Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Jean Paul Sartre self and subjectivity?

Contemporary continental philosophers agree that personal identity and subjectivity are not grounded in a transcendental self as a substance that defines an essential human nature. BRIEFLY describe Sartre's understanding of self and subjectivity in terms of the implications that follow from his thought on how we should live our lives.|||Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). He served in the French army, became a prisoner of war, escaped and worked in the Renaissance movement. He in a way didn't believe there was a god but he believed that humans needed to and would make their own values. He wanted people to understand his way of looking at life and how life really works. Yes, of course we all have our own opinions and beliefs and that is ok, that is what makes us all who we are today. The world would be such a boring place if everyone was the same. He makes you look at things in a different way and ask your self questions. The stuff that he talks about I do wonder about myself. My Fiance doesn't really believe in god either as I do. I do believe in him but don't worship him. I do pray at times just like anyone else but I don't go to church nor do I have to in order to believe in him. I chose this philosopher because he mainly brings out a lot of questions that other people are ashamed to ask or believe in as well. He says that "First, because there is no God, there is no maker of man and no such thing as a divine conception of man in accordance with which man was created. This means, Sartre thought, that there is no such thing as a human nature that is common to all humans; no such thing as a specific essence that defines what it is to be human. Past philosophers had maintained that each thing in existence has a definite, specific essence; Aristotle, for example, believed that the essence of being human is being rational. But for Sartre, the person must produce her or his own essence, because no God created human beings in accordance with a divine concept. Thus, in the case of human beings, Sartre wrote, “existence precedes essence,” by which he meant very simply that you are what you make of yourself". I feel very strongly about that last statement, I do believe it is true. We are only what we make of oursleves. Sartre wrote, “man is freedom”; in fact, he is condemned to be free. Nothing forces us to do what we do. Thus, he said, “we are alone, without excuses,” by which he meant simply that we cannot excuse our actions by saying that we were forced by circumstances or moved by passion or otherwise determined to do what we did. Consequently, because a Godless world has no objective values, we must establish or invent our own values. Which I don't see a problem with. I think he did a great thing by talking to people about these things and teaching them to believe in themselves. We must not always look for the easy way out, life is hard and we all over come it :)

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