Existentialism And Jean-Paul Sartre's Theory Of Freedom

Decent Essays
The word freedom is used in many different ways and can mean many different things. According to existentialism, we have absolute freedom in our internal nature/essence. This means that we are free to make choices that will determine our essence. In order to explain what freedom means in terms of existentialism, background information about Sartre and his philosophy will need to be given. In Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre represents atheistic existentialism and bases his ideas off of the belief that there are no gods in the universe. This is important to note because this belief will be a foundation for his following principles. One of the principles that pertain to this idea is the principle that existence precedes essence. …show more content…
An example of this is tools. A tool is a device that carries out a specific function. It was designed with a purpose in mind or an essence as Sartre would say. Here is where people and tools can be compared to pinpoint what type of freedom is with existentialism. A tool’s existence does not precede its essence. Why? Because its purpose was given to it before it was ever created. Otherwise it would not have been designed specifically to fit its function. Therefore, the tool does not have what Sartre would call freedom since its essence existed before it has ever existed. Tools are just defined by their function. People for example are not defined like how tools are but they define themselves. They have freedom because they have can define their …show more content…
That is a point where Sartre would label living in bad faith. He states that, “ If we define man’s situation as one of free choice, in which he has no recourse to excuses or outside aid, then any man who takes refuge behind any passions, any man who fabricates some deterministic theory, is operating in bad faith” (47). Sartre is saying that humans who deceive themselves while doing what they don’t want to do is a case in which the person is cultivating bad faith. All people have a free will but when they choose to do something they would rather not, they go against their will and carry out their lives with a predetermined essence just like an object or an animal has. They ignore their fundamental freedom which is something that makes them distinguishable from tools/objects or animals. By cultivating bad faith, people put themselves out of reach and acts as an escape. They refuse responsibility. On the contrary, living in good faith would be the opposite of bad faith. Sartre says that, “the ultimate significance of the actions of men of good faith is the quest of freedom itself” (48). Bad faith is lying to oneself about not being able to do what one wants when one actually can. The concept of good faith can only be exemplified when human beings take responsibility for themselves. People can live in good faith when they own up to their mistakes

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The meaning of freedom can be a very board subject. Freedom, which can mean a great deal for one person can mean something totally different to the next. John Updike’s “A&P” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” both deal with quite the same aspect of freedom. In “Harrison Bergeron” the character Harrison wanted independence from a society that did not allow any freedom. Intelligent individuals couldn 't think or speak about certain things, in fear of repercussions.…

    • 1566 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are various definitions of what freedom means. Each individual has his own understanding of the word freedom. Freedom is having the right to experience your opinion and to live life in a manner consist with your beliefs and interests without judgement from others. Many people may say that freedom is about being accepted as well. This understanding of freedom is demonstrated in the short story “The Strangers That Came to Town” by Ambrose Flack.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sartre was part of a group of philosophers called the ‘Existentialist’. He was also an aggressive Atheist who didn’t mind speaking his mind. Most of Sartre’s philosophy is in opposition to other well-known philosophers and their ideas. In particular he argues against Kant’s distinction between things we appear to see despite what the reality actually was and the sense data we gained from events as our mode of understanding. Also, even though he had claimed to be a phenomenologist, Sartre was openly in disagreement on several topics with Husserl, the father of phenomenology himself.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to various dictionaries, freedom is the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint. We are liberated to be angry or sad or happy in our society, which may not be tolerable in other countries. We are proficient to experience being out of harm’s way and secluded in our own country. We have the Independence to uphold our existence as classified as competent. During my life, freedom has been used to symbolize the United States of America.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the first chapter of God’s Many-Splendored Image, the theme of freedom is obvious because that is the title of the chapter. Being free implies that we are like God, and God does not have a limitation of freedom, so we don’t either. On the same note, mental/spiritual freedom turns out to be more valuable than the physical that most adore. Human freedom does allow us to choose, due to the fact that we are divine beings made in God’s image, and that we can determine the mental happenings in a hard situation. Harrison starts out by conversing about how people wondered how much freedom they really had.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Elvis Rodriguez Fall 2015 Civil Liberties Final Freedom is a condition in which people have the “opportunity” to speak act and try to pursue happiness without any unnecessary restrictions. Freedom is important because it leads to expressions of original thought, increased creativity and a high quality of life. The idea of freedom is complex and it’s not so easy to understand. In the United States “essential” freedom are “guaranteed” by the Bill of Rights, a part of the constitution.…

    • 1627 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    John Locke, an English philosopher, once said, “All men are naturally in a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of Nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man.” A person’s idea of freedom can be completely different from someone else’s even if both people live in the same country. One person can think of freedom as being economically independent and another person can think of freedom as being unconstrained by unnatural boundaries and being able to move freely from place to place without consequences. Is freedom to be seen as being religiously unrestricted from practicing one’s religion or is it to be unrestrained…

    • 2174 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reconstruction Argument What is freedom? Webster’s Dictionary says “ the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. ”The state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.” African Americans were not free during reconstruction .…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Arendt’s Freedom and Social Contract of Rousseau Freedom has been defined in many different ways by many different theorists. People in our modern world usually think of freedom as the ability to do what you want and to be treated as an equal to other people. In other words, these people are strong believers that everyone has free will. Not only to do what we want, but to be able to think and speak what we feel as well, without limitation. But the philosopher Hannah Arendt views this idea of freedom differently.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freedom is a word that lots of people desire. Freedom is not only meant physically free, it also points to the freedom of the soul. It seems like we are always restricted by something: unlimited homework, family, even children in the future. As the result, we should be more independent. I cannot say that freedom has the necessary relationship with independent, but somehow, we can link them together.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freedom can mean many things to many people, freedom to me means being liberated from what once held one in bondage. Although, freedom according to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary gives a concise definition which states: “Liberation from slavery or restraint or from the other power of another: independence. Nevertheless, Martin Luther king Jr. is a well-known activist who fought for the freedom for African Americans. Also know for the March and his I have a dream speech. He wrote a letter while being kept in the Birmingham jail giving his rebuttal to the 8 clergy man who fail to address issues about segregation and race that have been ignored for a very long time.…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is the meaning of Freedom? Can one ever be completely free? The true definition of freedom becomes a question early in the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, when Pi argues and refutes the claims relating to the cruelty and restrictiveness of a zoo enclosure. Pi claims that an animal is no more confined in its mobility by a physical cage, than, by its survival instincts in which profoundly restrict an animal’s freedom. According to Dictionary.com, freedom is “the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint” (dictionary.com) In Life of Pi, the arisal of questions of freedom and the deprivation of Pi’s freedom are demonstrated in three distinct forms, animal freedom, physical freedom and spiritual…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his work ( Existentialism is Humanism), Sartre, one of the most influential figures in western philosophy emphasis free will and work from every aspect to prove the absolute freedom of decision of a human beings. Perhaps Sartre was influenced by the historical events of his time, or, perhaps he was defending existentialism as a philosophical perspective. But what matters is that in the end, Sartre puts freedom of choice first and last. To demonstrate or to prove per se this freedom of choice and decision, Sartre utilizes ethos, pathos and logos by using personal stories, using inductive reasoning and employing several analogies.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Knowledge – The Key to the Locked Door of Freedom The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn both suggest that knowledge is the key to freedom. Freedom means something different to each and every one of us. For the most part, freedom applies to rights, religion, speech, or just plainly to be all that you can be. Without those core fundamentals of freedom, one’s hands are tied to try and become most anything.…

    • 1569 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Hell is - other people!” (No Exit, 45). This line serves as the main structure of existential philosophy. Existentialist philosophy is based on the belief that a person makes their own decisions and is responsible for the consequences of those actions and choices. “…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays