Monday, April 26, 2010

COMMENTRY ON SATRE

again from Self and Subjectivity, Kim Aitkins, 2005

"As pure negation, freedom undermines the idea of a determinate “human nature.”Rather,as the power of negation (or choice), human beings are free to create the meaning of their own existences;moreover,they are human beings only when they do so."[Kim Aitkins, 2005, pg 88]

“...there is no human nature because there is no God to have a conception of it....Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself....man will only attain existence when he is what he purposes to be.” [Satre]

"Sartre famously argues that we are “condemned to be free,”and cannot evade the responsibility for our own lives because we are only what we make of ourselves,“the rest is self-deception or cowardice”7 – or what Sartre calls “bad faith.”Sartre goes as far as claiming that although I may not be able to realize my aims in action,for example, because I am imprisoned, I am nevertheless free because I can form the intention to act and the values that motivate it.In essence,Sartre’s conception of choice is negative: I am never in the situation where I cannot choose and cannot be responsible for my choices; I can always say “no” to my captors. Simone de Beauvoir criticized Sartre for failing to appreciate the significance of the differences in power that characterize and circumscribe the lives of men and women – a point that has been central to contemporary accounts of psychological oppression." [Kim Aitkins, 2005]

I recommend reading the whole commentary on Satre, Aitkins description of Satres philosophy on existentialism is really interesting, deals with the idea of the ego and the object.

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