Underground Man Analysis

Introduction

The existentialist claim of existence preceding essence argues that we get to shape and mold who we are as individuals. Humans are not born complete individuals with our true essence in hand. We are ever evolving and changing selves that cannot be determined simply by our genetic makeup or physical law. Fyodor Dostoyevsky displays this idea throughout the reading of Notes From The Underground. Specifically the Underground Man talks about his disbelief of human essence ever being captured and the fact that even if it could be known, man would contrast from it in the end. I personally agree with the idea of existence before essence.

Clarification

A good way to clarify the idea of existence before essence is to look at the reverse. Something’s on this earth undoubtedly have essence before existence such as a watch. The essence of a watch is a very simple task that involves telling the time. It can do this through multiple means such as minute hands, hour hands, second hands, or simply digital displays. But nonetheless it always has the essence of telling the time. Now a watch doesn’t come into existence and then gain the essence of telling the time. The creator of the watch knew the essence of the watch and its purpose before even building it. Therefore it has essence before existence.

Now when we look at life it becomes more difficult and may not be concrete. For example look at a bee; bees pollenate flowers and make honey and that’s about it. There’s never been a time when a bee decides that honey making and flower pollenating isn’t for him and thus decides to go live an alternative life style. So it may seem that the bee has essence preceding existence, but this example is obviously not as certain as the watch because since we are not a bee we will never know what it is like to be a bee. But when we look at more advanced life forms such as humans, the idea seems to switch.

Essence before existence describes the human’s ability to be beyond the watch and the bee. It argues that a human doesn’t have a set essence when born upon this earth, such as telling the time or honey making. Instead this idea argues that humans first exist and then have the power to create an essence for themselves. The Underground Man talks about how some believe that science will be able to know everything about us including our essence. That one-day just based on our genetics a formula can be created that basically tells us our essence. Since the Underground Man holds existentialist views he disagrees with this possibility and states the following, “For who would want to choose by rule? Besides, he will at once be transformed from a human being to an organ-stop or something of the sort; for what is a man without desires, without free will and without choice, if not a stop in an organ? “ (page 18). The significance of this quote is the underlying need for humans to have the ability and free will to create their own essence. The Underground Man takes it as far to say that even if we could be mapped out based on science and math, we would still choose to do differently in order to maintain our individuality and self-control. This describes a big point of existence before essence, which is that we have the freedom to create ourselves regardless of genetics or physics. This isn’t to say that factors such as the environment