PHIL 2010H Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Jean-Paul Sartre, Subjectivism, Existentialism
3 May 2017
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Objective standards ---> justify individual choices ---> action. Individual choices ---> create subjective standards ---> action. Quietism: for existentialists human action--- especially political action--- is futile. (this criticism is from the marxist left) Pessimism: existentialists see human existence as bleak, ugly, and hopeless (this criticism is from the catholic right) Relativism: existentialism says all values are subjective. Sartre"s reply: on the contrary, action is of the utmost importance in existentialism, because actions are the natural expressions of our choices--- our choices made real in the world. For existentialism, you are what you do--- hardly a do-nothing, quietist philosophy. Pessimism: existentialists see human existence as bleak, ugly, and hopeless--- specifically, as structured by anguish, despair, and abandonment, even in cases where we don"t literally experience these feelings. Sartre"s reply: on the contrary, no philosophy could be more optimistic than existentialism. Because you have free will, you can at any point change your choices and thus your life.
