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Existentialism, in its chosen role as chorus to our age chants a sad litany: we are born into this world alone, live in loneliness, and go out of this world alone. Death is sure and the nothingness beyond it arouses dread. We have known original sin, and guilt is the condition of our existence. We are separated, each from the other, by the tradition and ways of our present culture and times. Existentialism tells us that these are the conditions of existence, and to be aware of existence is to know them. To do something about his lot man must come to life with a sense of "engagement." To the given moment of "engagement" man must present himself as an intensity and entirety. To the existentialist, this moment is the one of truth, only to be known by going in over the horns.
Existentialism is most simply and best defined by the statement: "Existence precedes essence" (153). In Western thought we distinguish the nature, or essence, of a thing from its existence. By essence we denote what a thing