Critical Essays Sartrean Existentialism: An Overview In learning about Sartrean existentialism, it is helpful to recall data about the climate in which Sartre grew up. Recall for a moment the sadness of his childhood when no one wanted him for a friend Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre (). “The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection: Essays in Metaphysics, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Philosophy of Existentialism”, p, Open Road Media 68 Copy quote We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us 24/1/ · Sartre`s Existentialism Sartres essay on existentialism was relatively an easy reading mostly becauseof his frequent use of examples. His ideas on existentialism are in a way backedup and explained through his blogger.comted Reading Time: 2 mins
Sartre's Existentialism Example | Graduateway
Written: Lecture given in Source: Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartresartre essay, ed. My purpose here is to offer a defence of existentialism against several reproaches that have been laid against it.
First, it has been reproached as an invitation to people to dwell in quietism of despair, sartre essay. For if every way to a solution is barred, one would have to regard any action in this world as entirely ineffective, and one would arrive finally at a contemplative philosophy. Moreover, since contemplation is a luxury, this would be only another bourgeois philosophy. This is, especially, the reproach made by the Communists. From another quarter we are reproached for having underlined all that is ignominious in the human situation, sartre essay, for depicting what is mean, sordid or base to the neglect of certain things that possess charm and beauty and belong to the brighter side of human nature: for example, according to the Catholic critic, Mlle.
Mercier, we forget how an infant smiles, sartre essay. Both from this side and from the other we are also reproached for leaving out of account the solidarity of mankind and sartre essay man in isolation. The ego cannot reach them through the cogito. From the Christian side, we are reproached as people who deny the reality and seriousness of human affairs. For since we ignore the commandments of God and all values prescribed as eternal, nothing remains but sartre essay is strictly voluntary.
Everyone can do what he likes, and will be incapable, from such a point of view, of condemning either the point of view or the action of anyone else. In any case, we can begin by saying that existentialism, in our sense of the word, is a doctrine that does render sartre essay life possible; a doctrine, also, which affirms that every truth and every action imply both an environment and a human sartre essay. The essential charge laid against us is, of course, that of over-emphasis upon the evil side of human life, sartre essay.
Those who can quite well keep down a novel by Zola such as La Terre are sickened as soon as they read an existentialist novel. Those who appeal to the wisdom of the people — which is a sad wisdom — find ours sadder still.
We all know how many common sayings can be quoted to this effect, and they all mean much the same — that you must not oppose the powers that be; that you must not fight against superior force; must not meddle in matters that are above your station. Or that any action not in accordance with some tradition is mere romanticism; or that any undertaking which has not the support of proven experience is foredoomed to frustration; and that since experience has shown men to be invariably inclined to evil, there must be firm rules to restrain them, otherwise we shall have anarchy.
Indeed their excessive protests make me suspect that what is annoying them is not so much our pessimism, but, much more likely, our optimism. For at bottom, what is sartre essay in the doctrine that I am about to try to explain to you is — is it not?
To verify this, let us review the whole question upon the strictly philosophic level, sartre essay. What, then, is this that we call existentialism? Most of those who are making use of this word would be highly confused if required to explain its meaning.
It would appear that, for sartre essay lack of any novel doctrine such as that of surrealism, all those who are eager to join in the latest scandal or movement now seize upon this philosophy in which, however, they can find nothing to their purpose. For in truth this is of all teachings the least scandalous and the most austere: it is intended strictly for technicians and philosophers, sartre essay.
All the same, sartre essay, it can easily be defined, sartre essay. The question is only complicated because there are two kinds of existentialists. There are, on the one hand, the Sartre essay, amongst whom I shall name Jaspers and Gabriel Marcel, both professed Catholics; and on the other the existential atheists, amongst whom we must place Heidegger as well as the French existentialists and myself.
What they have in common is simply the fact that they believe that existence comes before essence — or, if you will, that we must begin from the subjective. What exactly sartre essay we mean by that? If one considers an article of manufacture as, for example, a book or a paper-knife — one sees that it has been made by an artisan who had a conception of it; and he has paid attention, sartre essay, equally, to the conception of a paper-knife and to the sartre essay technique of production which is a part of that conception and is, at bottom, sartre essay, a formula.
Thus the paper-knife is at the same time an article producible in a certain manner and one which, on the other hand, serves a definite purpose, for one cannot suppose that a man would produce a paper-knife without knowing what it was for. Let us say, then, of the paperknife that its essence — that is to say the sum of the formulae and the qualities which made its production and its definition possible — precedes its existence.
The presence of such-and-such a paper-knife or book is thus determined before my eyes. Here, then, we are viewing the world from a technical standpoint, and we can say that production precedes existence. When we think of God as the creator, we are thinking of him, most of the sartre essay, as a supernal artisan.
Whatever doctrine we may be considering, whether it be a doctrine like that of Descartes, sartre essay, or of Leibnitz himself, we always imply that the will follows, more or less, from the understanding or sartre essay least accompanies it, so that when God creates he knows precisely what he is creating.
Thus, the conception of man in the mind of God is comparable to that of the paper-knife in the mind of the artisan: God makes man according to a procedure and a conception, sartre essay, exactly as the artisan manufactures a paper-knife, sartre essay, following a definition and a formula. Thus each individual man is the realisation of a certain conception which dwells in the divine understanding.
In the philosophic atheism of the eighteenth century, the notion of God is suppressed, but not, for all that, the idea that essence is prior to existence; something of that idea we still find everywhere, in Diderot, in Voltaire and even in Kant. In Kant, this universality goes so far that the wild man of the woods, man in the state of nature and the bourgeois are all contained in the same definition and have the same fundamental qualities. Here again, the essence of man precedes that historic existence which we confront in experience, sartre essay.
Atheistic existentialism, of which I am a representative, declares with greater consistency that if God does not exist there is at least one being whose existence comes before its essence, a being which exists before it can be defined by any conception of it.
That being is man or, as Heidegger has it, the human reality. What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world — and defines himself afterwards. If man as the existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself. Thus, there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it.
Man simply is. Not that he is simply what he conceives himself to be, but he is what he wills, and as he conceives himself after already existing — as he wills to be after that leap towards existence. Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.
That is the first principle of existentialism. But what do we mean to say by this, but that man is of a greater dignity than a stone or a table? For we mean to say that man primarily exists — that man is, sartre essay all else, something which propels itself towards a future and is aware that it is doing so, sartre essay.
Man is, indeed, a project which possesses a subjective life, instead of being a kind of moss, sartre essay, or a fungus sartre essay a cauliflower, sartre essay. Before that projection of the self nothing exists; not even in the heaven of intelligence: man will only attain existence when he is what he purposes to be. Not, sartre essay, however, what he may wish to be.
For what we usually understand by wishing or willing is a conscious decision taken — much more often than not — after we have made ourselves what we are.
I may wish to join a party, to write a book or to marry — but in such a case what is usually called my will is probably a manifestation of a prior and more spontaneous decision. If, sartre essay, it is true that existence is prior to sartre essay, man is responsible for what he is. Thus, sartre essay, the first effect of existentialism is that it puts every man in possession of himself as he is, and places the sartre essay responsibility for his existence squarely upon his own shoulders.
And, sartre essay, when we say that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men. Subjectivism means, on sartre essay one hand, the freedom of the individual subject and, on the other, that man cannot pass beyond sartre essay subjectivity. It is the latter which is the deeper meaning of existentialism.
When we say that man chooses himself, we do mean that every sartre essay of us must choose himself; but by that we also mean that in choosing for himself he chooses for all men, sartre essay.
For in effect, of all the actions a man may take in order to create himself as he wills to be, there is not one sartre essay is not creative, at the same time, of an image of man such as he believes he ought to be. To choose between this or that is at the same time to affirm the value of that which is chosen; for we are unable ever to choose the worse, sartre essay.
What we sartre essay is always the better; and nothing can be better for us unless it is better for all. If, moreover, existence precedes essence and we will to exist at the same time as we fashion our image, that image is valid for all and for the entire sartre essay in which we find ourselves. Our responsibility is thus much greater than we had supposed, for it concerns mankind as a whole. If I am a worker, for instance, I may choose to join a Christian rather than a Communist trade union.
Resignation is my will for everyone, sartre essay, and my action is, in consequence, a commitment on behalf of all mankind. Or if, sartre essay, to take a more sartre essay case, I decide to marry and to have children, even though this decision proceeds simply from my situation, from my passion or my desire, I am thereby committing not only myself, but humanity as a whole, to the practice of monogamy.
I am thus responsible for myself and for all men, and I am creating a certain image of man as I would have him to be. In fashioning myself Sartre essay fashion man. This may sartre essay us to understand what is meant by such terms — perhaps a little grandiloquent — as anguish, sartre essay, abandonment and despair, sartre essay. As you will soon see, it is very simple.
First, what do we mean by anguish? His meaning is as follows: When a man commits himself to anything, fully realising that he is not only choosing what he will be, sartre essay, but is thereby at the same time a legislator deciding for the whole of mankind — in such a moment a man cannot escape from the sartre essay of complete and profound responsibility.
There are many, indeed, sartre essay, who show no such anxiety. But we affirm that they are merely disguising their anguish or are in flight from it. By its very disguise his anguish reveals itself, sartre essay. Where are the proofs? A sartre essay mad woman who suffered from hallucinations said that people were telephoning to her, and giving her orders, sartre essay. If an angel appears to me, what is the proof that it is an angel; or, if I hear voices, who can prove that they proceed from heaven and not from hell, or from my own subconsciousness or some pathological condition?
Who can prove that they are really addressed to me? Who, then, can prove that I am the proper person to impose, by my own choice, my conception of man upon mankind? I shall never find any proof whatever; there will be no sign to convince me sartre essay it.
If a voice speaks to me, it is still I myself who must decide whether the voice is or is not that of an angel. If I regard a certain course of action as good, it is only I who choose to say that it is good and not bad, sartre essay. There is nothing to show that I am Abraham: nevertheless I also am obliged at every instant to perform actions which are examples. Everything happens to every man as though the whole human race had its eyes fixed upon what he is doing and regulated its conduct accordingly.
Clearly, sartre essay, the anguish with which we are concerned here is not one that could lead to quietism or inaction. It is anguish pure and simple, of the kind well known to all those sartre essay have borne responsibilities.
When, sartre essay, for instance, a military leader takes upon himself the responsibility for an attack and sends a number of men to their death, he chooses to do it and at bottom he alone chooses. No doubt under a higher command, but its orders, which are more general, sartre essay, require interpretation by him and upon that interpretation depends the life of ten, fourteen or twenty men, sartre essay.
In making the decision, he cannot but feel a certain anguish.
Existentialism Is a Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre
, time: 11:15Sartrean Existentialism: An Overview
Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre (). “The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection: Essays in Metaphysics, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Philosophy of Existentialism”, p, Open Road Media 68 Copy quote We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us Sartre's famous lecture in defence of Existentialism. Jean-Paul Sartre Existentialism Is a Humanism. Written: Lecture given in Source: Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre, ed. Walter Kaufman, Meridian Publishing Company, ; First Published: World Publishing Company in ; Critical Essays Sartrean Existentialism: An Overview In learning about Sartrean existentialism, it is helpful to recall data about the climate in which Sartre grew up. Recall for a moment the sadness of his childhood when no one wanted him for a friend
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