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On Sartre’s Existentialism and the Meaning of Human Existence

&NewLine;<p>In Jean-Paul Sartre’s essay&comma; <em><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;marxists&period;org&sol;reference&sol;archive&sol;sartre&sol;works&sol;exist&sol;sartre&period;htm">Existentialism is a Humanism<&sol;a><&sol;em>&comma; he seems to argue against any inherent meaning in human existence&period; He believes that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;existence precedes essence&comma;” and that to begin with&comma; Man is nothing&period; It is only through recognition of one’s own existence that an individual can begin to make decisions&period; Since an individual makes decisions that are best for him or herself&comma; and these decisions reflect their image of the ideal person&comma; people make decisions on behalf of all Mankind&period; It is the lack of confidence behind these decisions that causes the anguish of our existence&comma; and in turn&comma; according to Sartre&comma; the lack of meaning in human life&period; Without a higher power to appeal to&comma; individuals must dwell over what is truly best for themselves and all Mankind&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Assuming that the above assertions are correct&comma; and assuming that &lpar;according to Sartre&rpar; there is no God&comma; it is still possible to find meaning in human existence&period; Sartre argues that life lacks inherent meaning given by a higher power&comma; because existence precedes essence&period; However&comma; he never argues that essence does not exist&semi; he simply views the significance we attribute to our lives as meaningless&comma; because it is not inherent from the start of life and is never validated by a celestial authority&period; By reevaluating Sartre’s take on existentialism&comma; meaning can be attributed to our lives without the existence of God&comma; primarily through the freedom of our own subjectivity and the responsibility that we have to the rest of Mankind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though an individual has to make decisions without appealing to a higher power&comma; this does not mean that these decisions are &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;wrong” or without value&period; On the contrary&comma; Sartre asserts that there is no higher power and thus no universal rules to live by&semi; every decision that an individual makes is the correct decision because it is best for the individual&period; Each decision requires no further validation from a being outside of the individual’s own subjectivity&period; While Sartre believes that this means humans are &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;condemned to be free&comma;” it is more of a gift than a curse&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Without God&comma; the freedom to choose one thing over another allows people to make decisions without the fear of breaking universal morals&period; If there were a God&comma; the anguish of responsibility would be replaced with fear of punishment and guilt over amoral decisions&period; In other words&comma; the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;validation” of decisions is unnecessary&comma; because under the assumption that there is no God&comma; there are no inherent values to determine what is right or wrong&comma; valid or invalid&period; By appealing to one’s own subjective intuition&comma; individuals can make the best decisions for themselves&comma; and in turn all of Mankind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;10&sol;sartre&lowbar;inoffice-1024x770&period;jpg" alt&equals;"jean-paul sartre quotes" class&equals;"wp-image-1602"&sol;><figcaption>&&num;8220&semi;Man is condemned to be free&colon; condemned&comma; because he did not create himself&comma; yet nonetheless free&comma; because once cast into the world&comma; he is responsible for everything he does&period;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8211&semi; Jean-Paul Sartre&comma; <em>Existentialism is a Humanism<&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though decisions themselves do not need to be validated to hold meaning&comma; this does not solve the issue of anguish&period; People will continue to want their decisions validated&period; This never-ending anguish seems to imply an absurdity in human existence&period; However&comma; a life without anguish actually would be meaningless&period; After all&comma; if you have a higher power to appeal to and you never have to struggle with decisions&comma; what would be the point of living&quest;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While Sartre sees the freedom of choice as a condemnation and further evidence that life is meaningless&comma; it is actually the sole source of meaning in human existence&period; Assuming that existence does precede essence&comma; we create our own &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;essence&comma;” or meaning&comma; through our decisions&period; Though we may dwell on whether or not our decisions are &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;right&comma;” they are still our decisions&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To quote Sartre&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself&period;” By making decisions that&comma; to the best of one’s knowledge&comma; benefit the individual&comma; we give meaning to human existence&period; We have nothing to appeal to but our own subjective intuition when making decisions&comma; so we have the authority to give those decisions meaning&period; The anguish we feel about our decisions is a burden&comma; but it does not destroy meaning&period; Instead&comma; it helps define the human struggle as just that&comma; a struggle&period; By having the ability to live an existence that is difficult and requires us to make decisions without any guidance from a higher authority&comma; we can give our struggles purpose&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>One could argue that&comma; without a higher power who creates a universal code of morals to aid people in making decisions&comma; human existence would be completely chaotic and devoid of meaning&period; However&comma; it is the sense of responsibility for Mankind that helps solve this dilemma&period; Since individuals make decisions that are representative of their ideal image of Man&comma; they are making decisions on behalf of all Mankind&period; As a result&comma; they are responsible for making decisions that are best for themselves and humanity as a whole&period; Although an individual will always lack confidence in their decisions&comma; they will still make decisions that are best for all&comma; because they will make decisions that are best for themselves&period; For example&comma; if a person chooses to volunteer at a homeless shelter&comma; that person is making a decision that they believe the ideal person would make&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Essentially&comma; just by living our lives and making decisions&comma; we are projecting individual concepts of what Man should be&period; We are responsible for those projections because we are representing ourselves &lpar;by presenting ourselves as the ideal person&rpar; and representing all of Mankind &lpar;by projecting our beliefs of what the ideal person should be&rpar;&period; Our decisions may not directly impact Mankind on a large scale&comma; but they show our perception of the meaning of human existence&comma; and we are responsible for this perception&period; Since we have nothing to appeal to but our own subjective intuition&comma; and we are responsible for that perception&comma; our decisions have value and meaning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Using Sartre’s belief that God does not exist and his argument that existence precedes essence&comma; we can derive meaning from the significance we place on individual subjectivity&period; Rather than assuming life is meaningless without God&comma; the argument that existence precedes essence proves that humans give their own lives meaning&period; Although we lack confidence because we do not have an all-knowing authority to appeal to&comma; we still use our perception of human existence to form decisions&comma; and we create meaning through those decisions&period; Since that meaning is created by decisions we make within our own subjectivity&comma; and that same subjectivity is the only authority that an individual can appeal to&comma; it stands to reason human existence is not without meaning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For more information on Sartre&&num;8217&semi;s existentialism and its representation in film&comma; check out <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;03&sol;10-existential-films-for-philosophy-students&sol;">10 Existential Films for Philosophy Students<&sol;a><&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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