Sartre: Free Will

In his essay, "Existentialism is a Humanism," Sartre argues that "existence precedes essence," i.e., that man is not created by a God with a specific plan in mind, rather he is thrown into the world without cause, "condemned to be free," and forced to choose his essence.
     Because this extreme assertion of freedom is such a major theme in his works, Sartre's existentialism is often accused of harboring an a priori assumption of a free will without any rational backing.
     A closer examination of his philosophy reveals that his metaphysical speculations are on par with reactionary ethics in his conception of free will. In a nutshell, we have the division of being into the unconscious (in-itself) and conscious (for-itself). The being-in-itself is characterized as formless, causeless, with no purpose for existing (depending on nothing, hence in-itself). The for-itself, on the other hand, is the saccones.