Sartre's Existentialism: Freedom, Choice, Responsibility

Sartre: Life and Philosophical Context

Jean-Paul Sartre was born in Paris in 1905 into a bourgeois family. He studied philosophy in France. In 1940, as the Nazis advanced on France, he was taken prisoner, remaining so until the following year. This experience contributed to his transformation into a revolutionary thinker and a representative of the resistance against the occupation forces. It demonstrated for him the absurdity and hopelessness of the situation, and the concept that man is abandoned. In 1943, he published Being and Nothingness, his principal philosophical work, followed in 1946 by Existentialism is a Humanism. He died in 1980.

Key Ideas in Sartre's Existentialism

Sartre acknowledged the wide range of expressions and movements labeled 'existentialist', even stating the term could mean almost nothing. However, a core tenet shared by existentialist philosophers is that, in humans, existence precedes essence.

1. Sartre explains this concept by contrasting humans with manufactured objects. For an object, its essence (the idea or blueprint) precedes its existence (its physical creation), as the manufacturer first conceives it and then makes it, defining what it is.
2. His position is inherently atheistic. He argues that essence could only precede existence if a being (God) first conceived of human nature and then created humans. Affirming that human nature does not exist because there is no God to conceive it, Sartre states that man first exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world, and only then defines himself. Man is not only as he conceives himself, but as he wills himself to be.
3. Sartre means that man is a project because man will be nothing other than what he projects himself to be. This projection, this choice of oneself, is the fundamental act that defines one's life.
4. Regarding responsibility, Sartre explains that when a man chooses for himself, he simultaneously chooses for all men. In choosing, we create an image of man as we believe he ought to be. We choose based on perceived value, always selecting what we deem good, thereby implicitly asserting it as good for everyone. Our choices involve all humanity.
5. What causes anguish (or dread) in man is this very awareness: that every choice commits all of humanity. It feels as though all mankind has its eyes fixed upon us, judging our actions, which is a profound burden of responsibility.
6. Sartre defines bad faith (mauvaise foi) as the attempt to evade this total responsibility. Those who deny that their choices set a precedent for all humanity, perhaps by saying "not everyone acts that way" or making excuses, are acting in bad faith. They try to escape the inescapable weight of their freedom and responsibility, revealing an unease with their own conscience.
7. According to Sartre, man is abandoned because God does not exist. Consequently, man is alone, with no external, pre-ordained values, moral laws, or divine commands to rely upon. This lack of external guidance makes the act of choosing even more significant and difficult, as man must create his own values through his actions.