Sartre

Question 1

Explain subjectivism

Answer 1

• “être-pour-soi” = being for itself
• “être-en-soi” = being in itself
• ‘en’ your essence is fixed/determines
• ‘pour’ we are free to become what we plan and we are free to create values for the individual
  => subjectivism means there is no secular authority, it is just you

Question 2

Explain inter-subjectivity

Answer 2

• the cogito is an absolute truth
• “it is not only one’s own self that one discovers in the cogito, but those of others too” => we recognise a self in relation to other selves
• “I cannot obtain any truth whatsoever about myself, except through the mediation of another”
• we live in a world of inter-subjectivity where each individual “has to decide what he is and what others are”

Question 3

Explain anguish

Answer 3

• anguish = severe suffering/distress
• “man is condemned to be free”
• total responsibility generates anguish
• uses the anguish of Abraham as he was entirely free to make a decision either way (cf Kierkegaard: “truth is subjectivity”

Question 4

Explain abandonment

Answer 4

• “only mean to say God does not exist” => distinguishes existentialism from a secular morality
• as there is no God, human beings are abandoned as there is nothing outside himself to give them guidance => a human being in a Godless universe, existence precedes existence
• cannot appeal to passion as “man is responsible for passion”
• student example: stay with mother or join French resistance against Nazis, could seek guidance but choice of adviser indicates that he has already chosen which course of action to take
• abandonment is always accompanied by anguish

Question 5

Explain despair

Answer 5

• despair = taking a realistic view on what my commitments can achieve
• we have to accept that when we make a choice the results will be limited (environment)
• you cannot rely upon humans to aid you as each human is free
• you cannot impose your values onto others (against communism, which links to context of WWII)