TWENTIETH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY: Intellectual Heroes and Key Themes

LECTURES I.The pariah as rebel. II.The hope of the hopeless. III.Message in a bottle. IV.Absolute free. V.Human flourishing. VI.Genealogy as critique.

IV. ABSOLUTE FREE

1.PHENOMENOLOGY Is there an adequate philosophical method? 2.BAD FAITH AND THE GAZE What does individual freedom mean for others? 3.EXISTENTIALISM AND MARXISM How to conceive the relation between agency and structure?

1. PHENOMENOLOGY

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE BIOGRAPHICAL DATA:  1905: Born June 21, in Paris.  1907: Death of his father.  : Secondary school.  : Studies philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris where he meets Simone de Beauvoir.  : Teacher at a secondary school in Le Havre.  : Scholarship to study in Berlin.  : Again teacher at a secondary school in Le Havre.  : Teacher at a secondary school in Laon.  : Teacher at a secondary school in Paris.  : Prisoner of war.  : Joins the Paris Resistance Movement.  : Sympathizes with communism and criticizes it.  : Sets his face against the War on Algeria.  1964: Refuses to get the Noble prize for literature.  1968: Supports the student movement and sets his face against the Vietnam war.  1970: Becomes almost totally blind and cooperates with Pierre Victor.  1980: Died April 15, in Paris.

MAJOR WORKS  La nausé (1938).  Le mur (1939).  Esquise d’une théorie des émotions (1939).  L’être et le néant (1943).  Huis clos (1944).  Les chemins de la liberté ( ).  L’existentialisme est un humanisme (1946).  Situations (1947 etc.).  Les mains sales (1948).  Saint Genet, comédien et martyr (1952).  Questions de méthode (1957).  Critique de la raison dialectique (1960).  Les mots (1964).  L’idiot de la familie ( ).

HEURISTIC VALUE 1.Psychology (Pontalis amongst others). 2.Cinematography (Allen amongst others). 3.Sociology (Goffman amongst others). 4.Feminism (Beauvoir amongst others) 5.Literature (Camus amongst others). 6.Philosophy (Lévi amongst others). 7.Fine Arts (Giacometti amongst others).

ENGAGEMENT  Sartre was THE intellectual of the 20th century; he was the embodiment of political engagement.  According to him an intellectual should leave his ivory tower; it’s his responsibility to do that.  His political engagement was famous > World War II; Algerian War, Vietnam War, etc.  Sartre description of the intellectual (intellectuel engagé) > “someone who deals with issues that are not his concern.”  Engagement does not only imply involvement (one is nolens volens inescapably engaged in the world), but also public deliberation about the political ends one freely chooses.

PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE  Sartre is the author of different kinds of texts philosophical works, screenplays, novels, plays, short stories, manifests, essays and (auto)biographies.  Outside of the academic world, he was mainly operating within three spheres: philosophy, politics and literature.  Although his novels, short stories and plays are not merely illustrations of his philosophical theories, they circle around philosophical issues.

CARTESIAN TRADITION  The philosophy of Sartre belongs clearly to the cartesian tradition > rationalism.  As in the work of Descartes consciousness is also a central concept in Sartre’s philosophy.  However, there especially three other philosophers that influenced Sartre: 1. Husserl. 2Heidegger. 3.Hegel.

PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHOD  Husserl > consciousness is not a thing, as in the work of Descartes (res cogitans > a thinking thing), but a being- directed-to-something.  Intentionality > consciousness is always consciousness of something.  Phenomenology > the study of the phenomena that appear to the consciousness of an individual.  Phenomenon > being as it appears.  Method > Epoché.  Epoché > putting into parentheses all ideas one has about the existence of the world in order to examine consciousness independently of the question of any worldly existence.  However, Sartre’s focus is on consciousness in-the-world.

THE TRANSCENDENTAL EGO  Husserl pressupposes a ‘transcendental ego’ > an I (ego) orders different activities of his consciousness; without such an I there would be chaos.  Sartres La transcendance de l’égo > Husserl doesn’t take intentionality seriously, when he presupposes an ordering I within the consciousness.  According to Sartre the objects of ones consciousness create an order and not the I.  Because the I transcends consciousness it’s like the objects: a thing.

TYPES OF CONSCIOUSNESS  Sartre’s I is based on the distinction between two types of consciousness: 1. Unreflective consciousness > no knowledge but an implicit consciousness of being consciousness of an object (the pre-reflective cogito). 2. Reflective consciousness > the attempt of the consciousness to become its own object (the reflective cogito).  An I figures only with the reflective consciousness.

FUNDAMENTAL ONTOLOGY  For Sartre phenomenology should reflect on the concrete existence of human beings.  Heidegger’s analysis of ‘das Dasein’ (being-there) inspired him.  Question: what is the meaning of being-there as a conscious being?  Fundamental ontology is about the articulation of the difference between human and non-human beings.  A fundamental ontology should be based upon phenomenological descriptions.  For instance a phenomenological description of the absurdity of human existence, i.e. its unjustifiable contingency.  Nausea (nausée) > the fundamental taste of the contingency and facticity of human being.

THE RELATION BETWEEN THE MASTER AND THE SLAVE  Hegel delivers Sartre the vocabulary to develop his own fundamental ontology.  Sartre translates two of the core concepts of Hegel’s philosophy: 1. An-sich > en-soi (in-itself). 2. Für-sich > pour-soi (for-itself).  These concepts give him not only the opportunity to describe the differences between human and non-human beings, but also to describe the interaction between people in terms of the master and the slave.  To objectify other people means trying to make them to a kind of slave.

2. BAD FAITH AND THE GAZE

A DUALISTIC ONTOLOGY  The core of L’être et le néant is a distinction between two kinds of being: the in-self (en-soi) and the for-itself (pour- soi).  Being-in-itself (être-en-soi) > the non-conscious being; that is as it is.  Being-for-itself (être-pour-soi) > the nihilation of being- in-itself; the consciousness conceived as a lack of being or the desire of being.  The nihilation is based upon the capacity to nihilate (néantir) > the creation of a nothingness by the consciousness between the consciousness and its object.  The for-itself creates a hole (trou) in the in-itself.

SARTRE’S DUALISM IN-ITSELFFOR-ITSELF It coincides with itselfIt never coincides with itself It is only what it isIt is walking ahead It is something, because it has a substance It is nothing (néant), because it is not a thing (the empty consciousness).

MEGALOMANIAC  The title of Sartre’s major philosophical work - L’être et le néant – is the most megalomaniac in the history of philosophy.  A book about ‘Being and nothingness’ is all-embracing.  Being (être) encompasses being-in-itself and being-for-itself.  Nothingness (néant) doesn’t have being, but is supported by it; due to the for-itself it comes into the world.

FREEDOM  The characterization of the for-itself underlies Sartre’s concept of freedom.  Due to the for-itself the human being can transcend everything.  The human being is condemned to be absolute free.  Even during World War II a Dutch or British citizen was free, because it has the choice to collaborate with the Germans or resist them.  Because of this freedom of choice agents are responsible for their actions.

BAD FAITH  Against the background of his ideas about freedom Sartre discusses the value of authenticity (authenticité).  Being not authentic or insincere > bad faith (mauvaise foi).  Bad faith > an individual that lies to itself; it denies in fact its freedom.  Through bad faith an individual seeks to escape its absolute freedom.  Bad faith > a vacillation between facticity and transcendence.

EXISTENCE AND ESSENCE  Sartre argues that existence precedes essence (existence précède l'essence).  Herewith he criticizes traditional philosophy that declares essence as more fundamental.  Existence > the concrete individual here and now standing out from itself (being in ecstasies).  Essence > what has been made by individuals.  Through the pour-soi people can transcend the essence.  Simone de Beauvoir argues in this line: “One is not born a woman, but becomes one".

BEING-FOR OTHERS  Besides the being-in-itself (être-en-soi) and the being-for-itself (être-pour-soi) Sartre also talks about the being-for-others (être-pour-autrui).  The being-for-others > the self that is an object for others.  This implies a perpetual conflict, because people can’t reduced to an object.  Nevertheless the for-itself wants to make out of the other for-itself an in-itself.  This will lead to a fiasco (echec), because this is impossible.

BEING OBJECTIFIED  It is especially due to the gaze that an individual experiences the existence of others.  The gaze triggers the experience of being objectified by someone else, becoming some-thing.  At the same time one becomes aware that the other is a subject.  Shame is an emotion that often results from being objectified in an embarrassing situation.  For instance, when an individual becomes aware that another person sees that he is looking as a voyeur through a keyhole.  Such an embarrassing situation makes the individual conscious about the existence of the other.

3. EXISTENTIALISM AND MARXISM

AGENCY AND STRUCTURE  Sartre tries to deal with a classical issue: the agency-structure problem.  Central question: how to reconcile the freedom of the individual an its facticity?  In other words, how to bridge the gap between existentialism and Marxism?  Existentialism > emphasizes the freedom of the individual, i.e. its agency.  Marxism > emphasizes the socio-economic structures that limit the freedom of the individual.

HISTORICAL MARXISM  Sartre wants to rescue Marxism from lazy dogmatism.  Dogmatism implies a kind of reductionism > to reduce all individual behaviour to socio- economic inequalities, i.e. class relations.  From a political perspective Sartre defends a kind of ‘libertarian socialism’.  Marxists have to figure out the constraints of a specific historical situation.

DIALECTICAL REASON  The aim of Critique de la raison dialectique is to use a Hegelian dialectic to integrate the idea of individual responsibility in a Marxist analysis of class relations.  Sartre developed a progressive-regressive method.  This method encompasses: 1. A regressive analysis of static socio-economic structures. 2. A progressive analysis of the active permutation of these structures by the actions of individuals and groups.

THE PRACTICO-INERT  Practice (praxis) > the actions of individuals that transcend the given constraints.  The practico-inert (practico-inerte) > the results of practice that become constraints for individuals, i.e. the sedimentation of their previous actions.  Point of departure of any practice > deficiency (manque), scarcity (rareté) and need (besoin).  The mediating third (tiers régulateur) > being an individual in a group that is involved in a struggle of recognition.  Sartre denies the possibility of a dyad of an individual and a group > although they stay outsiders to each other they can become a mediating third.

SOLIDARITY  Sartre makes a distinction between collectives and groups.  Collectives > individuals who are gathered and miss the unity for mutual recognition and collective action.  Threatening circumstances can trigger the transformation of collectives into groups.  This can be the basis of solidarity.

GROUP STRUGGLE  Sartre argues that group struggle is the driving force in human history.  Basic ontological distinction: 1. Individual praxis: the actions of individuals. 2. Group praxis: the actions of groups.  Although a group can be characterized by a collective intentionality it is not an organism.  Individuals are organisms that can create a group.  Types of groups: fusing groups, fledge groups, organizations and institutions.

FLAUBERT  L’idiot de la familie consists of several volumes about the life and times of the French novelist Gustave Flaubert from a existentialist-marxist perspective.  He applies his progressive-regressive method.  Sartre tries to reconstruct how Flaubert incarnates (i.e. internalizes) the major events and values of his time and gives expression to it.  He is again dealing with the agency-structure problem.

RECOMMENDED 1.Jean-Paul Sartre, Les Mots [translations in several languages]. 2.Jean-Paul Sartre, L’être et le néant [translations in several languages]. 3.Annie Cohen-Solal, Sartre, [translations in several languages].