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Single Idea 22230

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 6. Authentic Self ]

Full Idea

Sartre evolved from a notion of absolute freedom to one that truly takes into account the weight of situation.

Gist of Idea

Sartre gradually realised that freedom is curtailed by the weight of situation

Source

report of Jean-Paul Sartre (works [1950]) by Christine Daigle - Jean-Paul Sartre 2.3

Book Ref

Daigle,Christine: 'Jean-Paul Sartre' [Routledge 2010], p.57


A Reaction

This change seems to have come much later, in the 1960s. The main influence seems to have been Marxism, which claims that consciousness is created by society, rather than by free individuals.

Related Idea

Idea 22228 Sartre's freedom is not for whimsical action, but taking responsibility for our own values [Sartre, by Daigle]


The 29 ideas with the same theme [changing one's self into something more genuine]:

There is a self-determing power in each person, which makes them what they are [Cudworth]
Feelings are prior to intelligence; we should be content to live with our simplest feelings [Rousseau]
Freedom means making yourself become true to your essential nature [Fichte]
The in-itself must become for-itself, which requires self-consciousness [Hegel]
I am a creative nothing, out of which I myself create everything [Stirner]
Young Hegelians proposed changing our present consciousness for liberating critical consciousness [Marx/Engels]
There are aesthetic, ethical and religious subjectivity [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
People want to lose themselves in movements and history, instead of being individuals [Kierkegaard]
Becoming what one is is a huge difficulty, because we strongly aspire to be something else [Kierkegaard]
Nietzsche thinks the human condition is to overcome and remake itself [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
Man is the animal whose nature has not yet been fixed [Nietzsche]
Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche]
To become what you are you must have no self-awareness [Nietzsche]
By developing herd virtues man fixes what has up to now been the 'unfixed animal' [Nietzsche]
Virtues from outside are dangerous, and they should come from within [Nietzsche]
Virtuous people are inferior because they are not 'persons', but conform to a fixed pattern [Nietzsche]
Mundane existence is general, falling under universals, but Existens is unique to individuals [Jaspers]
We want the correct grasp on being that is neither solipsism nor absorption in the crowd [Jaspers]
'Existenz' is the potential being, which I could have, and ought to have [Jaspers]
Dasein is always only that which it has chosen to be [Heidegger]
Heidegger says we must either choose an inauthentic hero, or choose yourself as hero [Heidegger, by Critchley]
Authenticity is taking responsibility for a situation, with all its risks and emotions [Sartre]
Sincerity is not authenticity, because it only commits to one particular identity [Sartre, by Aho]
We flee from the anguish of freedom by seeing ourselves objectively, as determined [Sartre]
Existentialism says man is whatever he makes of himself [Sartre]
It is dishonest to offer passions as an excuse [Sartre]
Sartre gradually realised that freedom is curtailed by the weight of situation [Sartre, by Daigle]
A standard problem for existentialism is the 'sincere Nazi' [Graham]
The self is constituted by its choices made within a social context [Aho]