A Word for Neglecting Existence

Essence • (es-ens) • noun

Definition: one’s nature or identity

Origin: French

Essence is a word that we all know and use, but our understanding of essence often ignores or obscures the philosophical meaning and history behind it. Essence is a concept that has defined American life, and our struggle for racial equality, in many ways, is a battle against American notions of essence.

Essence vs Existence

Essence is your nature, identity, or something that gives you purpose that you feel is a part of you. All people have an essence, and your essence will change over time. Essence is not inherently good or bad, but it can be used for both good and bad. Often, the determining factor between one’s essence being used for good or for bad depends on how one prioritizes their essence in relation to the rest of the world, and this is where the philosophical understanding of essence comes into play.

Ever since European philosopher, René Descartes theorized “I think therefore I am,” the prevailing logic or reason of Europe prioritized essence ahead of existence. According to Descartes, what made someone “be” or exist was not the fact that they obviously existed in the world, but instead, it was their thoughts that proved their existence. Thinking allegedly proved one’s existence, and since your essence is part of your thoughts, your essence could now become more important than existence. This logic (or illogic) creates a massive problem because one’s thoughts or essence can literally be anything, and now people have the language for devaluing existence while elevating themselves. 

This rationale is absolutely absurd, and the response of large segments of America to COVID-19 demonstrates the insanity of this theory. Large swaths of the American public have decided to “think” that COVID-19 is a hoax or an unfair infringement on their freedoms, so they do not follow the necessary safety measures and imagine that everything will be fine. COVID-19 is existence, and its capacity to take away your existence is very real, yet the thoughts or essence of some Americans make them believe that they are above or impervious to existence. This is insane.

Unsurprisingly, the 1947 novel, The Plague by French-Algerian philosopher Albert Camus, which depicts how a city struggles to cope with a plague because they value their essence and previous norms ahead of existence, has become incredibly popular today. The absurdity of the people in his book mirrors our current climate.

Essence and the Other

For the most part, one’s essence consists of attributes that make them simultaneously a part of a group and apart from a group. For example, if you live in a predominantly Catholic community and you are also a phenomenal athlete, your essence will probably be a mixture of your catholicism and athletic ability. Your essence is equal parts of what makes you a part of a community, and unique within that community. Without these two attributes, you may struggle to even understand who you are. Your daily routine could primarily consist of exercising, eating well, and honing your craft while also saying daily prayers. For every success you have on the field of play, you might thank God and the Virgin Mary, causing your essence to feel like your entire life.

This could be your essence, and there is nothing wrong with having this essence, but the tension arises when you encounter the essence of the “other.” Do Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. have the same capacity to exercise their essence, or does your essence precede their existence? Also, do you hold onto your essence so strongly that you deny the possibility of aufheben? Because even though catholicism and athletics might seem like your existence now, a time will come when you are less athletic, and your devotion to your faith may wane. Your essence will inevitably change over time regardless of your desire for it to remain the same, so denying aufheben and the opportunity for transcendent change equates to denying existence as you cling to your essence.

With regards to America, understanding essence is incredibly important because our notions of race and especially whiteness all derive from the same understanding of essence. Europeans professed that they were the people with the ability to “think” and their thoughts concluded that non-European people could not “think.” This irrational illogic created the justification for destroying and dehumanizing the non-European world because European essence preceded the existence of the other. 

Additionally, as Europeans left Europe, they found themselves on continents devoid of Europeans and full of non-European indigenous people. Europeans began to strongly identify themselves with their white identity or essence in order to distance themselves from the non-European existence that was all around them. In many ways, colonization and the United States has been a campaign of sustaining white essence while disregarding the existence of everything else.

Black Lives Matter & Existentialism

Throughout the 1800s and into the 20th century, some European philosophers such as Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Albert Camus began prioritizing “being” or existence ahead of essence, and post-World War II Jean-Paul Sartre popularized this philosophical work. Sartre’s books Being and Nothingness and Existentialism is a Humanism developed the philosophy of Existentialism and focused on existence instead of essence. This new school of thought equated to a radical change in European philosophy and Sartre’s revolutionary phrase “existence precedes essence” explicitly challenged the essence-based Cartesian philosophy. Sartre and his partner Simone de Beauvoir led a reshaping of European thought, and I think about Existentialism every day as America works to build a more equitable society.

In America, white is an essence built upon the devaluing of anything considered not white. American society is built around sustaining whiteness with a total disregard for how it impacts the “other.” And in America, the “other” is not just non-white people. It can also be the environment since American ethnocide created a chattel slavery system to remake the land and generate wealth for Europe. America consistently drills and disrupts the environment that we all depend on, which is why the land is also categorized as an “other.”

When I hear “Black Lives Matter,” I hear an existential cry for humanity. It demands that white America prioritize existence -- including white existence -- ahead of white essence. The combination of COVID-19 and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement has created an elevation of existence ahead of essence, but America continues to struggle during this time because our society has never valued existence before essence. Americans struggle to imagine a world where white essence does not detrimentally dominate everything it encounters, and many Americans would prefer to jeopardize their existence and the existence of others in order to sustain the control of white essence. 

As David Chauvin sat of George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds, he valued his own essence -- as a police officer who exists above the law -- more than Floyd’s life. America has seen the grotesque manifestation of prioritizing essence above existence. We are both outraged and coming to grips with the fact that our society was built around normalizing this barbarism. All people have an essence and an identity that gives us purpose, and this is not a problem, but to make sure that our essence does some good in the world, we must make sure that we never value our essence more than existence. Prioritizing existence ahead of essence represents a radical shift in thought for America, and this is the purpose of Black Lives Matter.

This week please take some time to think about your essence, and make sure that you do not value your essence ahead of your own existence or the existence of others. It is incredibly easy to view your essence as your existence, but once you make that mistake it becomes incredibly hard to do good in the world.

Please share your thoughts with us via email, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter using #TheWord, and support us on Patreon. We will be hosting a Live Q&A session on our Instagram today at 5PM EDT so that we can answer your questions about essence. We hope to see you there.

Also, this week I wrote a column for The Daily Beast about the importance of Juneteenth and the need to elevate it to a national holiday. You can read it here.