Sartre’s philosophy of existentialism is that man is not predestined for his actions he is absolutely free to make his own destiny and is thereby solely responsible for his decisions. Man should be true to himself, in the process experience alienation and loneliness. Feelings of anguish arise as man recognizes his freedom of will over the way the world sees him, the way normally he is expected to behave, the norms of behavior which determines society. This philosophy of Sartre has been critically discussed
This means in other words that existentialism transforms your behaviors. According to the existentialists, the most significant thing for individuals is to be a individual, not dependent on the social roles, titles and definitions. Existentialist creates their own moral values independent from the society, and search a reason for their isolated life. The problems of the existentialist are their concern with the unsolved problem of meaning. They are curious to find a meaning and they seek the sense and meaning of the universe.
Humans have free will, but God knows their fate. In Book V of the City of God, Saint Augustine discusses the matter of fate and free will pertaining to having a relationship with God. Within that section of the text he makes many statements about how humans have the freedom to make their own choices, but God ultimately knows the outcome. Logically, this make sense. If God created everything, then this would mean He has created everything in the past, present and future.
Existentialism is the philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. It is the view that humans as individuals define their own meaning in life and make rational decisions despite existing in a very irrational universe, this idea
Superfluity, contingency, alienation, suffering, helplessness, freedom and responsibility, despair and religious spiritual detachment are the themes of existentialism. (reference?) Sartre, in his major work Being and Nothingness, talks about creating oneself in action. What he means by this is that I, the human, am free. I can make up my own mind about my acts.
As Pecorino (2000) defined it, “existentialism is a philosophical movement or tendency, emphasizing individual existence, freedom, and choice that influenced many diverse writers in the 19th and 20th centuries”. From the definition, it can be said that it is a view that all humans should determine their own meaning in life, and therefore try to make rational decisions in spite of existing in an irrational universe. The central point of the idea is the question of human existence, and the feeling that there is no purpose or explanation at the innermost of existence. It further holds that there is no God or any other superior force, and that the only means to opposed this nonexistence is by willingly accepting existence. The following paragraphs discuss the main feature of the existentialist view which includes; existence precedes essence, the absurd, facticity, authenticity, the Other and the Look, angst and dread, despair, etc.
Kierkegaard (cited by Smith, 2015) claimed that existentialism is the freedom to rule your own life. An existential hero makes his own choices independently by creating a life that is moral (Gutek, 2009: 109). This hero is also accountable for his own decisions and actions. Thus, an existential hero should be educated; knowledgeable within his own conscience to make well-informed choices.
“… [Humans] don’t have a ‘nature,’ contrary to all other beings and things in the universe; we exist in the world, with freedom to choose our path, and thus our existence precedes our essence. But that puts us in a state of anguish, from which we would like to escape (in bad faith), but we cannot, because we are condemned to be free” (Rosenstand, 2018, p. 515). Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophy of virtue ethics stands in contraction to many, believing that human life is without predetermined meaning, whether by divine appointment or via evolutionary growth. Sartre further defines this history debating, “… man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards… Man simply is… Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself… [and] that it puts every man in possession of himself as he is, and places the entire responsibility for his
Critically examine the philosophical ideas that are expressed in Sartre’s novel Nausea Jean-Paul Sartre was a French Philosopher, novelist and literary critic. He was born on the 21st of June, 1905. During his life, he was one of the important figures in the philosophy of existentialism and also one of the prominent individuals in the 20th century French philosophy and Marxism. Existentialism is a 20th century philosophy which is basically centred on the analysis of existence, freedom and choice. It is the understanding that humans define their purpose in life and try to make coherent decisions although they exist in an irrational universe (Mastin, 2008).
According to postmodernism, we all create our own reality and God has nothing to do with it. Denying the absolute truth, postmodernism concentrates on feelings, emotions, and reflection. Each person develops his or her own moral values which are shaped by the culture and society, but still there is a strong emphasis on self-expression and individualism. However, it has its own negative sides as numerous rewriting of history what led to the point when no one could be sure about this or that event in the past. The postmodern philosophies can be espoused in order to develop a complete and adequate science for different disciplines as, for example, nursing.