As Jean-Paul Sartre reminds us, in the case of human beings this metaphysic is reversed: a person's existence precedes his essence—he is a subject among objects. The danger, says Sartre, following Heidegger, is that he will fall into the world of objects, becoming ever after the prisoner of arbitrary strictures masquerading as universal principles.

Chapter 3 (p. 47) - The Philosopher's Apprentice (2008)