Sartre

Question 1

Definition of essence:

Answer 1

A certain set of core properties that are necessary or essential for a thing to be what it is.

Question 2

Essentialism?

Answer 2

We are imbued with essence

Question 3

Nietzsche’s nihilism?

Answer 3

The belief in the ultimate meaninglessness of life

Question 4

Existentialism?

Answer 4

Existence precedes essence. No predetermined purpose.

Question 5

theist existentialists

Answer 5

Refute the notion that got made the universe, or our world, or us, with any particular purpose in mind.

Question 6

Absurdity

Answer 6

The search for answers in an answerless world. Since there’s no teleology there is no reason. There is no absolutes to abide by.

Question 7

Context?

Answer 7

During / after ww2 - meaning became much harder to find.

Question 8

Freedom?

Answer 8

If there are no guidelines for our actions we have to invent a morality to abide by, so we are condemned to be free.

Question 9

Living authentically

Answer 9

Means you have to accept the full weight of your freedom in light of your existence

Question 10

Bad Faith

Answer 10

A refusal to accept the Absurd

Question 11

The young man at cross roads (joining war or looking after elderly mother)

Answer 11

The while point of this mans decision is that no one could give him an answer. His choice was the only true choice because it was determined authentically by his own values.

Question 12

Camus on the meaning of life

Answer 12

‘The literal meaning of life is whatever you’re doing that prevents you from killing yourself’

Question 13

Mary Warnock on Sartre’s method

Answer 13

‘it is the death of a philosophy if it confuses the true with the convincing’

Question 14

what does Sartre refer to god as

Answer 14

the ‘supernal artisan’

Question 15

who argues that Sartre confuses ‘choice’ with ‘not refutig’

Answer 15

maurice merleau-ponty

Question 16

two implications of atheism

Answer 16

1. ‘man is nothing else but what he makes of himself’

2. ‘if god doesn’t exist, everything is permitted’

Question 17

existence precedes essence quote

Answer 17

‘man makes himself; he is not found ready-made’

Question 18

what does he compare the moral choice to

Answer 18

a work of art

Question 19

progress?

Answer 19

no such thing as moral progress -

‘progress implies amelioration; but man is always the same’

Question 20

Outline Maurice Merleau ponty’s view

Answer 20

our freedom is not powerful enough to turn our lives around instantly
Sartre overstates the case for absolute freedom because just bc someone didn’t refute their circumstances doesn’t mean they chose them

Question 21

Sartre on emotions

Answer 21

‘feeling is formed by the deeds that one does; therefore I cannot consult it as a guide to action’

Question 22

Sartre moral high ground ?

Answer 22

‘it is not for me to judge him morally, but I define his self-deception as an error’

Question 23

intersubjectivity

Answer 23

‘in choosing himself he chooses for all men’

‘in fashioning myself I fashion man’