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Looking for Sartre's Speech "Existentialism is a Humanism"

Sartre's existentialism is the core of humanism.

1946, Sartre gave a speech entitled "Existentialism is a kind of humanitarianism" in Paris. The main purpose of the speech is to "respond to some accusations of existentialism." The objects of response are mainly the French * * * Production Party and Christianity.

The foothold and destination of Sartre's existentialism lies in man's absolute freedom. How does Sartre deduce man's absolute freedom? First of all, Sartre defined the basic principle of existentialism as "existence precedes essence". How does man exist? Sartre's "existence" does not refer to the ontological significance of the traditional metaphysical category, but a Heidegger-style process. In Sartre's view, people show themselves by constantly denying themselves by consciousness, and people exist by such a display process. Sartre divided human consciousness into three levels by Husserl's phenomenological method. The first level is "pre-reflection" consciousness, which is a nihilistic and pure consciousness, similar to Freud's pre-consciousness; The second level is the consciousness of "I think", that is, the intentional consciousness of things, and the third level is the consciousness of "reflection", that is, the consciousness of reflecting on people themselves. Sartre believes that the first level of consciousness is the real consciousness, that is, consciousness is nothingness, and nothingness means absolute freedom. Therefore, human consciousness is absolutely free. Since human existence depends on such a nihilistic consciousness of absolute freedom, human existence is absolutely free. So how do people express their absolute freedom? Although existence is nothingness, the consciousness of nothingness only belongs to the metaphysical field of individuals. In Sartre's view, consciousness cannot be fully understood by others, so absolute freedom needs a secular mapping-personal choice. People's choice can only be a complete reflection of their own consciousness, so the expression of absolute freedom of consciousness in this world is the absolute freedom of choice.

Because Sartre nihilised existence, his existentialism was inevitably stained with pessimism, which became the most criticized place of existentialism. Europe, which was passive and depressed after the war, urgently needed a spiritual pillar to support the whole continent and revive it. Sartre, who had a strong desire to "intervene", began to remould himself. The propaganda of remoulding was "Existentialism is a kind of humanitarianism": "Its purpose". This is a theory about action. "

How did Sartre transform existentialism?

"If existence precedes essence, and when we exist, we are also creating our image, then this image is applicable to all mankind and the whole era in which we live. Therefore, our responsibility is more important than we think, because it concerns all mankind. " When the nothingness of absolute freedom fell into a quagmire, Sartre tried to get out of the predicament by limiting "absolute freedom", which was the responsibility from "people" and "times". But in my opinion, this responsibility is incompatible with Sartre's original absolute freedom.

Sartre's consciousness of nothingness is a chaotic primitive consciousness, even before consciousness came into being, so it is impossible to have any secular mapping-choice imposed on him by "responsibility". Instead of taking "responsibility" as the continuation and development of Sartre's theory, this is not a revision, but a revision that conforms to the politics of the times. The revised "humanitarian existentialism" can be simply summarized as "choice is absolutely free, but the responsibility for any choice is inevitably borne." Although this kind of existentialism is more positive and implies "intervention", is there really "absolute freedom"?

"When a person takes responsibility for one thing, he is fully aware that he not only makes a choice for his future, but also becomes a legislator who makes a choice for all mankind through this action-at such a moment, people can't get rid of that overall and great sense of responsibility." This theory that the whole is greater than the individual is tantamount to placing individual freedom under collectivism, which seems to be the basis of Sartre's unusually close international relations with * * * production at that stage, and another fatal crisis-centralization is hidden under this theory. "I shaped myself and also shaped people." When making any choice, we must take all interests as the model, which is bound to form a unitary behavior model and may lead to centralized rule. The consciousness at this time is no longer the initial chaotic nihility consciousness, but the third level of "reflection" consciousness. From here on, Sartre deviated from the existential foundation laid by existence and nothingness.

Ironically, Sartre preached from his "choice-responsibility" theory: "I decided to get married and have children. Although this decision was made only according to my situation, my will or desire, I not only took responsibility for myself, but also called on all mankind to practice monogamy. " It was finally overthrown by his lifelong unmarried relationship with Beauvoir. Since Sartre overthrew his theory with his own actions, did he declare that the existential transformation of "the whole is greater than the individual" finally failed?