Jean-Paul Sartre is a renowned philosopher of the 20th century, belonging to the same group of philosophers as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and contemporaneous to Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir. The latter ones all experienced the same significant event that tremendously influenced their life and philosophy: The Second World War. The despair and inability to conceive the violence of life in the conditions of meaningless struggle made the notion of absurdity prevalent among these Western thinkers. So, the existential philosophers, including Sartre, reflected upon the central topics: fear, hopelessness, anguish, crisis, absurdity, and the phenomenon of individuality. Sartre is distinguished from others by his answer to the question about the meaning of life and the way of being that a person might choose.
The core concept that determines Sartre’s philosophy is the absurdity of life. Namely, the thinker perceives life as a constant struggle that arises from a necessity to make choices. This process is not pleasant to people because it urges them to realize that they are the only ones responsible for their actions and lives (Bhandari, n.d.). Hence, the reality of life is that each person is entirely alone in their consciousness, which precedes their being. This understanding of being is related to the notions of existence and freedom, elaborated further in the paper. By now, it is essential to note that the philosopher distinguished three categories of being: being in itself, being for itself, and being for others (Bhandari, n.d.). The first term denotes the existence of an object, a passive fact of existence. Being for itself means the realization of being separate from things and unlike others. Finally, being for others is the awareness of the existence of other people and the recognition of outer observation (Sartre, 2021). Therefore, life is not homogenous and presents suffering related to the manifestation of free will.
The meaning of life in Sartre’s understanding is closely connected to the decision-making process. Precisely, he states that life is primarily accidental and has no point. It is meaningless unless one enters being-for-itself, which demands to somewhat restrain from the whole world and yet embrace others (Sartre, 2021). Hence, each individual decides their purpose in life and creates their identity by interacting with others. This identity has value only if a person realizes that it is not their true self but an image for society; moreover, one might seek freedom from this identity, which would awaken their consciousness. Therefore, there is no predetermined meaning in life but only the one that each person creates for themselves by rejecting the identities and things that do not comprise them.
Next, the concept of freedom should be discussed in greater detail since it is essential for Sartre’s philosophy. One of Sartre’s most renowned expressions is that “man is condemned to be free” (Sartre, 2007, p. 29). He explains that a human being is “condemned, because he did not create himself, yet nonetheless free, because once cast into the world, he is responsible for everything he does” (Sartre, 2007, p. 29). This entails that, although some factors predetermine the life of people, each person can decide further what to do with the situations that the world presents them. Moreover, responsibility as a part of freedom is predated by the realization that one is not everything that surrounds them. This negation is painful since it is comfortable to agree with what others expect one to be, but separation is what makes a person human. Therefore, to be free is to accept the nothingness of others in one’s consciousness and remain to be a self.
In turn, freedom constitutes the existence of every human being. Namely, all emanations of being are always present in the existence of a person, whether they are aware of them or not. The being-in-itself is constant and does not evoke many emotions, while being-for-itself causes struggle. Being for itself looms over an individual every time they face a situation that makes them decide what their further actions are. Every time the individual becomes afraid of their loneliness and responsibility but makes a choice is the experience of existence.
A note on death should be made to contrast it with existence as it is presented in Sartre’s works. For example, the philosopher states the following on this subject: “Ultimately, at the infinitesimal instant of my death, I will no longer be anything but my past. It alone will define me” (Sartre, 2021). Since the past presents only being-in-itself, it does not denote existence. Similarly, death is not a part of life because it invokes no choices that an individual might make. Everyone is afraid of death and tries to avoid it; hence, everyone makes decisions and accepts the suffering of existence.
The other concept often appears in Sartre’s reflection on existence is “bad faith.” The philosopher seems non-religious in his works, yet this notion does not relate much to the idea of spirituality. Instead, bad faith is the desire of an individual to avoid the turns of free will by accepting the expectations and identities that others present to them. Bad faith is when being in itself is the primary strategy of one’s consciousness while an individual is still capable and aware of making choices that correspond to themselves.
So, for an individual to become a self, a process of realization of these phenomena must occur. It is argued by Sartre that identities do not comprise one’s genuine personality but only trap people in others’ beliefs about themselves (Sartre, 2021). The placement of stereotypes and conventions restricts an individual to their being-in-itself. The self is achieved through the negation of the things that are external to an individual and through interaction with others. Thus, to become a self, one suffers the free will’s weight and accepts their consciousness that is separated from all others.
After discussing all the important concepts of Sartre’s existential philosophy, it could be stated what exactly means the absurdity that was often mentioned. Specifically, it rises from the notion of the angst caused by the freedom which is inevitable for each human being with consciousness. However, the suffering continues because an individual cannot accept death and tries to avoid it. Then, making decisions is the only available option, although some attempt to invoke bad faith to prevent it. In the end, the absurdity is the fact of the contradiction of the suffering and its avoidance that nevertheless leads back to anguish.
To conclude, Sartre’s existentialism is distinguished by the notions of free will, angst, and the dual nature of human existence with the presence of others. The philosopher believed that existence is possible only when a person negates with others about the nature of the self. So, the realization of nothingness, which is being apart from people’s beliefs, denotes free existence and constitutes an individual.
References
Bhandari, D. R. (n.d.). Existentialist perception of the human condition: With special reference to Sartre. Paideia. Web.
Sartre, J. (2007). Existentialism is a humanism (C. Macomber, A. Elkaïm-Sartre, & A. Cohen-Solal, Eds.). Yale University Press.
Sartre, J. (2021). Being and nothingness (S. Richmond, Ed.). Washington Square Press.