PHIL304: Existentialism

6a. Describe key benchmarks in the development of Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophical thinking

• Name Sartre's early philosophical influences.
• Define Cartisian, neoKantian, Bergsonian and phenomenologist.
• Describe Sartre's early political and literary influences.

The French philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) was trained in philosophy. His early education concentrated on Cartesian (René Decartes), neo-Kantian (Immanuel Kant), and Bergsonian (Henri Bergson) philosophies, but he was soon deeply influenced by the German phenomenologists Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) and Martin Heidegger (1889–1976). 

The phenomenological movement held that we can reduce or trace all human knowledge back to an original "lived experience." Proponents gave concrete descriptive analyses of our basic experiences priority over purely logical, abstract reasoning. Like Heidegger, Sartre appropriated the phenomenological method and applied it to the subject of "existence."

As we explore in Unit 7 Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were personal companions and professional collaborators from 1929 until Sartre's death. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx influenced Sartre's political sensibilities. Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880), who wrote philosophical novels, stories, and plays, was a longstanding literary influence on Sartre. 

Review Mary Warnock on Sartre's Existentialism and the section "Philosophical Development" in Jean Paul Sartre.

6b. Identify Sartre's contributions to existentialism

• What did Sartre do for existentialism that previous philosophers had not?
• Name some important contributions Sartre made to existentialism.

Sartre has become the public face of existentialism. He did more to popularize the movement than any previous philosopher. Sartre's particular brand of existentialism, his popular 1956 lecture "Existentialism is a Humanism," and the horrors of World War II each brought existentialism into the mainstream.

Sartre was concerned with human freedom, choice, responsibility, and authenticity. We see in Being and Nothingness (1956), that these concepts derived from his thinking about consciousness and his commitment to atheism. His most famous phrases, "existence precedes essence" and "man is condemned to be free" reflect the significant influences of Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Marx, and reveal the direction of 20th-century existentialist themes.

Review Mary Warnock on Sartre's Existentialism, Condemned to be Free by Rob Harle, and the section "Sartre in the 21st Century" in John-Paul Sartre.

6c. Summarize Sartre's analysis of consciousness as a nothing

• Define ontology.
• What is Sartre's notion of being-in-itself?
• What is Sartre's notion of being-for-itself?

Sartre distinguishes among objects, consciousness, and self-consciousness. Sartre calls the world of things "being-in-itself" and our consciousness, or our perception of these things, "being-for-itself." Self-consciousness transcends both.

We know that ontology is the philosophical discipline that studies being or existence. There are two kinds of being: the in-itself (en soi) and the for-itself (pour soi). Things that are in-itself just are: they exist. However, we can use our intentionality of consciousness and directedness to interpret or negate the for-itself from the world.

Consciousness is not a thing in itself. In other words, consciousness has no essence, but it is our relationship, interpretation, or perception, of the in-itself. Our consciousness can negate the in-itself to the extent that "categorization requires saying where the class ends: where the lack of that class lies. And this is a part of the job of the for-itself, as the 'source of all negation'" (McClamrock).

Again, consciousness has no essence: it is part of the objects to which it is directed. In this sense, the in-itself occurs prior to consciousness. The essence of things, and our awareness of things, are really one and the same (because we apply our interpretation to what we perceive in the world as conscious human beings).

This leaves self-consciousness, the ego, or the "I." There is awareness, and then there is reflected awareness; in a sense, we are aware of our awareness in a special way. For example, when we read a novel, we are aware that we are reading a novel. Our awareness is, ontologically speaking, transcendental; we are not in the world in the same way that being-in-itself or being-for-itself are.

Review the "Ontology" section in John-Paul Sartre and Final Lecture on Sartre by Ron McClamrock.

6d. Summarize Sartre's version of atheistic existentialism

• Define atheistic existentialism.
• Describe how Sartre's declaration, existence precedes essence is relevant to his atheism.
• Describe how radical freedom to choose – a creative act, according to Sartre – is relevant to atheism.

Sartre's declaration that "existence precedes essence" means that essence is a creative act: "there is no given human nature." We are free to make who and what we are (to create our essence) through our choices (Warnock, Philosophy Bytes, 1:46). So, prior to the choices we make, we exist as a physical being, but our essence has not yet been established.

As Rob Harle explains, Sartre believed that if God were "a supernal artisan" and created human beings in His image, the essence of the person would be predetermined and humans would not be free to make their own choices or define their own essence. Human beings would lack the ability to choose the essential what-it-is-to-be-me.

On the contrary, Sartre argued that this type of divine creative force does not exist:

"Conscious 'subjects' [human beings as opposed to animals, plants or inanimate objects] are characterised by: being free, responsible for themselves, have no determined essence and therefore are not caused, are not fixed and can never be complete."

In her interview Mary Warnock mentions this argument about free choice when she describes Sartre's description of a student who must choose whether to help his family or enlist in the war effort (Warnock, 2:20). The student is making a conscious free choice for which he is responsible.

Review Mary Warnock on Sartre's Existentialism and Condemned to be Free by Rob Harle.

6e. Discuss Sartre's idea of freedom

• Describe how Sartre's view of freedom addresses natural determinism.
• Describe how Sartre's ontology relates to his idea of freedom?

Sartre acknowledges our facticity, that is, facts about ourselves, over which we have no control. For example, we have no control over when or where we were born. These facts are not relevant to our freedom. Some features of our lives are determined, but they do not make us free or unfree.

For Sartre, freedom correlates, from a practical standpoint, with our choices. Each choice we make is ours. No one else can choose for me and our choices are not illusory: we do not erroneously believe we are making a choice when, in fact, we are not. Instead, these choices are real.

The ontology Sartre develops in Being and Nothingness provides the metaphysical framework for understanding freedom:

"We choose everything about our world, in that even the way in which we conceptualize the world – as a matter of the for-itself – is something that we choose rather than something that is forced on us by the in-itself. Thus in some extremely pervasive sense, we choose the way the world looks to us." (McClamrock)

Rob Harle explains, that according to Sartre, few people are willing to accept and embrace their freedom, and few want to accept responsibility for their actions:

"Self determination causes most people 'anguish' and 'despair,' [because they] would much rather be able to project blame for their situation onto someone or something else. The realization that 'our destiny is in our own hands' means we experience a feeling of 'abandonment'." (Images (a) 1986. p.18)

Review Final Lecture on Sartre by Ron McClamrock and Condemned to be Free by Rob Harle.

6f. Analyze Sartre's notion of authenticity

• Describe the relationship between Sartre's notion of authenticity and freedom.
• Describe the relationship between Sartre's notion of authenticity and bad faith.

According to Sartre, human freedom is unavoidable. Every choice I make is not only mine, it is also characteristic of who I am. Because every choice is mine, and mine alone, I am entirely responsible for what I choose and what I become. To recognize this responsibility is to be authentic. When, instead, I try to project blame and proclaim my actions are dominated by my situation, I act in bad faith.

Bad faith is self-deception. When I do not take responsibility for my choices and actions, but foist the responsibility off onto someone or something else, I act as if I am a thing, not a conscious human being, which is determined by forces outside my control.

Review Final Lecture on Sartre by Ron McClamrock. Review the concept of bad faith in Condemned to be Free by Rob Harle.

Unit 6 Vocabulary

• Atheistic existentialism
• Authenticity
• Bad faith
• Being-for-itself
• Being-in-itself
• Bergsonian
• Cartesian
• Choice
• Consciousness as a nothing
• Determinism
• Edmund Husserl
• Essence
• Existence precedes essence
• Facticity
• For-itself (pour soi)
• Freedom
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• Gustave Flaubert 
• In-itself (en soi)
• John-Paul Sartre
• Karl Marx
• Man is condemned to be free
• Martin Heideggar
• NeoKantian
• Ontology
• Phenomenologist
• Responsibility
• Simone de Beauvoir