Sartrean Existentialism

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Sarte's "Existentialism is a Humanism"

• Sartre (1905-1980) sees himself as representing atheist existentialism.
• Sarte summarizes his existentialism with the claim that for human being, existence precedes essence. This means that first we exist, and then we decide what to be.
• Contrast the case of artifact. A hammer is a hammer because it is made to do that. But we are not made (and even if you believe we were made, Sartre notes, you can believe we were made free). So we have no purpose in the sense that a hammer does. We have to choose what we are to be.
• Sartre claims that there is something universal about my choices: if I choose to be a Christian Union member, then I assert that this is a way to be that at least I found worthy.
• Human being is anguished becuase we cannot be certain of our choices.
• Human being is forlorn because there is no certainty to be found about our decisions, no fixed and certain guide to human nature. Sartre famously phrased this, "Man is condemned to be free."
• Human being can be despairing because our choices may not result in the ends we seek or expect.

Heidegger

• Sartre's philosophy is heavily influenced by -- it might even be fair to say, derived from -- the early philosophy of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). Heidegger was a deeper philosopher, although Sartre was an infinitely better man.
• Heidegger's philosophy is vastly complex, and we cannot do it justice here. However, one point is worth mention, as an addendum to Sartre's comments: Heidegger's notion of Das Mann, or "The They."
• Heidegger argues that we get our selves first from our socialization by others, by the vague "one" or "they" that we refer to when we say, "One does not chew with her mouth open."
• The They, however, is not a human being. It is an abstraction, an inauthentic amalgam of our social discourse. The They does not die, nor does it make choices (at least, it faces no responsibility for choices).
• We are always tempted to give in to how The They defines us. When we do this we are being inauthentic, we are lying to ourselves and pretending, for example, that these are right and certain things. But in fact we must die and we must accept responsibility for our actions. Hiding in The They is a way to hide from this.