Ben Gerke
Life
• Lived 1905-1980
• French existentialist philosopher, influenced by Kant,
Hegel, and Kierkegaard, among others
• Father Jean-Baptiste Sartre was an officer in the French
Navy, mother Ann-Marie Schweitzer was a first cousin
of theologian and philosopher Albert Schweitzer
• Growing up, Sartre was an antimilitarist prankster
• Sartre was both an avid and accomplished playwright
and author, and expressed many of his existentialist
views and beliefs throughout his works
• Known for his lifelong, polyamorous (open)
relationship with female author Simone de Beauvoir
• Awarded 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, but refused it
Nothing Exists
• Nothing can exist, because everyone’s perception of
something is different.
• In other words, because our perceptions are all
different, nothing can be defined. With a lack of
definition, there is instead a chaotic, infinite mess of
everyone’s different perceptions
• Since no two people view any one thing the same, that
thing cannot exist, because it is two completely
different things in the eyes of two different people
• Therefore, since everyone’s perceptions are different,
nothing can exist. Only our own perceptions can exist,
and our perceptions are not true reality
Perceptions Don’t Exist Either
• Wait a minute…
• Sartre says that perceptions don’t exist either!
• Each time we think about something, our perception is
different than the last time we thought about it. No
two perceptions can ever be exactly the same
• So since our perceptions are always changing, and in
other words, can never be defined, they can’t truly
exist either!
• Since nothing exists, and perceptions aren’t true either,
the only thing that we have are false perceptions of
things that don’t even really exist.
• Definitions that we give to things are false, imaginative,
and meaningless
The Self Does Not Exist
• Self = personal identity
• Since our perception of something changes every time we think
about it, the same must be true in regards to one’s self
• In perceiving yourself, your perception of yourself is always
changing. If your perception of yourself is always changing, your
perceptions will never be the same, so your self is indefinable.
Therefore, since your self is indefinable, you can’t know yourself…
therefore, your self can’t exist
• Since the self doesn’t really exist, the self is just a false story that
we create in our minds to give us comfort from the fact that our
self is really meaningless
• In creating this self, we attempt to define ourselves, but in reality
it is impossible to define something that is always changing. Since
we are never the same being, our identity is a meaningless lie
All We Can Know is Nothing
• So basically (thus far), nothing truly exists,
because our perceptions of reality are always
changing. So only our perceptions exist, but our
perceptions are always changing, so they don’t
truly exist either. Therefore, nothing truly exists
• Those who believe Sartre’s philosophy are
terrified by the fact that since nothing can truly
be defined, nothing can truly exist
• They argue that if nothing can truly exist, then
existence itself can’t exist
• Nothing exists, therefore the only thing that we
can know is nothingness
Freedom
• Understanding that the only true reality is nothingness brings us
freedom
• With the absence of truth in morals and values (etc.), there are no
limitations to our actions!
• So, take for example Christians, who govern by the law of God. They
have concluded that God does not exist. Now they are allowed to do
anything they want! Since everything that they had used as regulation
in their lives no longer exists, there is no reason why they should limit
their actions at all. They are free!
• Since we are free, it would be unjust to blame any of the problems in
our lives on anyone other than ourselves
• Since only nothingness exists, it is within our power to determine that
these problems we experience don’t even exist. The only reason that
we experience problems, therefore, is because we invented (gave false
meaning to) them ourselves
The False Self
• Due to the fact that the only true reality is nothingness, we are given
complete freedom to define ourselves however we wish…
• (Even though these definitions are truly false and meaningless lies, because
the self doesn’t exist)
• Our freedom in creating a meaningless identity for ourselves can be taken
away by interacting with other people. Sartre calls this “Hell”
• By interacting with other people, we become slaves to their false
perceptions and definitions of us.
• This takes away our freedom of defining ourselves, because we are now
limited to the limitations that they have imposed upon us in their own
perceptions
• So basically, we no longer have the freedom to define ourselves by
whatever (false) identity we choose, because there is now another
perception that conflicts with our own
• Regardless, in the end, both of our perceptions are equally just as false,
though it is more comforting to be able to create your own identity, than to
be subject to that which another person has created for you
What???
As meaningless as identity, definition, and existence
are, we continue to persevere by giving our existence
meaning, even though that meaning is false, so that we
are at least in control of our own existence… even if it is
all false.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Palmer Book
• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sartre/