A famous phrase by the philosopher Sartre that represents one of the principles of his existential philosophy.
The intended (existence) in the phrase is the presence of human beings in life, and the intended (essence) is the identity of the human being, that is, everything related to the human being in terms of his personality, values, beliefs, principles, ambitions, and others. The meaning of the whole phrase is that there are no principles, values, knowledge or metaphysics prior to the existence of human beings. Man, with his presence in life, is the one who creates his identity, and if man did not exist, this human identity would not exist at all. Therefore, there is no (nature) for man that precedes his existence, and there are no (constants) governing him that preceded his existence, because man is the one who makes principles and changes them at every time according to his need. Hence, it is not permissible to judge a certain behavior of a human being as “natural” or “unnatural.” Rather, the most we can say is that this behavior is “dominant” or “non-dominant.” And the fact that the behavior is dominant or non-dominant is not considered a fixed universal criterion. Right or wrong, because the measure of right and wrong is a man-made measure, and what man makes is not an essential constant, but rather variable and volatile, and therefore all our judgments such as (beautiful and ugly, moral and immoral, gorgeous and disgusting) are human judgments that change, found within a framework A specific time and place, and subject to change at any time, Which means not being fanatic against any behavior or value, no matter how lofty or vile one of them seems.