Why Did Sartre Say We Are Condemned To Be Free?
Why did Sartre say we are condemned to be free? What does he mean by this? Do you agree with the contention that “everything is permissible if God does not exist?" Why or why not?
Part A
I belief it is very significant to note that Sartre 's use of consciousness does not just mean consciousness, however, self-reflective consciousness. Sartre 's dualism of unaware 'objects ' and (self) awareness 'subjects ' is the source of his declaration that merely self-awareness subjects, beings, can be free. Sartre not simply asserts that human beings are free but free at every single instant to select their course of deed, and that we are "condemned to be free". It is an unavoidable fact of being-for-itself that we are free, it is not possible to be otherwise. Sartre affirms “we are condemned to be free” since we had no choice in the matter
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Part B
To the best of my understanding there could be more than one explanations for Satre’s assertion that “everything is permissible if God does not exist?" Firstly, it could be read to mean that without God we would have no inspiration to be moral. Unless we had the incentive of heavenly verdict or heavenly approval, then we would not actually care about being moral since we would not face any final accountability for our deeds, either in heaven or on earth.
Thus, do we need God for moral incentive since without it we would not be moral? I would say yes and no. Because, there may be some individuals who would not be ethical/moral if they were persuaded that God does not exist. Yet, there are certainly numerous persuaded nonbelievers who still believe that it is significant to be ethical. Even for theisms, there are countless inspirations to be moral beyond terror of heavenly chastisement or wish for heavenly approbation. We may want to be moral out of a wish to fit in, or a wish to evade prison and so on. So, if Satre’s claim means that without God no one would have any incentive to be moral, then I do not agree
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