Jean-Paul_Sarte

Jean-Paul Sartre   In 1939, Jean-Paul Sartre served as a meteorologist in the French army. In the region of North East France, known as Lorraine, Sartre was captured by German troops and spent nine months as a prisoner of war. During his nine-month stint as a prisoner of war Sartre wrote his first piece, Barionà, fils du tonnerre, a theatrical drama having to do with Christmas. During the time of his captivity Sartre read many books that influenced his interest in philosophy such as Heidegger’s “Being and Time.” Due to bad health Sartre was released as a prisoner of war in 1941.             After being released, Sartre began looking into becoming a member of an active resistance group but was discouraged by the lack of supporters. Sartre’s discouragement lead him to produce three books, within the years 1941-1944, each containing the message of free will as well as existentialist themes throughout each book. (Being and Nothingness, The Flies, and No Exist).             After the liberation of Paris in 1944 Sartre wrote a book trying to explain the etiology of “hate” using anti-Semitic hate as an example. The book was titled Anti-Semite and Jew. Between the years 1945-1949 Sartre established a magazine that focused on politics called, Modern Times, and focused his own time mainly on writing and political activism.               After World War II Sartre’s works began to delve into politics even more. Sartre openly admitted to embracing the beliefs of Marxism, though he did not join the communist party. He also voiced his opinion, effectively denouncing French rule in Algeria even going as far as to becoming a major supporter of the FLN, the National Liberation Front; which was a socialist political party in Algeria.             These political actions effectively made Jean-Paul Sartre targeted as an enemy of the state according to the (OAS), “Organisation de l'armée secrete,” the Secret Armed Organization; which was a French organized military group assembled to prevent Algerian independence from France.  Sartre escaped two bomb attacks by the OAS throughout the 60’s.             Along with Bertrand Russell and other political activists/philosophers, Sartre began work on opposing the United States involvement in Vietnam through exposing “war crimes” committed by United States soldiers; which became known as the Russell Tribunal. Throughout the 1960’s, Sartre set out to give Marxism a strong defense; which had never been done before. Sartre defended Marxism by emphasizing the human values in the early workings of Marxism and concluded with Marxist notion of class being an objective entity was fallacious.             Sartre went to Cuba to meet Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. He’s time in Cuba had impacted him as he came across Che Guevara, calling him “The most complete human being of our time,” and claiming that “he lived his words and spoke his own actions.” Webster's Dictionary defines Existentialism as a "Philosophic doctrine of beliefs that people have absolute freedom of choice and that the universe is absurd, with an emphasis on the phenomena of anxiety and alienation.” After Sartre wrote Nausea, the term "Nausea" has since become common when the subject of Existentialism is brought up. It is an brilliant expression to describe the abrupt conception that things are not as one had formerly perceived them to be and that there is great mass in the matter of reality. Sartre's primary idea is that people are "Condemned to be free". This theory expands on his point that there is no creator, and is demonstrated using the example of the paper cutter. Sartre says that if one considered a paper cutter, one would assume that the creator would have had a plan for in, an essence so to speak. Sartre said that human beings have no essence before their existence because there is no creator. Thus, "Existence precedes essence". This forms the basis for his statement that since one cannot explain their own actions and behavior by referencing any specific human nature, they are necessarily fully responsible for those actions. This would be Sartre’s epistemological thought. In a sense he is “Counter-Karma” and implying that we as humans, we make our own destiny. Also, he believed that our ideas are the product of experiences of real-life situations which takes on a very realist view and adds to his thought of “Existence precedes essence.” We can also take into account that “Existence precedes essence” is a metaphysical outlook as well, for Sartre; to be human is characterized by an existence that precedes its essence. As such, existence is problematic, and it is towards the development of a full existentialist theory of what it is to be human that Sartre’s work logically evolves. We all have an origin that is the same, there was no creator, just us and we write our own story from thereon. Sartre asserted that an appeal to a transcendental ego conceals a conscious flight from freedom. The transcendental ego is not required, in theory, it is excessive to the point it becomes narcissistic and conceited. Sartre goes on to say that there is also an empirical ego. The empirical ego is an object of consciousness. A tool we use to self-reflect and authenticate our actions. Sartre claims, by an exchange that involves the leaving behind of our original choice to correspond with ourselves intentionally and the futile desire to be in-itself-for-itself or “God” and thereby frees ourselves from identification with our egos as being-in-itself. This aspect brings about the talk of Sartre’s ethics theory. By speculating, we can say that we must use our knowledge from learned experiences too self-reflect on the decisions we make in life. Using our knowledge to make the correct choice for the actions we must do. Even though the idea of existentialism is multifaceted, certain themes are common amongst this concept: moral individualism, freedom of choice, responsibility, and alienation. It is essential to the understanding of existentialism is the conception of moral individualism. We all decide or find our essence once we come to grips of our existence. Bibliography 1. http://www.iep.utm.edu/sartre-ex/\ 2. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sartre/ 3. http://www.sartre.org/