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Sartre Human Nature

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The Absurdity of Being: Exploring Sartre's Conception of Human Nature



We are all born into a world we did not choose. We are thrust into existence, burdened with consciousness and the agonizing freedom to choose our own path, a path that shapes not only our individual destinies but also contributes to the overarching narrative of humanity. This fundamental condition, the very essence of being human, is the central focus of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist philosophy. Unlike thinkers who posit an inherent human nature, a pre-ordained set of traits and instincts, Sartre argues that we are fundamentally free, and this freedom, coupled with the inherent lack of pre-defined meaning, constitutes the human condition. This article explores the nuances of Sartre’s conception of human nature, delving into its implications for our understanding of ourselves and our interactions with the world.


1. Existence Precedes Essence: The Foundation of Sartre's Thought



Sartre’s seminal work, Being and Nothingness, lays the groundwork for his understanding of human nature. His famous dictum, "existence precedes essence," directly challenges the traditional view that humans are created with a pre-determined purpose or nature (essence) imposed by a divine being or inherent biological programming. Instead, Sartre argues that we are first thrown into existence – we exist – and only then do we create our essence through our choices and actions. We are not born with a pre-defined role or purpose; we are condemned to be free.

Imagine a paper-cutter. Its essence – its purpose – is predetermined by its design: to cut paper. It exists to fulfill that purpose. Humans, however, are not designed for a specific purpose. We are born into the world without a pre-ordained blueprint, forcing us to construct our own meaning and purpose through our choices and actions throughout our lives.


2. Freedom and Responsibility: The Weight of Existence



This radical freedom, while liberating, is also a source of profound anxiety. The burden of choice, the responsibility for shaping our own being, is a heavy one. Every decision we make, every action we take, contributes to the construction of our essence, our self. There is no escape from this responsibility; to choose not to choose is still a choice.

Consider the example of someone facing a moral dilemma: should they lie to protect a friend, or tell the truth and potentially harm them? There’s no pre-defined “right” answer. The choice, and the consequences that follow, directly contribute to defining who that person is. This is the weight of existential freedom: the responsibility for creating oneself through authentic choices.


3. Bad Faith: Escaping the Burden of Freedom



Given the anxiety associated with radical freedom, some individuals engage in what Sartre calls "bad faith." Bad faith is a form of self-deception where we attempt to deny our freedom and responsibility by conforming to societal expectations or pre-defined roles. We might pretend to be someone we are not, clinging to external definitions of ourselves rather than embracing the responsibility of creating our own authentic existence.

A classic example is a person who feels pressured to become a doctor because their family expects it, despite harboring a passion for art. By ignoring their true desires and conforming to expectations, they are acting in bad faith, suppressing their freedom and ultimately hindering their self-creation.


4. Anguish, Abandonment, and Despair: The Human Condition



Sartre highlights the inherent anxieties associated with our freedom. Anguish arises from the awareness of our responsibility for our choices and their impact on others. Abandonment stems from the realization that there is no pre-ordained order or divine guidance to fall back on; we are alone in making our choices. Despair acknowledges the limitations of our control over the world, recognizing that we cannot control the actions of others or the outcome of our choices. These feelings, however, are not necessarily negative. They are integral parts of the human condition and essential for authentic existence.


5. Authenticity and Self-Creation: Living in Good Faith



Authentic existence, according to Sartre, requires confronting the anguish, abandonment, and despair inherent in our freedom. It involves taking responsibility for our choices and embracing the uncertainty of the future. It's about creating our own values and living according to them, without relying on pre-defined societal norms or external justifications. This commitment to self-creation is the path towards authentic existence, living in "good faith."

An artist who paints despite lack of external validation, driven by an internal passion, is acting authentically. Their choices are driven by their own vision and values, rather than conforming to expectations.


Conclusion:

Sartre’s conception of human nature challenges our ingrained assumptions about pre-determined roles and inherent purpose. It emphasizes the radical freedom and responsibility inherent in human existence, highlighting the anxieties and opportunities that accompany this freedom. Embracing this freedom, while confronting the anxieties it brings, is crucial for leading an authentic and meaningful life. The key takeaway is that we are the authors of our own lives, and the choices we make shape who we become.


FAQs:

1. Isn't Sartre's view overly pessimistic? While acknowledging the anxieties of freedom, Sartre's philosophy also highlights the immense potential for self-creation and the liberating power of authentic choice. The anxieties are not necessarily negative but rather integral to the human condition.

2. How can we reconcile Sartre's ideas with the influence of society and genetics? Sartre acknowledges social and biological influences, but stresses that even within these constraints, we retain the freedom to interpret and respond to them in diverse ways. Our choices are still ours to make.

3. Does Sartre's philosophy imply moral relativism? Not necessarily. While there are no pre-ordained moral rules, Sartre emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions and their impact on others. Authenticity demands a commitment to one's own values, which can inform ethical decision-making.

4. How can we apply Sartre's ideas in our daily lives? By consciously examining our choices, taking responsibility for their consequences, and striving to live authentically, in accordance with our own values rather than societal expectations.

5. What is the role of other people in Sartre's philosophy? Others are crucial in defining our freedom. Our actions are always perceived and judged by others, thereby contributing to the construction of our self. Interpersonal relationships are a constant source of both challenge and opportunity in the process of self-creation.

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Summary of Sartre’s Theory of Human Nature - Reason and … 20 Nov 2014 · Theory of Human Nature: Existence and Essence, Negation and Freedom – Sartre doesn’t believe in a human nature or essence that precedes individuals. Rather our existence precedes our essence ; we have to create our own essence.

Theological Language and the Nature of Man in Jean-Paul Sartre … Sartre's conception of human nature; (2-4) to illustrate his employment of theological language in describing man as desiring to be God, guilty of original sin, and incarnate in love; (5) to appraise his argumens for atheism; and (6) to assess particular aspects of his description of human reality. I. Human Nature and Individual Character.

Jean-Paul Sartre - Wikipedia Jean-Paul Sartre was born on 21 June 1905 in Paris as the only child of Jean-Baptiste Sartre, an officer of the French Navy, and Anne-Marie (Schweitzer). [8] When Sartre was two years old, his father died of an illness, which he most likely contracted in Indochina.Anne-Marie moved back to her parents' house in Meudon, where she raised Sartre with help from her father Charles …

Existence Precedes Essence: What Sartre Really Meant There is no human ‘nature’, Sartre argues, there is only a human condition: we exist as self-conscious first-person perspectives constantly imagining and reimagining who we are as we move through time. French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in …

Sartre’s Existential Humanism Part 1 - The Philosophers' … Sartre argues that freedom is absolute, and belongs to our being-in-the-world as a matter of existence (ontology) and the human condition. The confusion of freedom with the acte gratuite is just one of many in the minds of the young intellectuals who followed existentialism.

Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre 1946 Man possesses a human nature; that “human nature,” which is the conception of human being, is found in every man; which means that each man is a particular example of a universal conception, the conception of Man.

Topic for #87: Sartre on Human Nature and Freedom 2 Jan 2014 · Sartre (in “Existentialism is a Humanism”) cited this overall feeling of depression that people come away with from existentialist literature as a reason to make the doctrine explicit, to show that it was life-affirming, morally responsible, and not at all nihilistic.

Jean Paul Sartre's 'Existentialism is a Humanism': A Critical Reading This critical reading of Jean Paul Sartre's 'Existentialism is a Humanism' explores the fundamental concepts and challenges associated with existentialism, particularly Sartre's assertions regarding dignity, existence preceding essence, and the essence of humanism.

The Existential Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre - TheCollector 11 Mar 2022 · For Sartre, there is no human nature for there is “no God to have a conception of it”. Human nature implies that there is an essence of being human, which Sartre refuted. Therefore, human nature is something we must individually decide upon. We define what human nature is, and therein lies our responsibility.

Jean-Paul Sartre - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 26 Mar 2022 · In brief, Sartre provides a series of arguments for the necessary freedom of “human reality” (his gloss on Heidegger’s conception of Dasein), based upon an ontological distinction between what he calls being-for-itself (pour soi) and being-in-itself (en soi), roughly between that which negates and transcends (consciousness) and the "pure ...

Sartre and the Problem of Universal Human Nature Revisited In this paper I propose to look exclusively at the philosophical thought of Sartre and to situate it in relation to the wider European tradition and other thinkers, especially Heidegger.

MOSS, FUNGUS, CAULIFLOWER: SARTRE’S CRITIQUE OF “HUMAN NATURE” Sartre’s Critique of “Human Nature” 33 Human nature here is the idea of a universal human essence instantiated in each individual human being. Sartre claims that atheistic existentialists are more consistent than eighteenth-century atheists in arguing that if God does not exist, then existence must precede essence. He clarifies this

Sartre and Analytic Philosophy | Reviews | Notre Dame … 17 Feb 2025 · Sartre and Analytic Philosophy collects together essays by thirteen analytically trained philosophers that, rather than engaging in interpretive disputes about Sartre’s texts, mine those texts for insights capable of making an impact on contemporary anglophone philosophy.Morag’s editorial introduction offers a psychoanalytic interpretation of the …

A student’s guide to Jean-Paul Sartre’s - Philosophy Now Nor did he believe there to be any other external source of values: unlike for example, Aristotle, Sartre did not believe in a common human nature which could be the source of morality.

Sartre on Human Nature: Humanness, Transhumanism and … 1 Aug 2011 · This article is concerned with an apparent similarity between the conceptions of human nature found in the early work of Jean-Paul Sartre and certain forms of transhumanism, and the role of a...

Sartre on the Nature of Consciousness - JSTOR In Being and Nothingness Sartre wrote: "The existence of desire as a human fact is sufficient to prove that human reality is a lack."1 On first thought this may strike one as true and even as trite, for the other side of every desire is of course some absence, or some deprivation. Yet on second and more careful thought it easily seems super

Sartre on Human Nature: Humanness, Transhumanism and Performance ... 11 Oct 2011 · This article is concerned with an apparent similarity between the conceptions of human nature found in the early work of Jean-Paul Sartre and certain forms of transhumanism, and the role of a particular conception of human nature in the application of transhumanist ideas to debates on performance-enhancement.

Sartre and the Problem of Universal Human Nature Revisited Sartre of resolving this tension in his later works by betraying free dom and re-introducing determinism into his account of human nature, namely Marxist historical materialism.

Jean-Paul Sartre’s Concept of Freedom - PHILO-notes 7 Apr 2023 · Sartre believed that human beings are fundamentally free and that our existence precedes our essence, which means that we are not born with a predetermined nature or purpose. In this essay, we will examine Sartre’s concept of freedom and explore its implications for human existence.

Sartre’s Denial of Human Nature | that-which The whole existential thinking-philosophizing of Sartre arises from the conviction and the argument that there is no human nature; that is, Sartre’s existentialism in its entirety is grounded in a denial of the existence of something that might be called human nature.

Sartre on Human Nature: Humanness, Transhumanism and … The article begins with a brief outline of major features of Sartre's phenomenological work (?I). The article then gives a more detailed account of the relationship between Sartre's phenomenological ontology and the view of human nature expressed in Existentialism and Humanism (?II).

Key Theories of Jean-Paul Sartre - Literary Theory and Criticism 8 Jun 2017 · There is no human nature, and nor does the individual human being have any determining psychological traits. What any human being turns out to be is a result of their existence, which is to say, of the way in which they freely chose to live their lives.