Sartre on Freedom and Existentialism Essay

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e. The lack of attachment to other people and things) is beneficial from an individual perspective, but damaging for society as a whole because it hinders advancement.

In reality however, in order to maintain such a belief in our own self-sufficiency and freedom of choice, we would have to rewrite the laws of human nature. As this is highly improbable, we are likely to continue in our flight from freedom for as long as we remain in existence. People are, after all, social creatures by nature and thus, according to Garcin, we "need the suffering of others to exist."

This is Sartre's way of arguing that existentialism is the only valid means of providing mankind with dignity, and life with meaning. Thus at the core of Sartre's suppositions is that the role of existentialism is vitally important in helping the individual to embrace freedom as a manifestation of nothingness and, in turn, restore and sustain his self-respect. This can only be achieved, however, when a true understanding of the equation between freedom and nothingness is reached on both a personal and a collective level.

The characters in No Exit begin to gradually realize that without others to reflect their image back on to them, it is if they do not even exist. Estelle exemplifies this sentiment in the following monologue"

"I've six big mirrors in my bedroom. There they are. I can see them. But they don't see me. They're reflecting the carpet, the settee, the window-- but how empty it is, a glass in which I'm absent! When I talked to people I always made sure there was one near by in which I could see myself.

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I watched myself talking. And somehow it kept me alert, seeing myself as the others saw me...Oh dear! My lipstick! I'm sure I've put it on all crooked. No, I can't do wihtout a looking-glass for ever and ever. I simply can't."

The view of what qualifies as a person's value is also closely aligned with the views of Sartre in Being and Nothingness, in which he proclaims that "Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself." Sartre calls this the first principle of existentialism. Sartre and other existentialists believed that the quest for knowledge of the truth is rooted in self-actualization. It is about discovering who we are by the choices we make, and about coming to those decisions through inquiry and reflection. He acknowledges the subjectivity of one's understanding of values such as freedom, and he respects each person's right to develop their own conceptions. Yet he also acknowledges that these conceptions are usually based on the individual's need to make themselves as unaccountable as possible for their decisions.

From a social perspective, these qualities of human nature of not changed much, if at all, since Sartre first expressed his opinions about them. Human beings continue to rely on one another for confirmation of their own self-worth, and although this may constitute "hell on earth," for most people it is a far more favorable existence than complete solitude......

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