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SARTRE’S PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
•
Sartre felt most at home in cafés and restaurants where he could annex space by
dominating the conversation and exhaling smoke…. But, like Kafka, he never felt
more free than when he was writing, creating an imaginary space. Paper as magic
carpet; pen as wand…. After a paradisal infancy centered on the belief that he was
beautiful, he systematically tried to reject his body. To reassure his mind that it had
nothing to fear from sibling rivalry with his mal-treated body he consistently ignored
all messages [his body] sent out. He resisted fatigue, treated pain as if it were a
challenge. To step up his productivity he made reckless use of… stimulants, taking
sedatives when he wanted to relax. He resented the time he had to spend on
washing, shaving, cleaning his teeth, taking a bath, excreting, and he would
economize by carrying on conversations… through the bathroom door. He had no
personal vanity…. When his smoke-stained teeth began to decay, he refused to
waste time on seeing a dentist…. He took immeasurable pride in his intellect —
“I’ve got a golden brain.” (Ronald Hayman, Sartre: A Biography (New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1987), pp. 21-22.
•
According to his various biographers, even Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre was a man
obsessed with his own intellect, to the neglect of almost all else. He was always
certain of his own value to society as a philosopher and writer, always taking the
opportunity to demonstrate his superior mind.
•
Sartre untiring in his pursuit of philosophical reflection, literary creativity. But in the
second half of his life, he became active in his political commitment which gained
him worldwide acclaim. He is regarded as the father of Existentialist philosophy,
and his writings set the tone for intellectual life in the years that followed the
Second World War
Early Life
•
•
Jean-Paul Sartre was born 21 June 1905 in Paris, the only child of Jean-Baptiste
and Anne-Marie Sartre, his parents came from distinguished families. JeanBaptiste Sartre was the son of Dr. Eymard Sartre, a noted country doctor in the
Dordogne region of France. Sartre’s mother was the first cousin of Albert
Schweitzer, the famous German missionary.
Eymard Sartre was a cynical and unhappy man. He had married the daughter of
a pharmacist, under the impression her family was well-positioned. Much like his
grandson Jean-Paul, it is clear that Eymard cared a great deal about his social
status. Eymard had written several medical texts; he published his first work in his
early twenties. Anne-Marie Schweitzer was the daughter of Karl “Charles”
Schweitzer. While the uncle of famed thinker Albert Schweitzer, Karl was famous
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in his own right. Karl had published several texts on religion, philosophy and
languages. In fact, Karl was the co-author of a series of texts on English, German,
and French. With two authors for grandfathers, Jean-Paul Sartre might have been
destined to write
•
Jean-Baptiste Sartre and Anne-Marie Schweitzer married on 5 May 1904, in Paris.
The two were truly in love, Anne-Marie completely dedicated to her husband. Both
families seem to have been pleased by the marriage. When Jean-Paul was born
his father Jean-Baptiste, was away on a naval assignment. Upon his return he was
happy to see his son was. Sadly however, Jean-Baptiste had contracted
entercolitis (infection of large intestines) during a voyage to China; he became ill
in 1906, and was forced to leave the navy. The young family moved to a farm near
Eymard Sartre's residence. And one year after Jean-Paul birth his father in 1906,
at the age of 32. Jean-Paul would later write: "The death of Jean-Baptiste was my
greatest piece of good fortune. I didn't even have to forget him,"
•
After the death of Jean-Paul's father, his mother moved into her parent's home.
His grandfather was a strict man, dedicated to learning, while his mother pampered
young Jean-Paul. The year's living in the Schweitzer house affected Sartre for his
entire life. Anne-Marie and Jean-Paul shared a room in the Schweitzer residence.
Anne-Marie found herself treated like a child by her domineering father and escape
his oppressive personality, she showered her young son with attention, often
treating him like a toy or a doll.
•
Karl Schweitzer presided over others with his size and personality. His
commanding voice intimidated others. Karl knew he was still attractive, and sought
to prove his virility at every chance. As Jean-Paul grew, he saw this "religious" man
conduct numerous affairs, including one with a former student. Anne-Marie came
to despise her father's behavior, as did her son. Curiously, Sartre would engage in
numerous affairs and empty relationships throughout his life.
•
Physically, Jean-Paul was not attractive. From an early illness, Sartre lost most of
his vision in one eye. This eye seemed to look askance, as if Sartre was not paying
attention. Worse, it was clear the boy was destined to be short and awkward.
Without his curly long hair and fancy clothes, Sartre's ugliness was obvious -- even
to his mother.
•
Some children did not hide their disdain for young Jean-Paul's appearance. His
lack of physical size and his odd appearance made him a target for abuse. He
began to show signs of a vindictive and angry personality. Jean-Paul's only comfort
was his self-confidence; he knew he was smarter than other children.
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•
Karl also knew his grandson was smart. From seven generations of teachers, Karl
was eager to tutor young Jean-Paul. In fact, Karl was quite proud of his "little man"
as a student. Curiously, Sartre would deny in several essays and his
autobiographies that he had been tutored by his grandfather. Karl, despite JeanPaul's statements to the contrary, was an excellent tutor and was dedicated to his
grandson's success.
•
When he was eight, Sartre received some puppets from his mother which inspired
him to write scripts and stage shows. He slowly gained a small group of friends, or
at least children willing to tolerate him in return for entertainment. Sartre enjoyed
the attention associated with his shows; he had learned that people like a
performer.
•
When Germany declared war in 1914, Sartre was caught up in the frenzy of
nationalism he even wrote a short story about a young French private who
captures the Kaiser. To prove he is superior to the German, the young Frenchman
challenges the Kaiser to a fist fight and wins. Jean-Paul was writing constantly; he
felt a sense of power and control while writing.
•
In 1915, Jean-Paul enrolled at Lycée Henri IV, a well-regarded school. At the
school, he easily made friends and demonstrated an abundance of wit. One
teacher noted that Sartre possessed an excellent mind, but lacked mental
discipline; Jean-Paul did not refine his thoughts. This is a personality trait that
Sartre never outgrew, his mind would race from topic to topic, never focused long
enough to refine a thought, this tendency also resulted in careless errors.
The Stepchild & Rebel
•
When Sartre was twelve years old, his mother decided to get married again. Sartre
viewed this decision as a betrayal on the part of his mother. Sartre had grown
unusually close to his mother and demanded all her attentions. His mother has
been a consolation of sort from the tension between him and the dominant
patriarchs in his family which lasted for his entire life. Sartre rebelled against his
grandfather and he quickly rebelled against Mancy - his stepfather. He was
constantly in trouble, fought with fellow students often enough that he regularly
served after-school detention.
•
His parents began to worry that Sartre would become a thug -- a common thief or
even worse. Sartre stole money from his mother's room and then lied about doing
so. His behavior was too much for his stepfather to accept so in 1920, Mancy
realizing that he could not control young Jean-Paul, decided to send Sartre to Paris
to study at the Lycée Henri IV; Sartre would be a boarder at the school.
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Ecole Normale Supérieure
•
In August of 1924, Sartre placed seventh on the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS)
entrance exams, which are to this day highly competitive. During Sartre's first year
at ENS, he was one of only five students of philosophy. The "Normaliens," as ENS
students were known, tended to study theology, psychology, and the classics.
Philosophy, at least during the 1920s, had fallen from favor, being viewed as a
topic without application. Sartre enjoyed the study of psychology and studied and
critiqued Freud throughout his writings.
•
He read a lot of classic literature, and while he claimed that he did not read the
"classics" while at ENS, library records indicate Sartre checked out hundreds of
books, many of them classics. Reading hundreds of works gave Sartre a vast
amount of information from which to construct his papers as a student.
•
Unfortunately, Sartre was still as disorganized intellectually, some of his teachers
observed that Sartre would base papers upon theories he only partially understood
and he was quick to draw conclusions. However, his gift with words sometimes
masked Sartre's ignorance or even intentional errors. His eloquence served Sartre
as a substitute for any depth of knowledge.
•
Simone de Beauvoir • In 1928, Jean-Paul placed last -- fiftieth -- in his class at the
Sorbonne on his agrégation, a form of exit exam. The topic of Sartre's paper had
been Nietzsche's writings and "contingency." That was difficult for Sartre to accept,
who considered himself quite smart. However, this failure would serve to be the
most important event in his life. He was forced to wait for another examination, and
while waiting for his next examination he met Simone de Beauvoir.
•
Sartre and de Beauvoir were intellectual match. De Beauvoir offered Sartre
emotional and professional companionship throughout his life. For the next
agrégation the two studied together. Sartre placed first on the exam this time, and
de Beauvoir placed second. Somehow throughout their life together, this is how
they are remembered: together one right after the other.
•
• The love affair of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre is the most
unconventional of relationships. They were never exclusive, both having other
lovers at different times in their lives. The pair never lived together and marriage
was definitely out of the question for both -- it represented society's view of
relationships. According to many sources, they addressed each other formerly, as
colleagues more than romantic lovers.
•
They helped influence the way the world views the concept of the Self and its
relation to personal freedom. Together they challenged the way we view
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commitments and relationships. Simone de Beauvoir, like Sartre, was responsible
for shaping the post-war minds of France and the world. Her book The Second
Sex has frequently been considered the spark that fueled the modern feminist
movement of the 1960’s. Sartre and de Beauvoir kept their pact of transparency,
being totally open and honest about their lives. These two great minds had the
personal resolve and dedication to this philosophy, and also that they chose to
pursue it hand and hand.
First Encounter with Phenomenology
•
One night while in Paris, Sartre and de Beauvoir were drinking with a school friend,
Raymond Aron, and in the course of their conversation Aron mentioned about
phenomenology. He used a beer mug to illustrate phenomenology, discussing the
mug's properties and essence. Sartre was intrigued, so he began to read about
this school of philosophy. In 1933 Jean-Paul went to Berlin to study the lectures of
Edmund Husserl. After a year, Sartre returned to teaching with new enthusiasm.
When Sartre published the novel Nausea in 1938, he included a phenomenological
analysis of a glass of beer in the novel, as a tribute to Raymond Aron.
•
When World War II broke, Sartre was enlisted in the military once again. Sartre
served in the meteorological service, launching weather balloons. Unfortunately,
Sartre was captured on 21 June 1940. While in the stalag, Sartre spend much of
his time writing what was to become Being and Nothingness. According to one
biographer, Sartre neglected himself while imprisoned, washing rarely, failing to
shave, and developing a reputation for being rather foul. Sartre escaped in March
1941 and managed to return to Paris and somehow returned to his teaching post.
Existentialism and Politics
•
• In June 1943, Sartre's anti-Nazi play The Flies opened at a Paris theatre, after
40 performances it closed but left quite an impression among the artistic
community of Paris. After the war Sartre found himself famous --and
"existentialism" was the philosophy to study. Sartre spread his idea through his
editorship of the magazine, Les Temps Modernes, a publication was named for
the Charlie Chaplin film Modern Times.
•
As existentialism grew in popularity Sartre slowly left the philosophy that had
brought him fame. Sartre claimed a "conversion" to Marxism. Such move to the
political left was partly influenced by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. As the Cold War
developed, Sartre came to support the Soviet Union. However, his support of
Soviet Communism cost him of his friendship with Albert Camus.
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• In 1960 Sartre published his work in defense of Marxism, The Critique of
Dialectical Reason. It was meant to be two volumes, but the second was
abandoned by Sartre before completion. The unfinished work was published after
Sartre's death. In The Critique, Sartre tried to defend "pure" Marxism as respecting
individual freedoms, unfortunately however for Sartre, most people saw Marxism
as it existed in the Soviet Union, as a system curtailing human freedom.
•
In 1964, Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He refused to accept
the award on "political" grounds. In 1968, Paris university students rebelled and
called for various reforms. Sartre's support of the students caused him problems
with both the left and the right in France. The right leaning supporters of President
de Gaulle thought Sartre contributed to the protests. The French Communist Party
did not support the students, thinking their demands for liberalized education
unreasonable. Both the left and right in France considered the universities fine as
they were.
Last Years
•
From 1968 until his death, Sartre embodied the left, socially and politically. He
stopped wearing suits and ties, protested the Vietnam War, and found a new
following in student "radicals" in both Europe and America. By the late 1970s,
Jean-Paul Sartre's body began to rebel. He smoked two packs of cigarettes a day,
drank heavily, and used amphetamines while writing. For all this talk about logic
and individual will, Sartre could not stop his bad habits.
•
On April 15, 1980, Sartre died. Simone de Beauvoir attempted to spend the night
next to his body, but hospital employees removed her from his bed. She had loved
him since they met to study for the agrégation. Sartre's popularity might have
diminished by the end of his life, but his death brought forth the kind of emotional
displays normally reserved for great political leaders. More than 50,000 people
lined the streets of Paris for Sartre's funeral procession on 19 April 1980. Sartre's
ashes were buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery. Later, Simone de Beauvoir's
ashes were buried next to his.
Works
•
Emotions: Outline of a Theory, Essay: 1936 (L'Imagination) •
Transcendence of the Ego, Text: 1937 (La Trascendance de l'Ego) •
Nausea, Novel: 1938 (La Nausée) • Being and Nothingness, Essay: 1943
(L'Etre el le Néant) • The Flies, Play: 1943 (Les Mouches) • No Exit, Play:
1944 (Huis Clos) • The Age of Reason, Novel: 1945 (L'Age de raison) •
Existentialism and Human Emotions, Text: 1946 (L'Existentialisme est un
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humanisme) • Anti-Semite and Jew, Essay: 1946 (Réflexions sur la
question juive, written 1943) • The Respectful Prostitute, Play: 1947 • Dirty
Hands, Text: 1948 (Les Mains sales) • Saint Genêt, Biography: 1952 • The
Critique of Dialectical Reason, Text: 1960 • The Family Idiot, Critique: 1982
Philosophical Influences
•
Sartre spent most of his life in Paris. After a traditional philosophical education in
prestigious Parisian schools that introduced him to the history of Western
philosophy with a bias toward Cartesianism and neo-Kantianism, he went to the
French Institute in Berlin where he read the leading phenomenologists of the day,
Husserl, Heidegger and Scheler. He appreciated Husserl's restatement of the
principle of intentionality (all consciousness aims at or “intends” another-thenconsciousness) that seemed to free the thinker from the inside/outside
epistemology inherited from Descartes while retaining the immediacy and
certainty that Cartesians hold so highly.
•
In his masterwork, Being and Nothingness Sartre tackles Heidegger’s version of
Husserlian intentionality by insisting that human reality (Heidegger's Dasein) is “in
the world” primarily via its practical concerns and not its epistemic relationships
as Husserl intended. This lends both Heidegger's and Sartre's early philosophies
a kind of “pragmatist” character that Sartre, at least, will never abandon.
•
Sartre may have read the phenomenological ethicist Max Scheler, whose concept
of the intuitive grasp of model individuals is illustrated in Sartre's reference to the
“image” of the kind of person one should be that both guides and is fashioned by
moral choices. But Scheler following the Husserlian idea argues for the
“discovery” of such value images, Sartre on the other hand insists on their
creation. Here Sartre’s “existentialist” version of phenomenology is already in
evident.
•
Sartre was also influenced by Marxist ideas. Although he was not a serious reader
of Hegel or Marx until during and after the war he came under the influence of
Alexandre Kojève's Marxist and proto-existentialist interpretation of Hegel. Kojeve
was a Russian born French Marxist philosopher who introduced Hegel into the
20th century French philosophy. But it was Jean Hyppolite's translation of and
commentary on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit that marked Sartre's closer
study of the seminal German philosopher.
•
In his last years, Sartre became almost totally blind. Yet he continued to work with
the help of a tape recorder, producing with Benny Lévy portions of a “co-authored”
ethics, the published parts of which indicate that its value is more biographical
than philosophical. After his death, thousands spontaneously joined his funeral
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cortège in a memorable tribute to his respect and esteem among the public at
large. The headline of one Parisian newspaper lamented: “France has lost its
conscience.”
Phenomenology and Ontology
•
•
Sartre’s task was to develop a phenomenological ontology, that is, to study the
way the world is revealed through the structures of consciousness. Through the
study of the structures of consciousness, Sartre believes that this will provide us
with an ontology, or an account of what the world must be like for experience to
be the way it is.
Sartre’s philosophy owes much to Heidegger, but there are certain differences
between the two. For Sartre, the standpoint of the human subject is the beginning
and the end of his philosophy which means that he studied the human individual
condition for the sake of the meaning of existence of the human individual. For
Heidegger on the other hand, while the starting point is the Dasein, his philosophy
must end up with ‘being.’ For Sartre, human consciousness confronts a totality of
being that is alien and meaningless as Sartre emphasized human willing and
action. This thinking goes with it a kind of subjectivism that Heidegger tried to
avoid. For Sartre we must make our way in the world by subjectively creating
meaning rather than having it by “letting be” as Heidegger proposed.
•
Like Husserl and Heidegger, Sartre distinguished ontology from metaphysics and
favored the former. For Sartre, ontology is primarily descriptive and classificatory;
ontology is a description of human existence. Metaphysics on the other hand
purports to be causally explanatory, offering accounts about the ultimate origins
and ends of individuals and of the universe as a whole.
•
His Being and Nothingness is subtitled a “Phenomenological Ontology.” Its
descriptive method moves from the most abstract to the highly concrete. It
analyzes two distinct and irreducible categories or kinds of being: the in-itself (ensoi) and the for-itself (pour-soi), roughly the nonconscious and consciousness
respectively, adding a third, the for-others (pour-autrui).
•
Being-in-Itself. Sartre applied the French "en-soi," which loosely means "in-self,"
to describe the state of being of objects -- things without self-awareness. Sartre's
"Being-in-Itself" represents the idea that only concrete phenomena have any
ontological status; only the concrete is real. Husserl's approach to phenomenology
was embraced by Sartre as a basis for existential exploration. To simplify this
concept, Sartre might state that a rock is a rock -- it cannot change what it is. In
this manner, Sartre suggests there is facticity, or truth, in the existence of some
objects.
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•
Being-for-Itself. In contrast to "Being-in-Itself" is Sartre's "Being-for-Itself" -- a state
of self-awareness and control. Walter Kaufmann explains the differences thusly:
The pour-soi (for-itself) is that being which is aware of itself: man.
•
Sartre's "Being-for-Itself" describes human consciousness as possessing the
characteristics of incompleteness and potency, with an indeterminate structure.
The absence of a Creator leaves man without a predefined nature. Without a
nature, individuals are nothingness. In effect, the essence of man is a complete
lack of everything. Nothingness, Sartre thought, was freedom and free will.
Applying this definition of nothingness to individuals, mankind is freedom. Sartre
contended that not only was the individual free, but the essence of mankind was
freedom. As a result of this freedom, individuals are responsible for all their actions
and thoughts.
•
• I am responsible for everything... except for my very responsibility, for I am not
the foundation of my being. Therefore everything takes place as if I were
compelled to be responsible. I am abandoned in the world... in the sense that I
find myself suddenly alone and without help, engaged in a world for which I bear
the whole responsibility without being able, whatever I do, to tear myself away
from this responsibility for an instant.
o Being and Nothingness, "Being and Doing: Freedom”
•
Only the in-itself is conceivable as substance or “thing.” The for-itself is a no- thing,
the internal negation of things. The principle of identity holds only for being-initself.
•
Being-in-itself and being-for-itself have mutually exclusive characteristics The
initself is solid, self-identical, passive and inert. It simply “is.” The for-itself is fluid,
nonself-identical, and dynamic. It is the internal negation or “nihilation” of the
initself, on which it depends. Viewed more concretely, this duality is cast as
“facticity” and “transcendence.” Human beings are entities that combine both,
which is the ontological root of our ambiguity.
•
• The “givens” of our situation such as our language, our environment, our
previous choices and our very selves in their function as in-itself constitute our
facticity. But as conscious individuals, we transcend (surpass) this facticity in what
constitutes our “situation.” In other words, we are beings “in situation,” but the
precise mixture of transcendence and facticity that forms any situation remains
indeterminable, at least while we are engaged in it. Hence Sartre concludes that
we are always “more” than our situation and that this is the ontological foundation
of our freedom. We are “condemned” to be free.
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• The category or ontological principle of the “for-others” comes into play as soon
as the other subject or Other appears to us. The Other cannot be deduced from
the two previous principles but must be encountered. This is illustrated by Sartre's
analysis of the shame one experiences at being discovered in an embarrassing
situation. Such situation carries the immediacy and the certainty of our perception
of other “minds.”
Existence Before Essence
•
Sartre is responsible for the dictum that existentialism is best known for: existence
precedes essence, (but these has a different definition from the Aristotelian
concepts). For existentialism only man "exists," (Heidegger insisted that only man
"exists" in the sense that only man can stand out of his existence and evaluate his
own existence). Hence, man's existence is different from other objects in the world.
The essence of a thing is the set of its defining properties. For Sartre an entity’s
essence precedes its existence only if it is a manufacture object or article; with
respect to such article or object, we can inquire what is it or what is it for. The initial
ideas, for example, of the statue in the sculpture’s mind or the blueprint of an
architect, are examples of how the essences of created things precede their actual
existence.
•
But for human beings, there is no such blueprint of how we would be or how or
what we are. Sartre was clear in his description, he wrote:
o "It means that first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene and
only afterwards defines himself." (The Humanism of Existentialism from
Essays on Existentialism)
o • Thus man exists first and gradually creates and defines his own essence.
•
Therefore, Sartre stressed: "Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
Such is the first principle of existentialism...man first exists, that is that man first of
all is the being who hurls himself toward a future and who is conscious of imagining
himself as being in the future." (THE from EE.)
•
Rather than being an essence, man is the structureless phenomenon of
consciousness in the world. Man as consciousness, as a for-itself, is purely
transparent, volatile self-projection continually negating the staticity, structure and
heaviness of the in-itself. "Man at the start is a plan which is aware of itself...nothing
exists prior to this plan." (THE from EE. p.36.)
•
Hence for Sartre, nothing at the core of a person defines what he is. We cannot
describe someone as naturally selfish, aggressive, good, social, rational, nor
assigns a universal essence to him. One is social, only when he chooses to engage
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in social activities, but this does not define what or who he is. But while there is no
universal human nature there is a universal human condition. • We all face the
same challenges, same questions, same limitations, but within these existential
structures we respond in our own unique way.
•
Situation • Existentialism stressed the situated character of man's existence. For
Sartre situation is "my position in the midst of the world defined by the relation
between the instrumental utility or adversity in the realities which surround me and
my facticity." (Being and Nothingness)
•
Situation cannot be considered as set of constraints to which man is subject.
Situation stems from the illumination of constraints by freedom which gives to it its
meaning as constraints. (BAN, Being and Doing) Sartre further stressed:
•
But precisely because I project myself toward an end across a world of relations, I
now meet with consequences, with linked series, with complexes, and I must
determine to act according to laws. These laws and the way I make use of them
decide the failure or success of my attempts. But it is through freedom that lawful
relations come into the world. Thus freedom enchains itself in the world as a free
project toward ends. (BAN p. 551/ BAD p. 276.)
•
Sartre emphasized that it is useless to talk about action without cause, or end or
motive, for there cannot be any action without cause or motive, and such does not
concern the question of freedom. And although there is no act which does not have
any motive or cause, "it is the act which decides its ends and motives and the act
is the expression of freedom." (BAN. p. 414.)
•
Thus, Sartre although maintaining that there is always a situation from which man
chooses, its influence upon man's freedom is inconsequential, the past has no
effect on man's choices, man does not choose in the light of past choices.
Human Freedom
•
When existentialists talk about freedom they refer to personal freedom, that is the
power of the person over his actions, his person and self. The person has the
capacity to determine his action and his self. Man as a subject determines himself,
it is he who creates his personality, he is the product of his own decision; he cannot
be the product of any form of determination, whether social, economic or biological.
•
Sartre asserts that it is through freedom that man defines his essence. Freedom
makes possible the essence of man, and man cannot escape this freedom. Human
freedom precedes essence in man and makes it possible; the essence of the
human being is suspended in his freedom. What we call freedom is impossible to
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distinguish from the being of "human reality." (BAN) Man's essence is freedom and
we cannot distinguish his being and freedom. His being is his freedom; he does
not exist and later on becomes free. Sartre wrote: "Man does not exist first in order
to be free subsequently; there is no difference between the being of man and his
being free." (BAN)
•
How does Sartre explain the relation of the past to man's future or present project?
Sartre said that the meaning of the past is strictly dependent on my present project.
This means that the fundamental project which I am, decides absolutely the
meaning which the past can have for me and for others. I alone can decide at each
moment the significance of the past, by projecting myself toward my ends I
preserve the past with me and by action I decide its action. (BAN. p. 498.)
Responsibility
•
•
With such great emphasis on the freedom of man, Sartre declared that man is
condemned to be free and he carries the whole world on his shoulders, he is
responsible for the world and for himself as a way of being. (BAN p. 553/ BAD
p.277) Being the uncontestable author of an event and of himself; he is
accountable for it.
Man must assume the situation with the proud consciousness of being the author
of it, for it acquires meaning only in and through his project. It is senseless
therefore to complain since nothing alien has decided what we fell, what we live
and what we are. "In this sense the responsibility of the for-itself is overwhelming
since he is the one by whom it happens that there is a world." (BAN.)
Responsibility then is a logical consequence of freedom.
Bad Faith and Authenticity
•
Sartre warns us against the trap of labeling ourselves for this only denies our
freedom. One may say, I am conservative or this and that. People can put labels
on others by referring to them as this kind of person or that kind of leader. Labels
become our identity only because we make them so.
•
The attempt to deny our freedom is called by Sartre as bad faith. In bad faith, we
see ourselves as products of our circumstances, or the attempt to identity
ourselves with our past choices while closing off our future possibilities. In bad
faith, we become an ‘in-itself’ a being that is defined or has a fixed identity. As free
individuals, we must exercise our freedom and create or invent our own essences.
ANGELO ESPINAS
EXISTENTIALISM
•
FOR DISCUSION PURPOSE ONLY
For Sartre, only when we take our responsibility for the meaning of our past and
present and self-consciously choose our future, will we achieve authenticity.
Authenticity is the true value in an otherwise valueless universe.
The Gaze and Others as Hell
•
Man is not alone in the world. He must accommodate himself with others who are
also fighting to exist. The For-Itself (i.e. man) is also for others (pour autrui). He
meets others through the body, the physical manifestation of one’s being-in-theworld.
•
For Sartre, shame is the original feeling that brims about the realization of the
existence of others. Sartre uses the example of looking through a keyhole, an act
that – according to Sartre – induces a thrill because of the thought that someone
might realize that the peeper is looking through the keyhole. In that moment, one
sees oneself as other people would see him - as an object. Shame, therefore, is
the shame of oneself in the gaze of the other. It is the crushing realization that one
is a little more to others than the physical manifestation of one’s body in their sight.
•
The Other is a scandal: the Other holds the power to regard one as somebody that
he is not. The gaze of others exposes the person and makes him weak and fragile,
turns him into an object of gaze.
•
“If there is an Other, whatever or whoever he may be, whatever may be his
relations with me, and without his acting upon me in any way except by the pure
upsurge of his being – then I have an outside, I have an essence. “ (Being and
Nothingness, p. 321)
•
The only defense left at one’s disposal is to transform others, to turn them into an
object for one’s own consciousness and with his own characterization. The self
must rid ourselves of others, to escape and to reclaim oneself and the freedom
that the Other’s gaze is depriving him of. Consciousness invents this subterfuge to
continue to exist as a subject. This is an effort of the self to resist the attempted
subordination of the self by the gaze of the Other.
Notion of God
•
Sartre’s notion of God can be summarized in these propositions: God as a perfect
being is a contradiction; and the idea of God as a creator denies man of the
opportunity to create his own essence through his freedom. Consequently, the
affirmation of God's existence would negate the recognition of man's freedom.
Hence God's existence must be denied. God the Perfect Being: A Contradiction
in Itself
ANGELO ESPINAS
EXISTENTIALISM
FOR DISCUSION PURPOSE ONLY
•
Sartre conceived God as a perfect being. Such a being can only be one who is at
the same time "in-itself" and "for-itself." This follows from the idea of Sartre that
there are only two beings, the 'in-self' and the 'for-itself.' The 'in-itself' is full and
massive; it manifests perfection and fullness of being, however it is unconscious.
The 'for-itself' is conscious and ontologically emerges after the 'in-itself,' it is
fundamentally a lack of being and insufficient, this very lack is express in desire.
•
God to be a perfect being must have the same qualities of the 'in-itself' and the
'for-itself.' But such combination is an impossibility, for God cannot be both
conscious and unconscious, he cannot be both fullness of being and lack of being.
Thus the idea of God as a Perfect Being is a contradiction.
God as the Superior Artisan
•
Sartre also described God, the Creator as superior artisan. In the factory, he said,
the manufacturer already has an idea of every object that he creates. Thus every
object in his shop follows exactly what he has in mind. God is like this
manufacturer, a superior artisan. As a superior artisan, when he creates, knows
exactly what he is creating.
•
"Thus the concept of man in the mind of God is comparable to the concept of a
paper-cutter in the mind of the manufacturer... Thus the individualized man is the
realization of a certain concept in the divine intelligence." (THE from EE. p. 35.)
•
When God created man he knows exactly the nature of man, and man cannot be
but what God created him to be. Sartre opposed such view for to accept God as
a creator is to deprive man of the opportunity to create himself. If God does not
exist there is nobody to define human nature. • It is therefore necessary to deny
his existence. "If God does not exist, there is at least one being in whom existence
precedes essence, a being who exists before he can be defined by any concept
and that this being is man." (THE from EE p. 35.)
Sartre’s Atheism
•
What influenced Sartre to be an atheist? What triggered this atheistic stand?
We find part of the answer in his autobiography, Les Mots (The Words). From
his autobiography we see that just like any existentialist whose philosophy was
very much influenced by his experiences and personal life, Sartre
philosophical stance on God was affected by his early experiences and his
personal life.
ANGELO ESPINAS
EXISTENTIALISM
FOR DISCUSION PURPOSE ONLY
•
First of all, Sartre did not experience a truly Christian life. His grandfather
Charles Schweitzer used to ridicule Catholicism and his mother while not
approving the latter's attitude on Catholicism, tolerated it. In his autobiography,
Sartre admitted that he prayed although he got bored with the holy. He wrote:
In my nightshirt, kneeling on bed, with my hands together, I said my prayers
every day, but I thought of God less and less often. ("Les Mots" pp. 81-82.)
•
Sartre's denial of God stems mainly from his childhood experiences, especially
on the fact that his elders introduced to him the kind of God that he never
needed. He recounted that he was longing for the God who made him for his
glory but he could not recognize such God in the fashionable God that was
introduced to him. He was looking for a Creator, but instead he was introduced
to a "Big Boss."
•
• I felt myself superfluous, therefore I had to disappear... the more absurd life
was, the less bearable was death. I reached out for religion, I longed for it, was
the remedy. Had it been denied of me I would have invented it myself. Raised
in the catholic faith, I learned that the Almighty had made me for his glory. That
was more than I dared dream. But later, I did not recognize in the fashionable
God in whom I was told to believe the one whom my soul was awaiting. I
needed a Creator, I was given a Big Boss.The two were one but I did not realize
it. I was serving without zeal, the Idol of the Pharisees. (Les Mots.)
•
The kind of God that he encountered in his early life was like his grandfather,
a "Big Boss" who would look at him in a very strange manner, that the only
fitting reaction is one of rebellion. In his autobiography Sartre describes it this
way:
o For several years longer, I kept up public relations with the Almighty; in
private I stopped associating with him. Only once I had the feeling that
He existed. I had been playing with matches and had burnt a mat; I was
busy covering up my crime when suddenly God saw me. I felt His gaze
inside my head and on my hands; I turned round and round in the
bathroom horribly visible, a living target. I was saved by indignation; I
grew angry at such a crude lack of tact, and blasphemed, muttering like
my grandfather: "Sacre nom de Dieu de nom de Dieu de nom de Dieu,"
He never looked at me again. (Les Mots.)
•
Hence much of Sartre's negative attitude towards religion and God were
influenced and triggered by this experience, which he called
"misunderstanding," "mistake" "accident."
ANGELO ESPINAS
EXISTENTIALISM
FOR DISCUSION PURPOSE ONLY
o Whenever anyone speaks to me about Him today, I say with the easy
amusement of an old beau who meets a former belle: Fifty years ago,
had it not been for that misunderstanding, that mistake, the accident
that separated us, there might have been something between us. (Les
Mots.)
•
If Sartre carried on his denial of God to the end even though it is not demonstrated
apodictically, it is because it is necessary, necessary both philosophically for his
philosophical stance on freedom and personally, for nothing will change if one
denies God.