Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

(1946)

(some of)Sartre’s 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)

which he REFUSED on the grounds that such honors could interfere with a writer's responsibilities to his readers.

Sartre was awarded

Sartre did not believe in “bourgeois marriage,” but

he had an intimate life partnership from the late 1920s until his death in

1980 with . . . .

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 (1949–50), 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.”

So, Sartre,

What is Existentialism?

“Existence” is Prior to “Essence”

Text, 215-217

S’s “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?

I find a difference between subjects & objects, between persons & things, between beings that are conscious & beings

that are not conscious.

What is the difference?

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).

I exist first, & then I take on an essence through my own actions, through my own manner of existing & acting.

"What is meant here by saying that existence precedesessence? It means that, first of all, the human individualexists, turns up, appears in the world, and, onlyafterwards, defines himself. If the human individual, asthe existentialist thinks of him, is indefinable, it is becauseat first he is nothing. Only afterward will he besomething, and he himself will have made what he will be.Thus, there is no human nature, since there is no God toconceive of it. Not only is the human individual what heconceives himself to be, but he is also only what he willshimself to be after this thrust toward existence." (217)

Self-Creation &Personal Responsibility

Text, 217-219

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.

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.

(219)

“Therefore, I am responsible for myself and for everyone else” (219).

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,

Anguish,Forlornness,& Despair

Text, 219-228

Existential Anguish

a response to the burden of responsibility

"First, what do we mean by anguish?The existentialists say . . . that man isanguish. This means that the man whoinvolves himself and who realizes thathe is not only the person he chooses tobe, but also a lawmaker who is, at thesame time, choosing all humankind aswell as himself, cannot escape thefeeling of his total and deepresponsibility." (219)

What’s wrong with the following claims?

“But everyone doesn’t 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.”

Existential Forlornness

a response to the non-existence of God

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.

Looking for answers

How to resolve moral dilemmas: A student’s struggle with conflicting moral obligations (223-6).

How to define the meaning of one’s life: A young priest’s interpretation of the “signs” (226-7).

How do these examples illustrate Sartre’s explanation of existential forlornness?

Existential Despair

a response to the unreliability of others(relying on what is subject to one’s own will, not on

things or persons external to one’s will)

A Philosophy of Action

Text, 229-231

Existential Subjectivity

Text, 231-234

The Unavoidability of Choice& the Call of Freedom

(Text, 234-235)

Existentialist Humanism

Text, 235-236

Finis