Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

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Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
"What is Existentialism?"
(1946)
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(some of)Sartres Writings

• Novels
• Nausea (1938)
• The Age of Reason (1945) The Reprieve (1947)
  Troubled Sleep (1950) (3 parts of a 4-part
  series)
• Plays
• The Flies (1943)
• No Exit (1944)
• The Respectful Prostitute (1947)
• The Condemned of Altona (1960)
• Biography literary criticism
• Baudelaire (1947)
• Saint Genet (1952)
• The Idiot of the Family (on Flaubert) (1971)

• Autobiography Words (1963)
• Philosophical works
• The Transcendence of the Ego (1937)
• The Psychology of the Imagination (1940)
• Being Nothingness (1943)
• Existentialism is a Humanism (1946)
• Search for a Method (1957)
• The Critique of Dialectical Reason (Vol. I, 1960
  Vol. II, 1985)

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In 1964,
Sartre was awarded
the Nobel Prize in literature,
which he REFUSED on the grounds that such honors
could interfere with a writer's responsibilities
to his readers.
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Sartre did not believe in bourgeois marriage,
but

• he had an intimate life partnership from the late
  1920s until his death in 1980 with . . . .

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Simone de Beauvoir(1908-1986)
She, too, was an exponent of Existentialism.
Among her numerous works are The Mandarins
(1955), a novel The Second Sex (194950), a
profound analysis of the status of women The
Coming of Age (1970), a study of society's
treatment of the aged two collections of
memoirs, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958)
The Prime of Life (1960).
To make oneself an object, to make oneself
passive, is a very different thing from being a
passive object.
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So, Sartre,

• What is Existentialism?

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Existence is Prior to Essence
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Text, 215-217
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Ss phenomenological starting point(What is
phenomenology?)

• An approach to reality from the standpoint of
  subjectivity (consciousness)

If I approach reality from that point of view,
what do I find?
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I find a difference

• between subjects objects,
• between persons things,
• between beings that are conscious beings that
  are not conscious.

What is the difference?
Non-conscious Objects or Things Conscious Subject
s or Persons
Essence precedes Existence
Existence precedes Essence
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From the subjective standpoint of individual
consciousness,

• I am not a manufactured object with a
  pre-conceived essence or specific use (function)
  (unlike, for example, a paper-cutter) (215-216),
• nor am I a creature manufactured by God in
  accordance with a concept (essence) in the divine
  mind (216),
• nor am I merely a particular instance of a
  universal human nature that precedes and
  determines my existence (216-217).

No . . . ,
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I exist first, then I take on an essence
through my own actions, through my own manner of
existing acting.
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Self-Creation Personal Responsibility
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Text, 217-219
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Another distinction betweensubjects (persons)
objects (things)

• Subjects (persons) are
• free,
• self-creating,
• therefore
• personally responsible for what they create do.

• Objects (things)
• have no freedom,
• are not self-creating,
• thus
• have no responsibility for what they are or for
  how they function.

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According to Sartre,

• what I am (my essence) is a product of my choices
  actions (my manner of existing).

Thus, since I freely create myself (my essence),
I am responsible for my choices actions and
what I have created.
But Sartre also claims that . . .
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my choices and my self-creation have universal
import.
"In choosing for myself, I choose for
humanity."
(219)
Therefore, I am responsible for myself and for
everyone else (219).
What does Sartre mean here?
Do you agree with him?
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According to Sartre, if I recognize

• that I am not made to be what I am but rather
  freely choose my own essence,
• that what I am is my own responsibility because
  my self is my own creation,
• that, through my choices, I become responsible
  not only for myself but also for all? others,
• that I cannot look to God for guidance in this
  process since God does not exist,

then I will live a life of . . .
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Anguish,Forlornness, Despair
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Text, 219-228
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Existential Anguish

• a response to the burden of responsibility

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(219)
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Whats wrong with the following claims?

• But everyone doesnt act that way (in response
  to the question, What if everyone acted that
  way?).
• An angel of God or God Himself commanded me to
  do it.
• My anguish keeps me from acting.

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Existential Forlornness

• a response to the non-existence of God

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Implications of the nonexistence of God

• No foundation for objective absolute values.
• All values are human creations.
• Man is condemned to be free.
• We are alone, with no justifications no excuses.

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Looking for answers

• How to resolve moral dilemmas A students
  struggle with conflicting moral obligations
  (223-6).
• How to define the meaning of ones life A young
  priests interpretation of the signs (226-7).

How do these examples illustrate Sartres
explanation of existential forlornness?
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Existential Despair

• a response to the unreliability of others
• (relying on what is subject to ones own will,
  not on things or persons external to ones will)

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A Philosophy of Action
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Text, 229-231
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Existential Subjectivity
Text, 231-234
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The Unavoidability of Choice the Call of
Freedom(Text, 234-235)
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Existentialist Humanism
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Text, 235-236
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Finis