Final Paper

A central feature of many existentialist positions is that humans choose or produce all significant aspects of their lives and identities. On this view, whatever the natural sciences come to know about the genetic, psychological, and physiological aspects of human nature is of only secondary concern when compared with our transcendent freedom. Is existentialism compatible with the natural sciences?

At the end of Existentialism is a Humanism, Sartre cryptically declares that even if God did exist, that would make no difference to the claim that in the case of human beings existence precedes essence. This remark is in line with an ambivalent attitude toward religion shared by many existentialist authors. Is there room for religion in existentialism?