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  • Art, Sartre and Existence

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    Stuart Henderson
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    Sartre was a major existentialist philosopher who argued that the only way to impose meaning onto the otherwise meaningless existence is through art. He said that to name something is to take it out of the realm of the unmediated and bring it into the realm of significance. The author argues that the characters in the stories impose meaning on their experiences by naming them - or telling their stories - which allows the imposition of meaning onto experiences that previously existed without meaning. Thus, art provides a framework to understand existence and find meaning where there was previously none.

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    Sartre was a major existentialist philosopher who argued that the only way to impose meaning onto the otherwise meaningless existence is through art. He said that to name something is to take it out of the realm of the unmediated and bring it into the realm of significance. The author argues that the characters in the stories impose meaning on their experiences by naming them - or telling their stories - which allows the imposition of meaning onto experiences that previously existed without meaning. Thus, art provides a framework to understand existence and find meaning where there was previously none.

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    19 views5 pages

    Art, Sartre and Existence

    Uploaded by

    Stuart Henderson
    Sartre was a major existentialist philosopher who argued that the only way to impose meaning onto the otherwise meaningless existence is through art. He said that to name something is to take it out of the realm of the unmediated and bring it into the realm of significance. The author argues that the characters in the stories impose meaning on their experiences by naming them - or telling their stories - which allows the imposition of meaning onto experiences that previously existed without meaning. Thus, art provides a framework to understand existence and find meaning where there was previously none.

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    A provocation...

    The only way to impose meaning on to existence is through art.

    What would the text argue?

    Jean-Paul Sartre
    Jean-Paul Sartre is known as one of the most important Existential philosophers. While he didnt create Existentialism, he was the one that was responsible for shaping it and expressing it in a form that became popular. This was partly because Sartre was a novelist and play write as well as a philosopher. Ford quotes Sartre a lot in interviews and essays. This is one of the reasons we can know that Ford is interested in Existential thought (the type of thought that is interested in the fundamental unknowability of the world). And so what Sartre says has a lot of bearing on Fords work.

    Sartre has said...


    To name something is to take it out of the well of the unmediated and bring it up to the level of notice.
    Unmediated: not mediated: not communicated or transformed by an intervening agency. e.g. photoshopped images have made people aware that a digital photograph is not necessarily an unmediated depiction of reality Also, think about what it is to name something. This is really good practise for the process of unpacking a topic.

    I would argue...
    That what both Jackie and Earl do in their respective stories, is give a name to their experiences. They lift them out of the drifting chaos of their lived lives, and bring them into the realm of notice; the realm of significance.

    It is this choice to define the moment, to give the experience a frame, that allows the moment to become meaningful. Previously, it simply existed, cold and empty with the rest of existence. By naming it, by framing it, by telling it, meaning is imposed on the thing that was previously chaotic. This is the power of story, and beyond that, the power of art. Art provides a frame for existence, which allows us to read it, to understand it, to find meaning in it.
    This is why the story provides consolation - it doesnt change anything, it doesnt make anything better, but it at least can console us by giving some meaning to existence.

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