Jean-Paul Sartre & Existentialism

Quel Est Existentialisme?In Sartres words, existence precedes essenceAbsolute freedom: We are condemned to be freeLife is essentially meaningless

Does this mean theres no point to my existence?

So if everythings left up to me, it doesnt really matter what I do, does it?

You are still responsible for your own actions!

Lets Talk About Nothingness! Being and Nothingness (Freedom and Responsibility)War: There are no innocent victimsWhy was I born?

Who would Sartre blame for the Creatures condition in Frankenstein? Why? Is this a valid argument?

On a similar note, would an existentialist agree with Rousseaus justification for his behavior?

Is Sartre right?Are we entirely responsible for ourselves?What about nature vs. nurture?Is there any inherent meaning in life? Does our freedom to choose really induce us to take responsibility for ourselves?If I know Im going to die in the end, why should I bother to worry about the effects of my actions?

BibliographyBanach, David. Ethics of Absolute Freedom. Saint Anselm College. .Drake, Tom. Existentialism Shorty Notes. .Drake, Tom. Existentialism. .Existential Ethics. Lander University. .Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Eds. Sarah Lawall, et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006. 2104-06.Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism Is a Humanism. Marxists Internet Archive. .

Sartre is extremely important in Western culture, and heres why:One of the central figures in existentialist philosophyFamous works include Nausea, No Exit, Being and Nothingness, and Existentialism and HumanismJust a review from Monday as to the definition of this term. Also, I thought it seemed like some of us were confused about meaninglessness on Monday, so well go more into that:Sartre sums it up rather succinctly:Life is nothing until it is lived; but it is yours to make sense of, and the value of it is nothing else but the sense that you chooseExistence precedes essence:No innate nature--TABULA RASA. We create ourselves. Also see Descartes' influence: I think, therefore I am.Absolute freedom:There is no overarching absolute morality; we make ourselves through our own choices, and those choices alone. Contrast this with Romanticism, which claims societal influences shape the people we become.Life is essentially meaninglessdue to the lack of an overarching morality

NO! We enter life without meaning, but as Sartre said in Existentialism is a Humanism, this philosophy confronts man with a possibility of choice. That is, because there is no ultimate truth, you are free to make your own decisions and create your own meaning. Our lives have meaning because we choose to make them so! There is no reality except in action! This has roots in Nietzsche's concept of the Overman: as we learned last week, Nietzsche envisioned individuals strong enough to make their own decisions and create their own meaning of life.So to clarify meaninglessness, what existentialists mean is that life on its own (as in the basic biological function) has no meaning. Meaning develops from the actions we take, and no external factors.Interestingly, Sartre also claims that when we make choices for ourselves, we are making choices for all of humanity; when we make decisions for ourselves, we are acting as we think all people should act; we are creating our ideal image of humanity (in fashioning myself I fashion man). This gives us as individuals a massive amount of responsibility. Again, no! This is nihilism--the philosophy that because life has no inherent meaning, we should give up on a meaningful existence. This is the route Captain Kurtz took in H of D--he saw the meaninglessness of existence and began to live purely for himself. Existentialism, on the other hand, seeks to construct meaning out of a life lacking it. We cant just say this is the best of all possible worlds so whatever like Pangloss might. The decisions you make are very important--remember when I mentioned our freedom makes us responsible? Sartre uses reproduction as an example. One has to make a choice about it, even if that choice is to do nothing. A person can choose to not have children or not, but whatever they choose, they have to take responsibility for those actions--they effect more people than just that individual.Sartres No Exit is a great example of individual responsibility; three characters end up in hell together, as a result of their own cowardly and selfish actions. They try to dodge their responsibility throughout the play, but in the end, they must face the fact that they have no one to blame but themselves for their damnation.If anything we are rendered MORE responsible than we would be in a moral, ordered universe; if there is no higher truth or morality, who can we blame but ourselves? We cant blame God, we cant blame the Devil, or the Man and society conspiring against usIn a way, its like Candide saying we must tend our garden. In the end our choices and actions are what make existence have any meaning. Our gardens only turn out the way we do because we chose to make them that way.The Excerpt from Being and Nothingness has 2 major parts:The issue of war, and the issue of birthSartre directly addresses the concepts weve been discussingWarThe statement There are no innocent victims is shocking to read at first, but Sartre is making the point that at every step in lifes journey we make the choice as to what happens to us. You may be obligated to participate in a war due to conscription or defense, but you could always desert or kill yourself, too. For lack of getting out of it, I have CHOSEN it. I didnt ask to be bornYou might try to abandon your responsibility by saying this. Sartre argues you cant escape choice. Even if you want to abandon responbility and be passive, you are still making that decision, which allocates responsibility to you. Even if you resent being alive, you recognize you are alive, and Sartre claims that in a way this means you choose life. Everything comes back to CHOICE

Are we responsible?Is there such a thing as an inherent meaning? Does human nature exist? What about nature versus nurture? If an alcoholics father was an alcoholic as well, is there something greater than choice at play here?Our good friend Calvin Sartres Biography:http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/sartre.htmBasic Overview of Existentialism:http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/existentialism.htmReally Detailed Overview of Existentialism:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/Detailed Description of Sartres Philosophy:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sartre/