion?
Please feel free to and do comment on each other's comments. Humor is appreciated, but keep it all in good taste, be appropriate, and consider each other's feelings.
I believe existence precedes essence. I believe this because how can something have a purpose before it even exists? In my opinion something must exist before it can have a purpose. Like the paper cutter for example. How can it have a purpose before it even exists. It must first exist before it can cut paper. Humans are the same way. We must first exist before we have essence. In order to have a purpose we must first exist. Then we can fill out a purpose.
ReplyDeleteI believe existence precedes essence, because you don't know what something is until you see it. People create things such as the paper cutter, but I don't think they knew how it was going to look like exactly. They built it and tested it until they knew it would be a paper cutter. Now that there is such a thing people know how it should look.
ReplyDeleteyes but the fact that the purpose of the paper cutter was thought of/required before its creation proves that essence in some cases precedes existence. HOWEVER, it is plausible to suggest that there is an unrefined object without purpose e.g. a piece of metal formed in a certain way. This blunt piece of metal is noticed and developed to have the best suited shape and features to the need of cutting paper/opening letters.
DeleteSo Blake and Randi, you might be right. However, wouldn't some sort of essence of a papercutter have to exist in the inventor's mind first? And if so, wouldn't that image also be real and have purpose?
ReplyDeleteDr. C
I think that it could go either way. Some things may have an essence before an existence, whereas others might feel as if something must be created before it has a purpose. Everything also could depend on who we are, and who raises us. Each person could see a different color as the color blue (the hues of the colors in our mind). The only way to test this, though, would to completely forget our colors we learn as young children, and compare what we think is then the right color. Of course, when given flash cards, we can see what 'blue' is, but why is it blue? Because it was intended to be mixed with yellow for green, and red for purple? Or because it was the result of purple with the absence of red? Thus leading, was the paper cutter really invented to cut paper? Or possibly a whale with the absence of everything not needed to make a paper cutter?
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, though, we must understand what an absence is in general. Was night created, or is it simply the absence of light from day? Different religious groups could give separate answers on this theory, but try looking at things from other points of view. How do you make 'darkness'? I would assume turning off a light, which leads to the absence of light.
I also must mention that existence and essence can also both happen at the same time, in my opinion. Not everything was most likely intended to be something specific, but nor was everything created before it was decided what to be. If you take nails, boards, and help, you can build a house - with the house in mind before starting. If you take eggs, flour, and milk (along with some other food items, of course) you can mix them together, bake them, and make many items, depending on the amount of each ingredient. But was the first person who ever baked a loaf of bread sure what those ingredients were going to make? Probably not, and if so, we shall value that person more greatly than to not even be aware of their name...
Once again I go back to the original topic. Which happens first? Existence or essence? I am going to stick with the answer of neither, as everything that is opposites, in my opinion, is simply the absence of one from the other.
Thinking about the paper cutter and essence vs existence, I believe essence proceeds existence. The paper cutter is thought about and takes form before in a mind before its physical existence. The essence of said paper cutter is of course to cut paper, this essence and purpose is determined before the physical existence of the paper cutter. I think in the case of humans, essence also proceeds existence. An individual's life and personality is far too complex to be a product of their own doing. Some entity must determine who we are going to be, but we are most certainly given ample opportunity to find out who we are and our purpose. I just truly believe the complexity of a person could not simply just happen, his or her essence must exist first.
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about the paper cutter I think it is easy to see that essence comes before existence. The paper cutter is a creation in the mind of the inventor, like other inventions the inventor had to think of the idea before being able to create it. I understand that in other circumstances for people who had not thought of the paper cutter in their mind would chose existence, because without actually seeing it, they might have never known what could be. I believe that there is nothing in the world we live in that has not been thought about before actually taking action into building it. Therefor I think that essence is what comes first then existence.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sabrina, I also believe essence comes before existence. The paper cutter's existence had to follow its essence because its presence is determined. First, the paper cutter had to have a purpose. Then, it had to be designed to cut paper. After that it had to be produced before it could exist. The idea of the paper cutter is no different from any other invention. Inventions are ideas inspired by our want to make the world more technologically advanced. Only we are responsible for concepts such as the paper cutter. No invention could exist without human creativity.
ReplyDeleteI believe the paper cutter did not become a paper cutter until it was created. You can think up the idea, but it doesn't actually serve its purpose until it is created. The paper cutter is not cutting until it has been created and tested. The existence comes before the essence. On the human aspect, I agree with Blake, we must exist first. We choose our actions, they are not determined before we are made.
ReplyDeleteI believe the paper cutter, or anything, exists as a form in some other entity's mind. To assert no reality in an idea appears absurd. If One were to think of a new invention, this is truly where it starts: in the mind. As with this new invention, we also formally exist in a collective of knowledge, maybe to someone else's conscience, perhaps even in a simulation. I also believe that once the object comes into this realm it has a purpose already, but we humans are different both in our purpose and choices. SInce the paper cutter isn't sentient, it can't choose a purpose, therefore it must already have one tailored to its abilities. For humans, we have the talent of learning. We technically could be anything, know anything, LEARN anything. In that regard, we must choose our own purpose.
ReplyDeleteA paper cutters existence comes after it's essence. The idea of everything must come before an object actually exists. One must come up with a thought before they build something into existence. I think that something does not exist until it is actually existent. The thought of something can exist but it is only a thought and still not an object.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that essence precedes existence. In order to create objects or actions we must first imagine them in our minds. The inventor of the paper cutter had to envision an object that would serve the purpose of cutting paper and create designs around that sole purpose. I argue that people do not blindly take on projects and only when they are finished find a purpose their creation may serve. Anything people create has a previously devised purpose.
ReplyDeleteMy belief is that essence comes before existence. The creator of the paper cutter had this thought in his mind, he just didn't randomly make the paper cutter appear, therefore, essence comes before existence. It is different than the essence of a Whale because the paper cutter was created by an average human and the whale was a thought of a greater presence(God). The paper cutter had to go through a longer process than the Whale did.
ReplyDeleteThe essence of a person is what ever that person chooses it to be. We can search for our essence in a supernatural being, we can seek for it from others, or we can seek for our essence within ourselves. I believe that essence comes before existence. If we didn't have a reason to live, we wouldn't be alive in the first place. This can be proven with the paper cutter. Who ever created a paper cutter had to think of it's essence before he created it. When God created a tree had to think of it's purpose before He created it. When God created me, he had to decide why and how he wanted to create me before he did. Whether you believe in God or not, anything created had to have a purpose in mind before it was created.
ReplyDeleteI think when it comes to creating anything in this world it first has to be created in the mind as a form then this allows it to be created. When it comes to humans though it would vary on beliefs of individuals. You could believe that the person has it's essence predetermined and then existence comes. The other side is that the person exists then creates his or her own essence over the course of their life. When it comes to the paper cutter vs the whale I think it completely changes and whales take on the same course as you and me would. Things that are created by man has essence first then existence but you really can't prove that whales have essence or existence frist.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like we have a lot of Kierkegaard fans.....essence precedes existence, a lot of choice/free will and so on, but not complete free will. It also sounds like many of you find the "idea" of something be more "real" than the physical reality (A Platonic approach). I might have even indicated something like that above in my first comment. However, in philosohy it's good to look at something one way, and then another way - so that you understand both sides of a problem. So what about this?
ReplyDeleteYou have a great idea for a song that would make the top ten, but you don't write it...... was it a real, or did it never exist? A person is driving along the river, and ia a good swimmer, and sees someone out there who needs help. The person then thinks about all the things that he or she "could do", but does nothing.
I would say that in both situations there was no reality......you didn't write the song and you didn't save the person. I would say that in both of those situations the reality was in the action and not in the idea.
So could there be situations where the idea is the reality before the existence (like in an invention that actually happened, such as the light bulb, or the papercutter), and then other situations where the reality is only in the existence?
Just wondering
I don't believe the paper cutter actually is a paper cutter until it's in front of us. People think about making this object but it's not actually "there" until we use the paper cutter. I think existence becomes before essence. We choose what we do before we actually go and do them.
ReplyDelete