Comparative World Philosophies Final
Jean-Paul Sartre—Existentialism
Jean-Paul Sartre was a major French intellectual in the existentialist movement. His lecture, Existentialism, dealt with defining and defending existentialism, and also with defining the assertion that we are free.
Sartre begins by pointing out that there are Christian existentialists and atheistic existentialist. Both forms of existentialism agree that “existence precedes essence.” This is an essential statement in his lecture, for it would appear that, if God exists and did create man, essence preceded existence. That is to say, God knew exactly what he was creating, thus making us determined—a product, or realization of a concept.
According to Sartre, if God does not exist, human reality is at least one being “in whom existence precedes essence.” This means that there is no such thing as human nature, for from this point of view, “man exists, turns up,” then goes about the task of defining himself since there is no God to determine his human nature. This is the first principle of existentialism—that man is what he makes himself. Prior to this point of definition that is an act of will, man is nothing. Sartre goes on to point out that although this definition is an act of will, the will is based on a plan rather than a want, since man is continually “conscious of imagining himself as being in the future.” As such, since we are responsible for what we are, and we are conscious of ourselves in the future, we are responsible, also, for all of mankind.
Sartre asserts that it is “impossible for man to transcend human subjectivity,” which is the act of “making” himself. This is the second essential principle of existentialism. Since we are responsible not only for ourselves, but also for mankind, when we choose our own self, we make the choice for all men. We do not just make ourselves what we want to be, but we make ourselves, and others, what we think man ought to be. Our choices create man’s image, and our actions affirm values. When we choose our acts, we ascribe value to them, and we will “always choose the good,” since Sartre feels that what is good for the individual will be good for all men.
It is because of this responsibility for mankind that Sartre feels “that man is anguish.” We must always realize that we are not the only ones involved when we do something. As Sartre believes, we should always be thinking about the consequence of our actions in consideration of the question, “What if everyone acted this way?” In other words, the scrutinizing eyes of humanity are our guiding forces in our choices.
Sartre uses this idea as support for the atheist perspective. He uses the idea of a form of divine intervention and questions how it is that one could prove this and be certain it is not a hallucination. Ultimately, the one who has been chosen as the messenger must question whether the advice given is good or true, and it is then the messenger who has the will to believe or not to believe. In other words, even orders that seem to come from above—especially those which are too broad—must be interpreted considering mankind. Existentialists feel that seeking omens, if they exist, is dangerous since many are likely to interpret the omens to suit themselves. Sartre feels that in cases where interpretation is necessary, the only thing we can trust is our instincts.
Existentialists are not ready “to abolish God with the least possible expense.” According to Sartre, they do not believe that God is useless. The existentialist is distressed that there is no God, because with that, the notion of an “a-priori Good” disappears since there was no perfect consciousness to conceive it. As such, “everything is permissible if God does not exist,” leaving man feeling forlorn. There are no pre-determined values or commands that we can use to excuse our conduct. As Sartre put it, “man is condemned to be free.” We did not choose to be in this world, but once we are here, we are responsible for ourselves.
According to Sartre, no given doctrine will show you how to live since we ultimately involve ourselves as our advisors. With that in mind, he leaves us with a doctrine of his own: “Man is nothing else than his plan; he exists only to the extent that he fulfills himself; he is therefore nothing else than the ensemble of his acts, nothing else than his life.”