Existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre?

existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre says, "when we say man is responsible for himself, we do not only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men." how, in the framework of existentialist beliefs, is this paradoxical statement true?|||As Tim states, "there is no paradox". You cannot be responsible for self without being aware of the environment in which you exist, and that is inclusive of other people. That means that your-self responsibility encompasses all of that which you are aware. To be responsible for self means that you must do (or not do) that which improves your relationship to that environment always in your own self interest.











No paradox at all.|||Not only does the individual account for what he does or does not do but how it effects society as a whole|||I'm not using yahoo to do my assignments and neither should you|||Certainly wasn't true for him...he sold out his fellow Jews.





His responsibility rests on no firm truth basis, and this is one reason that Camus ( a real existentialist) went from admirer to not being able to stand him.|||If one is an "existentialist," one's own developed awareness of the human condition may or may not incline one toward one or another type of responsibility.





The question is, then, how does an existing one develop awareness and responsibility. For Sartre, screwing young philosophy groupies pimped by Simone Beauvoir was a good thing. Someone else might find killing Ukrainians a good thing (J. Stalin), or killing intellectuals (Chairman Mao). These too are "existentialists," as they found no God, no Transcendent Truth, and literally said there was none (a bit of a logical error, btw). A. Hitler likewise found Jews to be obnoxious, subhuman, and acted accordingly.





Thus, "awareness" and "responsibility" are, for the existentialist, paradoxical, as even relative values are conditioned. Derrida, postmodernism, and Rorty are examples of thinkers who opined so.





Thus, while Sartrean existentialism carries within it the seeds of its own paradoxical deconstruction, it is undeveloped by Sartre, who simply opted for a particular socialist humanism, disregarding the more profound implications of his notions, which in turn have been explicated by Derrida, Rorty, et al.