Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Philosophy of Mind (Encylopedia III)', 'Varieties of Ontological Dependence' and 'Existentialism and Humanism'

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3 ideas

16. Persons / A. Concept of a Person / 4. Persons as Agents
Man is nothing else but the sum of his actions [Sartre]
     Full Idea: Man is nothing else but the sum of his actions.
     From: Jean-Paul Sartre (Existentialism and Humanism [1945], p.41)
     A reaction: This might be plausible if unperformed actions are included. For some people, their whole life story consists of what they failed to do.
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 1. Nature of Free Will
Man IS freedom [Sartre]
     Full Idea: There is no determinism - man is free, man IS freedom. …Man is condemned to be free.
     From: Jean-Paul Sartre (Existentialism and Humanism [1945], p.34)
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 2. Sources of Free Will
Freedom is produced by the activity of the mind, and is not intrinsically given [Hegel]
     Full Idea: Actual freedom is not something immediately existent in mindedness, but is something to be produced by the mind's own activity. It is thus as the producer of its freedom that we have to consider mindedness in philosophy.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Philosophy of Mind (Encylopedia III) [1817], §382, Zusatz), quoted by Terry Pinkard - German Philosophy 1760-1860 11
     A reaction: Pinkard glosses this as an agent being free by being the centre of a group of social responsibilities. Hence I presume small children have no freedom. Presumably we could deprive citizens of all responsibility, and hence of metaphysical freedom.