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Jean Paul Sartre: Existentialism

Jean Paul Sartre: Existentialism. Questions to answer for yourself: What are the key elements of Existentialism? What would an "existential ethic" look like? How is Sartre like and unlike Nietzsche?. Key elements of existentialism I. Opposition to rationalist tradition.

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Jean Paul Sartre: Existentialism

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  1. Jean Paul Sartre: Existentialism Questions to answer for yourself: • What are the key elements of Existentialism? • What would an "existential ethic" look like? • How is Sartre like and unlike Nietzsche?

  2. Key elements of existentialism I • Opposition to rationalist tradition. • The belief that Radical Freedom • is a CONDITION of human existence • Rather than a CHARACTERISTIC of human nature. [What is the difference?] • Who we are is a function of the choices we make, not the other way around. • We must commit ourselves at every moment

  3. Key elements of existentialism II • The concept of "authenticity" defined as living according to choices made consciously and responsibly. • There are no universal principles.[from an anti-rationalist stance] • The social order is a "fabrication" that allows us to avoid our isolation. • Responsibility for my choices is mine alone.

  4. Sartre is an atheistic existentialist • What consequences does not believing in God have for the existentialist? • Existence precedes essence – we are born and then make ourselves through our choices. • As we chose for ourselves we choose for all humankind … How so? • Anguish/Folornness. • The existentialist feels these because without the existence of God s/he is alone

  5. Anguish • I am unable to escape a deep sense of responsibility. • "It is always for me to decide that this is the angel's voice." • I am not Abraham, yet I must perform exemplary acts at every moment.

  6. Rembrandt Abraham & Isaac 1634

  7. Caravaggio, The Sacrifice of Isaac 1601-02

  8. Folornness • "God does not exist and we must face all the consequences." • Why does this distress the existentialist? • Because finding values in the "heaven of ideas" disappears. (see Nietzsche) • If existence precedes essence , we cannot fall back on a fixed and given human nature. There are no excuses.

  9. Man is "condemned to be free" • Why condemned? Why free? • What is Sartre's view of failing to act? • Hint: "man is nothing else than his plan." • What can we count on? • That which is in our power. • There are no excuses outside ourselves • “Love” equals a person's being in love • “Genius” is nothing other than that expressed in works of art.

  10. "Culture" and freedom • Some say we are determined by our culture. How does Sartre respond? • Man is free to determine his existence in relation to the culture [culture is a condition, not a characteristic] • "There is a universality of man"; but it is not given, it is being perpetually made." • "I build the universal in choosing myself"

  11. Two kinds of Humanism 1. Man as an end and a higher value: • Value is assigned in relation to the best that certain men have done. • Sartre’s Critique: man isn't an "end", because he is "always in the making" 2. Man as losing himself outside of himself. Pursuing goals outside himself. • Sartre believes that existentialism is optimistic: a doctrine of action.

  12. Man is not a "thing" • Even the worst conditions do not render a man inhuman. • Everything that happens to me is mine • To decide to be non-human is still MY decision.. (Frankl - concentration camp) • Example of war: • If I am mobilized for war, it is MY war. • "For lack of getting out of it, I have chosen it."

  13. An example • A young man in France during WWII is faced with the choice of going to war or staying with his grandmother who needs him. He decides to go talk with a priest, hoping the priest will make the choice for him. • What does Sartre say ? • He has already made his choice by going to the priest rather than a military official.

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