Jean Paul Sartre, Professor John Compton
Jean Paul Sartre, Professor John Compton
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Jean Paul Sartre

Author: Professor John Compton

Narrator: Charlton Heston

Unabridged: 2 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/30/2006


Synopsis

Sartre's existentialism faces the evil in human existence and sees that humans are responsible for it. He doubts man can make moral progress, yet he embraces the possibilities for human life. Mankind is radically free and responsible. In every moment we choose ourselves; beyond this, we find no instructions for our lives. No external authority gives life meaning, so Sartre's existentialism is boldly atheistic. For most objects, "essence precedes their existence." But humans must continually create what they are in every moment; human existence precedes essence. "Existence" hides behind the way we see and talk about it. Conscious life is a type of "Nothingness"; we determine what we now are by the way we project the "not yet" of the future (we are not what we are, and we are what we are not.) Anguish before the future is one way we experience our radical freedom. We're not determined by outside forces; we constantly choose and rechoose ourselves with no assurance that we have a continuing identity or power. So we set up determinisms to ease our minds. An unstable and unpredictable human condition afflicts all human relations. We can't escape our involvement with others; conflict is inevitable. Death is the ultimate limit; the end of consciousness is the end of meaning.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nesreen

A perfectly solid introduction.......more

Goodreads review by CA Ram

Jean-Paul Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist, and critic. He was a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy. He declined the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom an......more

Goodreads review by Kofi

Sartre’s thesis on the interdependence of the body as an object was perhaps the most profound section. One cannot truly exist for himself alone unless he can make everyone else disappear. I also liked his reflections on human freedom and how that impacts our vocations, etc. In a sense, we are always......more

Goodreads review by Eden

If you're missing your old university philosophy classes, this is a good, easy, quick dip back in. Jean-Paul Sartre is an existentialist's best friend. This book will give you an intro to his views and make you consider how everything is a performance. You only exist in how others perceive you, and......more