JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

(1905–1980)

PHILO 303 - Modern Philosophies and

Religious Trends

PRESENTED BY:
CARL JUN G. DELA CRUZ
 01 Life
02 Works
Main
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
03 Philosophy
04 Famous
Lines
01
Life
 LIFE

Born in Paris, Sartre was just

15 months old when his father died.
Brought up by his mother and
grandfather, he proved a gifted student,
and gained entry to the prestigious
École Normale Supérieure.
 LIFE

After graduation, he worked as a teacher and

was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Le Havre in 1931.
 LIFE

During World War II, Sartre

was drafted into the army and
briefly imprisoned. After his
release in 1941, he joined the
resistance movement.
 After 1945, Sartre’s writing became LIFE
increasingly political and he founded
the literary and political journal
“ModernTimes.”
He was offered, but declined,
the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1964.
 LIFE

Sartre is cited as a key influence

on the streets protests in Paris in
May 1968, which helped to bring
down the conservative government
and herald a more liberal climate
throughout France.
 LIFE

Engagement with political

issues was an important part
of Sartre’s life.
 LIFE

Such was his influence and

popularity that more than
50,000 people attended his
funeral in 1980.
 02
WORKS
 NAUSEA
story of Antoine Roquentin,
a French writer who is
horrified at his own existence.
In impressionistic, diary form
he ruthlessly catalogues his
every feeling and sensation
about the world and people
around him.
BEING AND NOTHINGNESS
one of those rare books whose
influence has affected the
mindset of subsequent
generations. Its message
remains as potent as ever--
challenging readers to confront
the fundamental dilemmas of
human freedom, choice,
responsibility & action.
 EXISTENTIALISM
AND HUMANISM
The unstated objective of his lecture was
to expound his philosophy as a form of
"existentialism", a term much bandied
about at the time. Sartre asserted that
existentialism was essentially a doctrine
for philosophers, though, ironically, he
was about to make it accessible to a
general audience.
 CRITIQUE OF DIALECTAL
REASON Volume 1

In it, Sartre set out the

basic categories for the
renovated theory of history
that he believed was
necessary for post-war
Marxism.
 CRITIQUE OF DIALECTAL
REASON Volume 2
Volume Two’s theoretical
framework is a logical
extension of the predecessor’s.
The book concludes with a
forceful reaffirmation of
dialectical reason: of the
dialectic as ‘that which is truly
irreducible in action’.
03 Main Philosophy
BRANCH
Ethics

APPROACH
Existentialism
 Human nature
is fixed across time and space. In
other words, it assumes that there
is a universal essence of what it is
to be human, and that this essence
can be found in every single human
that has ever existed, or will ever
exist.
 According to this view, all
human beings, regardless of their
circumstances,
possess the same fundamental
qualities and are
guided by the same basic values.
 To clarify what he means by
this, Sartre gives the following
illustration. He asks us to imagine
a paper-knife—the kind of knife
that might be used to open an
envelope.
 The use or purpose of a tool, such as a pair of scissors,
dictates its form. Humans, according to Sartre, have no specific
purpose, so are free to shape themselves.

SHARP BLADES
to slice effortlessly
through any
material.
ERGONOMICALL
Y
designed
handles PRECISION
-MADE
for a firm
screw for a
grip.
smooth
pivoting action.
 Sartre says
that it is inconceivable for a
paperknife
to exist without its maker
knowing what it is going to be
used for.
 Humans, of course, are
not paper-knives. For
Sartre, there is
no preordained plan that
makes us the kind
of beings that we are.
We are not made for any particular
purpose. We exist, but not because
of our purpose or essence like a
paper-knife does; our existence
precedes our essence.
DEFINING
OURSELVES
 Sartre points out
that religious approaches to the
question of human nature often
work by means of an analogy with
human craftsmanship—that
human nature in the mind of God
is analogous to the nature of the
paper-knife in the mind of the
craftsman who makes it.
 In claiming that
existence comes before essence,
Sartre is setting out a position that
he believes is more consistent with
his atheism. There is no universal,
fixed human nature, he declares,
because no God exists who could
ordain such a nature.
 Defining ourselves, however, is
not just a matter of being able to
say what we are as human beings.
Instead, it is a matter of shaping
ourselves into whatever kind of
being we choose to become.
Sartre’s idea that
we are free to
shape our own
lives influenced the
students that took
to the streets of
Paris in May 1968
to protest against
the draconian
powers of the
university
authorities.
RESPONSIBLE
FREEDOM
By making
choices, we are
also creating a
template for
how we think
a human life
ought to be.
 This means that freedom is the
greatest responsibility of all. We
are not just responsible for the
impact that our choices have upon
ourselves, but also for their impact
on the whole of mankind.
 We have
no excuses to hide behind for the
choices that we make. For this
reason, Sartre declares that we are
“condemned to be free.”
 Sartre’s philosophy of linking
freedom with responsibility has
been labelled as pessimistic, but
he refutes that charge. Indeed, he
states that it is the most optimistic
philosophy possible, because
despite bearing responsibility for
the impact of our actions upon
others, we can choose to
exercise sole control over how we
fashion our world and ourselves.
04
Famous
Lines
THANKS!

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carljundelacruz@deped.gov.ph