Sartre' s Philosophy of Man
By ubermensch
@ubermensch (136)
Philippines
September 16, 2010 4:05pm CST
Sartre thinks that man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. He calls this subjectivity. Subjectivity for him means that man exists first and capable of realizing this. Man uses his "will" to make conscious decisions and he is held responsible for his actions because his existence and free choice precedes his essence. Sartre says because man has free choice he is responsible for his action. He said: And when we say that man is responsible for himself, we do only mean that he is responsible for his own responsibility, but that he is responsible for all men.
Man is considered therefore as absolutely free and totally responsible for all the actions he has done.
Well, Sartre was an atheist. He wants us to view man without the perspective that there is God. If God exists, it would crash man's freedom. God is a contradiction and put man into dangers when He exists. If God exists, man is just a predetermined being whose essence is already in the mind of God. Man is not free in this case. God must be omitted if we are to conceive man as freedom. This atheism of him serves as his foundation in viewing man as an absolute free being and completely responsible.
2 people like this
2 responses
@ruperto (1552)
• Philippines
17 Sep 10
Interesting. The only part of atheism that seems to gets me wondering ... how do atheists handle the thought of dying ? Is it like the end of material existence is the absolute end of one's existence ? Do atheists truly not care if that is the case ? a inquiring mind wishes to know ...
What do you think ?
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
• United States
17 Sep 10
Uber-
I think that Sartre has a valid point even if he did not believe in a higher power. There are many spiritual paths that do not hold a higher power such as Taoism and Buddhism which speak of the same types of view points. We in a sense regardless of our faith make our own self. We come to our own decisions about how we wish to be, what we wish to be, and how we wish to think simply based upon our own experiences. The more experiences we have the more we can pull from that data.
In terms of being responsible for all men is this not the same logic Yeshua/Jesus taught? That other prophets have taught in other holy texts? Yes. We are our brother's keeper, and I don't feel this is a terribly bad idea.
And I personally have no problem with man being responsible for his actions. It is sad when people use religion or any sort of excuse as an excuse for why they did something. People can be inherently selfish, and to break free of this mold serves the community as a whole.
Namaste-Anora
