Jean-Paul Sartre Essay, Research Paper
Jean-Paul Sartre and Existentialism
Jean-Paul Sartre. . . the name is one of the most popular in modern doctrine. But who was he? What did he compose and what were his plants about? What was his function with respect to Existentialism? What is Existentialism, truly? What life influences affected the individual as whom he became celebrated? How would Sartre assess assorted societal subjects that we face today? What are the jobs with Sartre & # 8217 ; s position of Existentialism and being in general? These are the inquiries addressed in the undermentioned pages of this brief thesis.
His life
Upon reexamining several beginnings, it is evident that Sartre was a really disorganised and inconsistent person. Sartre was obsessed with his mind to the point of wantonness of all else in his life & # 8211 ; personal hygiene, honestness, organisation, thoroughness, and more. It seems that he felt he was of superior intelligence in comparing to all others who surrounded him. He was non needfully a great and original mind, but instead a brilliant media esthesis of kinds. Rather than developing Existentialist idea, he simply promoted it to astonishing popularity through his bizarre life style. Although he is best known for his association with Existentialism, it is interesting to observe that he denounced its rules later in life and adopted Marxism, which he besides subsequently denounced.
Jean-Paul-Charles-Aymard Sartre was born in Paris on June 21, 1905, the lone kid of Anne-Marie Schweitzer Sartre and Jean-Baptiste Sartre. Anne-Marie was the first cousin of Albert Schweitzer, the celebrated Nobel Peace Prize receiver, and the girl of Karl Schweitzer, who had published texts on faith, doctrine, and linguistic communications. Jean-Baptiste was the boy of Eymard Sartre, a physician who had written several medical texts. Although his doctrine would deny it, it may hold been fated that Jean-Paul would himself go a celebrated author ; it was in his cistrons.
Jean-Baptiste and Anne-Marie were profoundly in love. They married on May 5, 1904. Jean-Baptiste was enlisted in the Gallic Navy and was off on an assignment when Jean-Paul was born 13 months subsequently. Sadly, barely more than a twelvemonth after the birth of their boy, Jean-Baptiste had returned place from China in November merely to fall ailment in March and decease on September 17, 1906.
After the decease of Jean-Baptiste, Anne-Marie moved herself and her immature boy into her male parent & # 8217 ; s house, the Schweitzer place. Karl Schweitzer was a rigorous and tyrannizing adult male and the twelvemonth the two spent life at that place affected Sartre & # 8217 ; s life everlastingly. His female parent kept his hair long and dressed him in effeminate vesture, likely as a agency of get awaying the oppressive nature of her male parent. Schweitzer, nevertheless, disgusted by the kid & # 8217 ; s visual aspect, took him to the Barber one twenty-four hours and had his hair cut. Jean-Paul & # 8217 ; s ugliness so became evident. Without the cloak of long hair and frilly apparels, his short stature, one oculus that looked askance ( from a juvenile unwellness ) , and awkward visual aspect were undeniable, even to his female parent. He was ostracized by other kids for his visual aspect. He was an castaway.
At the age of eight he began to compose books when he received marionettes from his ma. Children tolerated him in order to be entertained by his shows. He basked in the attending. He began a form of hideous behaviour that it seems he believed would gain him popularity. Apparently it worked.
In October of 1913, Eymard Sartre died and Jean-Paul fell under near complete control of the Schweitzers. When war broke out in 1914, it fascinated Sartre, and he wrote some short narratives about it. In 1915 Jean-Paul was enrolled at Lycee Henri IV, a extremely regarded school. Here he found kids he could associate to: intellectually exciting and of his category degree, kids who could esteem him for himself. Yet, even at this early age, it was evident to his instructors that Jean-Paul did non hone any of his ideas ; his intelligence was evident, but he simply skimmed over many topics without diging into any in deepness.
His female parent remarried when he was twelve, to the evident disapproval of Jean-Paul. The new household moved to LaRochelle in 1917, but after Sartre got into problem on several occasions, he was returned to Lycee Henri IV where he was a boarding pupil.
At this clip he became close with Paul-Yves Nizan, a quiet and diffident male child of considerable mind. Where Sartre was disorganized, slovenly, and uncomplete, Nizan was orderly, fashionable, and thorough. Nizan was prone to tantrums of depression and imbibing, to the captivation of Sartre. The two were about inseparable throughout college and beyond. In 1922 the two enrolled at Lycee Louis-le-Grand, one of the best preparatory schools of the clip. The two went on to inscribe together at one of the best Gallic Universities, the Ecole Normale Superieure, a comrade school to the Sorbonne. Here he besides became close with Raymond Aron, another influential friend who would dispute him intellectually.
While in college, Nizan became really political on the side of Gallic Communism and Marxism. Sartre ridiculed him for this. However, it was evident that Sartre & # 8217 ; s chief end at Ecole Normale Superieure was to go the smartest individual among the highest of competition.
Jean-Paul met Simone-Camille Sans at a funeral for his cousin. The first & # 8220 ; Simone & # 8221 ; in his life, she was from the Toulouse part of France and so he nicknamed her therefore. & # 8220 ; Toulouse & # 8221 ; turned out to be a small excessively wild even for him. Rumored to hold participated in binges and to hold experimented with assorted drugs, finally their relationship fizzled out and she became the kept woman of a well-known Gallic histrion.
Sartre continued to be a demagogue at school and became known as somewhat of a revolutionist. However, when he took his agregation test ( graduation scrutiny ) , he placed fiftieth out of 50 & # 8211 ; dead last. Although the failure was difficult for Sartre, it was important to his life that he had to remain and analyze to recapture the scrutiny. It was so that he met Simone deBeauvior, the love of his life. The two studied together and matched marbless intellectually, and upon the following trial disposal, he placed foremost and she placed 2nd. This is how the two would be for life: one right after the other.
The relationship between Sartre and deBeauvoir was unusual and unconventional. The two ne’er married and frequently had other lovers, but beyond a uncertainty they held each other in the highest regard.
Sartre served in the armed forces for 18 months get downing in 1929. Afterward he taught at the secondary school LeHavre. In 1933 he studied the talks of Edmund Husserl, one of the greatest influences of his life. In February of 1935 he experimented with peyote and consequentially he had hallucinations for the balance of the twelvemonth. In 1938, his fresh Nausea was published.
After the start of World War II, Sartre was once more drafted into military service. On June 21, 1940, he was captured. He was a captive of war until he escaped in March of 1941. He so returned to his learning station. While captive, he wrote much of what was to go Being and Nothingness, perchance his most celebrated work. In 1943, his anti-Nazi drama The Flies earned him much ill fame. By 1945 Sartre had become widely popular and Existentialism had become the hottest doctrine to analyze, much to the recognition of his work.
The term existential philosophy became deep-rooted with pop civilization, but as this happened, Sartre easy began to dissociate himself with the doctrine which had earned him so much acclamation. In 1960, Sartre published The Critique of Dialectical Reason in support of Marxism. In 1964 he was offered the Nobel Prize for literature, but he refused it on & # 8220 ; political & # 8221 ; evidences.
Sartre became the frontman of kinds for all types of pupil rebellion as both rightist and leftist parties shunned him and his radical attitude. He became vastly popular both in France and in America. Sartre died on April 15, 1980, hav
ing lived a wholly inconsistent and disorderly life. However, his bizarre ways had spread the celebrity of Existentialism and he had left his ineraseable grade on the universe forever.
His plants
Sartre wrote several books, dramas, and articles on several topics, chiefly political and philosophical. Some are listed below:
Nausea ( 1938 )
A novel which dealt with one character, Roquentin, on his hunt to understand being and kernel. He finds himself unable to tie in things as normally known, and the reader is left to find whether this is a discovery or a mistake.
The Transcendence of the Ego ( 1937 )
A phenomenological survey of human consciousness
Bing and Nothingness ( 1943 )
Sartre & # 8217 ; s famed thesis on the relationship between being-in-itself and being-for-itself. The first portion of his non-fictional plants on Existentialism. Here he delved briefly into the thought of human & # 8220 ; being predating kernel & # 8221 ; and more in deepness into the construct of loneliness and anguish as they relate to consciousness and freedom.
Existentialism and Human Emotion / Existentialism is a Humanism ( 1946 )
Apparently two interlingual renditions of the same rubric, his most celebrated work in America. In this text he dealt in greater deepness with the thought that humanity has the alone place of being which precedes kernel, and here he fundamentally disqualifies the construct of God.
The Critique of Dialectical Reason ( 1960 )
His essay in support of & # 8220 ; pure & # 8221 ; Marxism as it ideally protects human freedom. Meant to be two volumes, he abandoned the 2nd before completion.
Emotions: Outline of a Theory ( 1936 )
An essay
The Flies ( 1943 )
His anti-Nazi drama produced during WWII.
No Exit ( 1944 )
A drama
The Age of Reason ( 1945 )
A novel
Racist and Jew ( 1946 )
An essay
The Respectful Prostitute ( 1947 )
A drama
Dirty Hands ( 1948 )
A text
Saint Genet ( 1952 )
A life
The Family Idiot ( 1982 )
A review
Sartre and Existentialism
It is true that Sartre did non arise Existentialism, he simply popularized it. Without Sartre, Existentialism, today many people may ne’er hold heard of the doctrine and it surely would non hold become ingrained in the dad civilization that it helped to specify. An account of Existentialism is appropriate.
Existentialism is defined as the & # 8220 ; term used to mention to any doctrine that emphasizes cardinal inquiries of significance and pick as they affect bing persons & # 8221 ; ( Soccio, 477 ) . Pojman outlines & # 8220 ; three theses of Existentialism & # 8221 ; on pages 351-355:
1. Existence precedes kernel. In other words, adult male is the lone species that can specify himself. We can make up one’s mind our ain definitions by the pick we make and the actions we take.
2. The Absurdity of Existence. Being is absurd, as we can do any pick and most people make inferior picks in life. The sum of possibilities at any clip is countless ; if nil else, we ever have the option of life or decease. There is no intending apart from humanity.
3. Freedom. As Sartre says, we are & # 8220 ; condemned to freedom. & # 8221 ; We have ultimate pick in everything. Because of this we feel ungrounded, a sense of torment. Because we have existence before kernel, we must make our kernel with the freedom we have. We must specify ourselves.
Existentialist subjects frequently include & # 8220 ; pick, freedom, individuality, disaffection, inauthenticity, desperation, and consciousness of our ain mortality & # 8221 ; ( Soccio, 477 ) .
There are two chief schools of Existentialism: spiritual Existentialism, which would include the rules of Kierkeegard and Heidegger, and secular Existentialism, which includes the doctrine of Nietzsche and Sartre. Obviously, the spiritual existential philosophers did non disregard the being of God but instead attributed the absurdness of being to the interior voice of God naming us to higher signifiers of ego. The secular Existentialists, or atheist Existentialists, wholly disavowed the being of God and dismissed the importance of one, connoting that such a being is impossible & # 8211 ; a being & # 8220 ; in-itself-for-itself & # 8221 ; in the words of Sartre & # 8211 ; and self-contradictory every bit good as useless.
In world, all Sartre did was take the thoughts of Nietzsche and other great Existentialists and utilize it to fuel his plant of fiction and his essays. It was these plants that earned popularity for the school of idea, and that can be considered his greatest accomplishment: the publicity of Existentialism.
Problems with Existentialism and Modern Applications
So what are the failings of his theory? How would we use his ideas to modern-day societal issues? Let & # 8217 ; s seek to take a pang at these issues. . .
One job with Existentialism has come into the limelight as of late: genetic sciences. The survey of genetic sciences is a widely spread outing field. Through scientific discipline we have learned that cistrons and DNA are responsible for traits from hair colour and tallness to alcohol addiction and likely homosexualism. What were one time considered & # 8220 ; picks & # 8221 ; are now being found to be much more familial than we have been comfy to acknowledge. There may be a certain grade of freedom of pick, but as clip passes we learn that more and more of our behaviour is genetically coded into our Deoxyribonucleic acid and we are simply moving it out. And if this is the instance, how do we philosophise on the issue of other Primatess? Some Primatess have 97-99 % and perchance greater similarity of familial sequences compared to worlds. How much of their behaviour is pick?
The subject of familial technology could be a point for either side: on one manus, we can specify ourselves on a much greater graduated table, but on the other manus we are acknowledging that we are patterned after our cistrons, as all other animals are.
How would Sartre experience about the subject of familial technology? How would Existentialism trade with it? I think that Existentialists would state that such freedom would take us to a greater sense of anguish as we are faced with a greater sense of freedom to specify ourselves and mankind. But since Sartre says that & # 8220 ; as we Daphne ourselves we define all of world, & # 8221 ; we should probably avoid the chase of such a field, as we have a duty to our fellow humanity. As most human life is absurd and most people make inferior picks, it would be best to avoid the subject, although we have the freedom to prosecute it if we desire.
How would he experience about abortion? Since in taking for ourselves we choose for humanity, our duty should order that abortion is incorrect. This portion of the doctrine is evocative of Kant & # 8217 ; s categorical jussive mood, but it does non connote that we should needfully make what is right. However, for the proliferation of world as the lone species where being precedes kernel, it would merely do sense that ( layman )
Existentialists should make up one’s mind against abortion. But once more, we must ne’er bury that the option exists.
Similarly, the secular Existentialists would make up one’s mind on assorted issues. As Sartre averred, we ever have the pick of life or decease. However, through his actions it is evident that we should take life, because to take decease would kill off consciousness. A being can non be witting in decease, as there is nil to be witting of. Consciousness can merely be as it is witting of something. A being witting of its ain unconsciousness is impossible to Sartre.
Therefore sums up the life and doctrine of Jean-Paul Sartre. Although this essay can in no manner be considered a thorough scrutiny of his life and of the doctrine of Existentialism or even secular Existentialism, it serves the intent of placing the general thoughts the adult male popularized in his plants and spread into an full universe and consciousness.
