A Conversation Between Sartre and the Buddha

I came across the following vignette when I was searching my hard drive for some old notes. I wrote it last May, when I was concurrently enrolled in Philosophy 240 "Existentialism" and Religion 270 "Buddha."


Sartre: I’d really like to thank you, Buddha, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk with me about essences.

Buddha: It literally was no problem at all. My potential manifestations are infinite. You are talking to an illusion right now.

Sartre: Wow. Well, I really appreciate it anyway. Umm, so I guess you probably know my ‘slogan,’ “existence precedes essence.” When I say this, I mean that we humans, unlike common objects, have no essential nature. We are free to forge our own essence through our actions. I’ve heard that you have an interesting perspective on essence and the composition of the self, and I was kind of curious what you might have to say about my philosophy.

Buddha: I agree with your criticism of essence, Jean-Paul, but I don’t agree that such a thing as a paper cutter would have an essence, while human beings do not.

Sartre: Well, I think you’ll find that it’s really quite simple. A paper cutter has essential properties that are fixed by its type—it is created with the specific purpose of cutting paper. In contrast, man was not created with any specific purpose (since it is now widely acknowledged that God is an incoherent concept). In light of this, man forges his own essence via a process of becoming.

Buddha: Despite the fact that your criticism of essence initially appears to be promising, I now see that we have different views entirely on the matter. While you think that tools do have essences and that humans create their essences retroactively, I hold that essence cannot exist. Every concept and form can be shattered to reveal emptiness, or no-thing. You argue that, for humans, the how of existence precedes the that of existence, but the truth is simply that there is no that. That is a chimera; a propagator of suffering.

Sartre: You are a nihilist!

Buddha: Some have accused me of this. They are not enlightened.