Freedom of choice and responsibility In the recent discussions of existentialism, a controversial issue has been whether existentialism is before essence. On the one hand, some argue that essence is before existentialism. From this perspective, each man has a particular, universal human nature and has the same basic qualities. In other words, God creates a man, so a man’s life is only directed by God. On the other hand, however, others argue that existence precedes essence. In the words of Jean-Paul Sartre, one of this view’s main proponents, “It means that, first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is
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And until just now, I always thought that my mother was the one who made a choice for me, not me. But after reading Sartre’s Existentialism and Human Emotions, I finally realized that I actually was the one who made that decision. I was the one who chose to listen to my mother’s advice and follow her direction, not my own passion.
I am not saying that listening to her and majoring in economics was wrong or bad, but whenever I lacked confidence in myself throughout the hardships, I always tried to escape from my responsibility and tried to place the blame on my mother. The issue is important because every man has the freedom to make a choice and always have to take the responsibility, but not every man acknowledges it and always tries to come up with an excuse for his actions, asks for justice and always tries to put the blame on others for what he …show more content…
Thus, existentialism’s first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him. And when we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do not only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men (16).” In making this comment, Sartre urges us to understand that even though it is our personal choice, it still can influence all other people’s lives so we need to think wisely to make a particular choice and take the full responsibility. Because if every man starts taking actions only thinking of himself, there would be chaos of selfish men. Thus, man’s responsibility is much greater than we might have imagined, because it involves every
And until just now, I always thought that my mother was the one who made a choice for me, not me. But after reading Sartre’s Existentialism and Human Emotions, I finally realized that I actually was the one who made that decision. I was the one who chose to listen to my mother’s advice and follow her direction, not my own passion.
I am not saying that listening to her and majoring in economics was wrong or bad, but whenever I lacked confidence in myself throughout the hardships, I always tried to escape from my responsibility and tried to place the blame on my mother. The issue is important because every man has the freedom to make a choice and always have to take the responsibility, but not every man acknowledges it and always tries to come up with an excuse for his actions, asks for justice and always tries to put the blame on others for what he …show more content…
Thus, existentialism’s first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him. And when we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do not only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men (16).” In making this comment, Sartre urges us to understand that even though it is our personal choice, it still can influence all other people’s lives so we need to think wisely to make a particular choice and take the full responsibility. Because if every man starts taking actions only thinking of himself, there would be chaos of selfish men. Thus, man’s responsibility is much greater than we might have imagined, because it involves every