4/6/2011

On Wednesday, April 6th, the main focus of class was John-Paul Sarte. He was a French Philosopher from the early 1900s who strongly believed that we, as humans, are all free and responsible for the decisions we make, Existentialism is Humanism. Man, or women, define themselves after their actions, “existence preceding essence.” He felt that philosophy is about a lived out experience and that for a person to act on, or use something, they are already aware of the outcome/its purpose. The duty of something is predetermined.

In Existialism there are to branches: Theist and Atheist. A theist man has a predetermined life and given tasks by God. An atheist has free will and decisions are up to them. The atheist makes their own choices and separates themselves from God so they can define themselves. For example there was a story told of a creator who made animals and gave them each a task. One of the creations was man, but he was task-less. When an outside inspector comes along he notices that the man had no task and instructed him to be destroy to his lack of identity. Without task, there is nothing to identify of the man. (somewhat to how people associate themselves with their jobs...) The creator then distributes hope to the man, which gives “self essence” as his task.

We also discussed bad faith and consciousness. With consciousness there is the idea of intentionality. There is always a subject geared towards an object. This object is impossible to be transcended human subjectivity and the individual chooses and makes themselves. When a person makes a name for themselves everyone around them does the same, but when making that choice humanity is chosen. It is predetermined that we, as humans, are all condemned to be free and freedom can only be understood once subjectivity is recognized. Freedom brings responsibility for decisions, therefore one cannot do what he or she pleases due to responsibility.

With Bad Faith, there is the idea that one can’t transcend their situations to realize what they are and what they are not. Meaning someone is living their life defines by their occupation. The waiter who is eager to serve and is extravagant in the ways he delivers food is essentially acting. This is because he is pretending to care he is still aware that he is more than a waiter. He makes a choice to define himself as more. To realize you have a problem is virtue.

Then we finished with the discussion of “Being.” The first is Being for itself, where the individual is completely free. The next is Being in itself, where all is determined and the final is Being with others, which is inter-subjectivity. In Being, your choice is freedom and in order to be a victim, your choice is becoming objectified. Facticity acknowledges “facts” and can be something more than an object, where transcendence are facts that don’t matter. Facticity is over Transcendence and they differ from mind over body.