Existential philosophers argue that man's existence precedes his essence. Unknowingly, the infant is "thrown into existence" at birth; he is awakened to find that he "is." Then, as [Van Cleve] Morris says "… we commence the long slow journey to find our essence." Hermann Hesse in his famous novel Steppenwolf emphasized this very point, "Every created thing has been thrown into the muddy stream of being and may never more swim back again to its source."…

Between existence and non-existence is the paradox of knowing that one is of absolute value in the world—that the cosmos wouldn't be quite the same without me. On the other hand, one could be of absolutely no value—the world certainly will get along fine without me. Steppenwolf questions himself on this very note, "Where in this town or in the whole world is the man whose death would be a loss...