Questions tagged [sartre]
For questions about the philosophical work of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), a French philosopher and novelist.
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Why Did Sartre Regret “Existentialism is a Humanism”?
Why did Sartre regret his essay Existentialism is a Humanism?
Background and Evidence
Existentialism is a Humanism is an essay published by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1946. In an introduction by Mary Warnock ...
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Is my existence contingent in experiences of nausea, and if so what is authenticity?
The feeling of nausea that Roquentin, the main character of Sartre’s
novel, famously experienced in a public garden while obsessively
watching a chestnut tree, accounts for his sensitivity to the ...
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What does "authentic action" look like for Sartre?
Source
what is required of an authentic choice is that it involve a proper
coordination of transcendence and facticity, and thus that it avoid
the pitfalls of an uncoordinated expression of the ...
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How would an existentialist like Sartre respond to Aristotles function argument?
I have been reading Aristotle's NE and a bit of Existentialism is a Humanism and was wondering how Sartre (or another existentialist) might defend his position that humans do not have some function ...
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Are Sartre's In-itself and For-itself pure concepts?
I take the In-itself and For-itself (in reading Being and Nothingness) to be entirely distinct concepts, much like a priori and a posteriori concepts.
However, with the later, I'm given to understand ...
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Help with the basic idea of free choices for Sartre
what is required of an authentic choice is that it involve a proper
coordination of transcendence and facticity, and thus that it avoid
the pitfalls of an uncoordinated expression of the desire for ...
user67675
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How should I contextualize this quote and understand its meaning? [closed]
Jean- Paul Sartre once said about Camus: "I would call his pessimism 'solar' if you remember how much black there is in the sun."
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Question about Sartre's distinction between "self-consciousness", "subject", and "ego"
I am reading the Routledge Critical Thinkers series on Jacques Lacan, and I have come across this passage about Jean-Paul Sartre:
In an early work entitled Transcendence of the Ego (1934) Sartre
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What is the meaning of nothingness in Sartre's ⟪Being and Nothingness⟫?
A head-up: I am from an analytic background, and I have only read continental philosophy via second sources.
I am confused about what 'nothingness' mean in Sartre's ⟪Being and Nothingness⟫. Some ...
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To personify bad faith, why did Sartre pick on waiters rather than a more powerful occupation?
I am not a philosopher. But I did work at a restaurant when I was younger, and my daughter is studying philosophy in school. Sartre's following quotations feel like bullying, spurning waiters. ...
user8572
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How has the metaphysics of free will dealt away with Sartre's answer?
Sartre famously argued that we are inescapably free. The summed up argument can be found in the book Just the Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy:
Couple this with a ...
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How does existence preceding essence not preclude the possibility of bad faith?
How does existence preceding essence not preclude the possibility of bad faith? In what sense is it possible to act inauthentically if there is no authenticity other than what we make for ourselves?
I ...
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Heidegger's "Dasein" vs. Sartre's "Being for itself"
I must admit, I am relatively new to existentialist philosophy. But I couldn't help notice the similarities between Heidegger's "Dasein" and Satre's "Being-for-itself". I was ...
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What was Beauvoirs example of meaningless freedom involving a harem?
I am looking up sources on Simone de Beauvoir's account of freedom and found this in an old issue of a philosophy magazine:
She had argued with him that freedom of any sort was pretty
meaningless for ...
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Can Zizek's big Other be seen as a collective form of "bad faith"?
I refer to this question to define the big Other for Zizek.
Couldn't the big Other be seen as what enforces the mauvaise foi (what makes us behave like we have no choice to avoid existential dread), ...
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What is the relationship between positional and non-positional consciousness for Sartre?
I am wondering when one is non-positionally conscious of a feeling, is that feeling facticity or also positional consciousness of an object? In a word is reflection in the presence to self duality ...
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Sartre on morality in "Existentialism is a Humanism"
After reading Existentialism is a Humanism, I am struggling to understand Sartre's stance on morality. If I understand correctly, he believes that no moral rule can be derived from reason, and that ...
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Existentialism and morality
I'm quite confused about Sartre and his relationship to morality.
He talks a lot about responsibility. When I think of responsibility, punishment and law come to my mind. But I suppose Sartre's ...
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Who were the famous moral nihilists (philosophers) of 20th and 19th century?
If existential nihilism claims nothing has meaning does it also take moral values in to account?
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What was Sartre's thought on good and evil?
If existentialism according to Sartre hold everyone responsible. Why Sartre said "men are condemned to be free"?
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Just what is negation in Sartre's philosophy?
In Being and Nothingness, Sartre discusses negation in a number of contexts, but I cannot for the life of me figure out a definition of it--even a rough one. So far as I can tell, it is not merely a ...
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Sartre's "The transcendence of the ego"
In this text there are parts of Kant that Sartre refers to that I don't think I fully understand.
What parts of Kant would I have to refer to to understand where Sartre is coming from?
He refers to ...
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From Sartre's Being and Nothingness, what is the difference between reflective consciousness and self-reflective consciousness?
I am currently writing a philosophy paper for one of my graduate courses and one of the questions posed is "how can consciousness be pre-reflective, reflective, and self-reflective?"
My ...
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If we are rationally obliged to be moral, and morality is not arbitrary, then are some decisions not freely made?
If we are rationally obliged to be moral, and morality is not arbitrary, then are some decisions not freely made?
I mean 'not arbitrary' to mean that some values, e.g. courage, are more rational than ...
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The Sartre Paradox
"According to Sartre, humans are the only beings that dont have an essence."
Do't look a little "weird" J.P Sartre, tells that the "Man is comdemned to be free", in case conjuring that, the freedom ...
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Can someone help with these passages Sartre's BeIng and Nothingness on Knowledge?
P295 ‘The for itself does not exist subsequently to know; neither can we say that it exists only in so far it knows or is known…regulated by particular bits of Knowledge.’
P296 ‘to say that there is ...
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Can someone help me with the meaning of these passages in Sartre's Being and Nothingness on motion?
What do these passages mean, could someone please kindly clarify them.
‘Motion is the pure change of place affecting a this which remains otherwise unaltered as is shown clearly enough by our ...
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Relation between the inauthentic mode of existence and indifference to other people's subjectivity
Introduction:
Heidegger believed that there are two fundamental modes of existing in
the world:
(1)Authentic mode (2)Inauthentic mode [Being and Time, 1927]
Sartre believed that there ...
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Jean-Paul Sartre freedom question [duplicate]
Jean-Paul Sartre claimed we are totally free. This might lead some people to think they can show no concern for others and do whatever they want. He warned, however, if everything is based on free ...
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Is "quality of life" an in-efficacious measure for a "meaningful life"?
Definitions
Quality of life (QOL) is the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining negative and positive features of life. It observes life satisfaction, including everything from ...
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In which published work(s) did Sartre claim to have reinvented or reshaped his thinking?
Sartre is among the most protean and prolific philosophers of the 20th c. He sustained many radical transformations in his thinking with each one requiring, according to him, a complete overhaul of ...
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We may say that Sartre inverts Kant’s moral philosophy. What does Sartre share with Kant, and how does he overturn some of his thinking?
Compare and contrast Kant and Sartre. We may say that Sartre inverts Kant’s moral philosophy. What does Sartre share with Kant, and how does he overturn some of his thinking?
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From which work of Jean-Paul Sartre did he write “Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”?
In which work did Jean-Paul Sartre write this quote?
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Sartre and metaphysical necessity
In “Nausea” (“La Nausée”), a novel in the form of a fictional diary, Sartre makes the main character, the diarist, Roquentin, realize how baseless our assumptions about what is possible, what can ...
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What does Sartre think about the being of animals? According to sartre, how are animals and humans different?
Let me summarize my understanding of Sartres thinking regarding being and nothingness.
The Nothingness
Its a physical state which doesn't exist at the moment, but maybe it could exist at some day, ...
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Is love a phenomenon of mauvaise foi?
In front of love, is still men condemned to be free? Arguably, when in love, the infinite range of possible choices collapses in one, the loved one. Is this a form of mauvaise foi (we convince ...
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The phenomenon of Négatité
I am a novice to JP Sartre's philosophy of existentialism and I came across the notion that in Being and Nothingness,The Origin of Negation where he claims that "nothingness is at the origin of ...
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Sartre on essence
Yesterday my professor said something that seemed rather strange. Roughly, it was
According to Sartre, humans are the only beings that don't have an essence.
Now I haven't read Sartre, and I'm not ...
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Can we assign positive values to a role defining us, like "mother" or "chef"?
Any role that one might adopt does not define one as there is an
eventual end to one's adoption of the role; i.e. other roles will be
assigned to us, "a chef", "a mother". The self is not constant,...
user6917
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What is existence for existentialists?
As my current work leaded me to analyse existence from the systemic point of view, I've decided it's time to read Sartre and about existentialism, which I've long time postponed. So I've started with ...
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Does existentialism presuppose the supernatural?
When it comes to debates about the existence of an "all powerful all knowing god" believers and non-believers alike often times both agree that the existence of that god can't be scientifically or ...
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On freedom in Sartre's existentialism
I am reading "Existenstialism is a humanism", the text of the famous conference by Sartre in which he explains his own version of existentialism. I think is full of logical inconsistencies, but maybe ...
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What does Sartre mean by "freedom alone can account for a person in his totality"?
Could you please tell me what is the meaning of Sartre's saying: "freedom alone can account for a person in his totality"? (Genet, 584)
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Would Jean-Paul Sartre say that we are bound by our comprehension of our "situation"?
Sartre states, in his book 'Being and Nothingness' the following:
Therefore there is no priviledged situation...There is no situation
in which the given would crush beneath its weight the freedom ...
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What are the origins of "The Other" and "The Gaze" in critical theory?
These two terms were for a time ubiquitous--one is tempted to say boilerplate--in critical theory.
My own vague understanding is that Levinas is first to explicitly focus on "The Other" and Sartre ...
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Sartre's use of the word "Transcendence" and its meaning
I have been looking into some resources explaining Husserl's idea of transcendence and they point out that Sartre's idea of transcendence is based on Husserl's. Here are the different aspects/ideas of ...
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Why does 'I did this' express nausea per Sartre, but not 'I want to do this '?
Source: Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (2012) by Prof. Sharon Kaye MA PhD (in Philosophy, U. Toronto)
[ p 198: ] Despite its enthusiastic celebration of human freedom, there is
a dark side ...
user8572
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Does Sartre's disdain of some professions contradict Kant's Categorical Imperative?
Preface: Source 2 quoted this same passage but in English. As I can read French, I quoted the French original but please command me to post the English translation if I should have.
Source 1: p 94, L'...
user8572
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Is it correct to describe genuine possibilities as 'pure nothing'?
Source: p 193, Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (2012) by Prof. Sharon Kaye MA PhD (in Philosophy, U. Toronto)
Right now you are reading this book. Stop for a moment and
think of yourself ...
user8572
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Meaning of Being in 'Being and Nothingness'?
I just started reading Sartre's magnum opus and right on page two he begins to mention that being and appearance dualism is no longer entitled to any "legal status within philosophy". What is the ...
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