Jean Paul Sartre´s Existential Philosophy

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Jean Paul Sartre's Existential philosophy posits that is in man, and in man alone, that existence precedes essence. Simply put, Sartre means that man is first, and only subsequently to his “isness” does he become this or that. The implication in Sartre's philosophy is that man must create his own essence: it is in being thrown into the world through consciounsess intent, loving, struggling, experiencing and being in the world that man is alllowed to define itself. Yet, the definition always remains open ended: we cannot say that a human is definitively this or that before its death and indeed, it is the ultimate nothingness of death that being is defined. The concepts that Sartre examines in Being and Nothingness exist as part of a philosophical tapestry aimed at revealing the nature of Being. In many ways, the stream of considerations in Being and Nothingness are parts of the examination of a single question – what is the nature of our existence? Sartre attempts to answer his question of existence in various ways, primarily through examining consciousness and its juxtaposition between existence and nothingness. The position in which Sartre places consciousness is forever qualified by self-perception and the perceptions of others, as applied to ourselves and others, so as to create a continual subject-object relationship through which being finds for itself a place to be. Sartre based his philosophy first and foremost on mankind's innate free will, and declared that it is a by-product of the interaction between being and nothing. According to Sartre, individuals are free from the moment of their birth and they continue on throughout life to define their essence. The nature of an individual is what we have done in the past and wha... ... middle of paper ... ...r our actions. In normative or traditional ethics, either notion of God or Humanity allow us to disregard our responsibility for the creation of meaning in our lives and to fool ourselves into believing that we have somehow evaded the ambiguity that is inherent in reality. In all established authoritarian ethical systems we find an appeal to an idealized destiny that would be found through the adoption of said ethical system, which allows us to justify almost any means so long as they work toward that end. In so doing, these ethical systems seduce us into sacrificng the present moment, warping our relationship with time. De Beauvoir, in constrast, insists that ethics must have implicit within them an acute awareness of our temporal, interconnected nature, one which demands that our ethical choices support equanimity in the future and the value of the present moment.

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