Existence Precedes Essence

One of the major questions that existential philosophers have asked over the past two centuries pertains to this question of whether or not "existence precedes essence." In his work Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean Paul Sartre argues that existence does in fact precede essence. What he means by this is that individuals define their own existence. It is not presupposed or preset like most of western thought has suggested over the past four centuries. There is certainly a place for this sort of philosophy, especially since much of modern thought has lost sight of searching for its own purpose. C. S. Lewis and the Inklings are fighting this battle through their stories, which they approach in a descriptive rather than prescriptive manner. Lewis does not want his readers to read his works with preconceived notions of what these stories have to offer. The story itself is a journey, and people experience different things as they read. Does this mean that we can create our own ontology like Sartre says? Well, yes and no. Yes because writers like Lewis create their own worlds in these works, which reveal things about the world we live in. No because this is a fundamentally different perspective than Sartre. Sartre thinks we can create our own world in the real. Lewis believes that creating other worlds as a "sub-creator" allows us to learn things about our own world. For Lewis this does not mean that we have the power or authority to change our world. It merely means that we are to describe rather than prescribe what we encounter in it.