Jean Paul Sartre
From the early to late 20th century a philosopher by the name of Jean-Paul Sartre became a major spokes person for existentialism, catching the largest audience in all the history of philosophy. Sartre developed a sort of chain of philosophy with and responsibilities for humanity to live by. He expressed that every individuals first responsibility to, not only their self, but to humanity as well, was to realize they exist and define themselves as who they are and how they will be. From there he believed that everyone is free to make choices, and everyone is responsible for realizing that every choice made not only affects their future but humanities as well. Once those choices are made, he felt it is every individual's responsibility to get what they want, and not sit and wait for it to happen. He felt that humanity relied too much on God in all these aspects of life, and he felt God was too unreliable. People needed to be shown that every individual is responsible for every aspect of theirs and humanities future. People can only rely on themselves. People must realize that they exist without the help of God and learn to define themselves as human before anything else. This is the first step on Sartre's chain of philosophy
These certain fashioned values should be taken seriously because in the case of atheistic existentialism God is useless, and if God is useless then humanity is not provided with any values or commands that legitimize our behavior. Like Dostoevsky once wrote, "If God did not exist, Humans must now decide how to behave. Humans can only call themselves humans if they are acting like humans. They have the ability to act like animals, but it is the ability to think and feel and the choice to use these human qualities that will in turn define them as human. Therefore every person has the responsibility to realize they are human and the responsibility to define by choice who they are. Once humans have achieved awareness of self and their needs, they can begin climbing John Maslows hierarchy of needs beyond food and shelter, and can begin making choices using thinking and feeling. These conscious decisions begin to take place after making oneself who they are. A person must choose who he wants to be before continuing through life. Therefore the first effect of Sartre's existentialism is that it puts people responsible for themselves as they are, and places the entire responsibility for their existence squarely upon every individual's shoulders. As said before choices are only deemed valuable if it is followed by an action. Choice is formed by action. Once someone has made a choice they can only count on themselves to carry humanity, humans create destiny through every choice that they make. Therefore people are responsible at every instant to create themselves, humanity and their future. As Sartre says, "Man is the future of man. That is exactly true. Only, if one took this to mean that the future is laid up in heaven, that God knows what it is, it would be false, for then it would no longer even be a future. If, however, it means that, whatever man may now appear to be, there is a future to be fashioned, a virgin future that awaits him - then it is a true saying. But in the present one is forsaken." People are confronted everyday by choices and they are the ones who choose what direction they will take, it is not fate. They are led not by God in their decisions but by instinct, which is feeling. When faced with a difficult choice many people seek council. When doing so that person would seek someone who would give advice they wanted to hear. They seek an advisor who would tell them the direction in which their instincts, or feelings are already leaning towards. "In other words, to choose an advisor is nevertheless to commit oneself by that choice" Sartre says. Consequently people decide what kind of advice they need before receiving it. Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself" . Everything that has been created has been developed from an idea or concept before it actually existed. Take for example a knife, the artisan who creates one has a concept of its appearance and usage before be begins to develop it. In this case the knifes essence came before its existence. But in the case of humans Sartre felt this was not so. His atheistic existentialist approach was that if God does not exist there is at least one being whose existence comes before its essence, a being which exists before it can be defined by any concept of it. That he believed was humans. Therefore humans must first of all exist, enc
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Approximate Word count = 2343
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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