Sartre's Being And Nothingness Analysis

Improved Essays
The Situation comes in Part IV of Sartre’s Being and Nothingness and aims to explain how it is that one can be free in the face of the deterministic nature of our existence. This essay aims to explain how Sartre sees that there are aspects of existence which can be seen to restrict one's freedom, but under an ontological freedom these restrictions are nonexistent. These restrictions are referred to by existentialism as ‘facticitcity’ meaning the objective fact about the external world which are outside of one's control, past one's reaction to them. These facticities are categorised as My Place, My Past, My Environment, My Fellow Man, and My Death. This essay shall focus on My Past and My Death, and evaluate how both aspects are insufficient …show more content…
Sartre accepts that “Far from being able to modify our situation at our whim, we seem to be unable to change ourselves. I am not "free" either to escape the lot of my class, of my nation, of my family” (Sartre, 2003, p. 503). Sartre argues that one is free due to one's constant ability to choose our projects in life and we are free to place the meaning we wish to these situations. Sartre's idea of freedom differs from the traditional understanding, and this is especially clear when we consider the Prisoner (Sartre, 2003, p.505). The traditional understanding of freedom revolves around the idea of one's ability to act, to reach one's aims. In the traditional sense, the Prisoner is less free than the Freeman as he is locked away and thus unable to pursue his goals. However, it is for Sartre that both the Prisoner and the Freeman are equally free. Sartre sees it that there are no shades of freedom, the limit of freedom is merely itself. Freedom under this understanding is freedom of choice, focused instead on one's freedom to determine one's own goals, rather than freedom in conducting oneself. This means that the Prisoner is as free as the Freeman as both are able to set projects for themselves, and because the possibility of completion has no part in determining one's freedom; the Prisoner is …show more content…
For example, once The Great War became WW1 it’s perspective cannot be changed back. Once WW2 had happened, it became illogical to not understand WW1 as WW1. This is significant because this is a restriction on one's freedom, as one is not able to conceive of the historical event in any other way. What's more, we can consider the issue with Sartre's ontological conception of freedom. Sartre maintains the idea that one has freedom, despite any apparent restrictions on one's freedom. Even an individual living under a tyrannical totalitarian regime, according to Sartre, is free. He states that “the slave in chains is as free as his master” (Sartre, 2003 p. 570). The issue with this is that by accepting a purely ontological definition of freedom, this means accepting that one cannot have true freedom. One is not free from the place in society in to which they are born, even if Sartre insists that one is free to choose the significance of their actions; some actions are not a choice at all and this is a restriction on one's freedom, the acceptance of unchangeable facticities is an acceptance of the lack of freedom in existence. This leads to Sartre's account of the aspects of freedom appearing as empty rather than a conclusive explanation of how one can be free despite facticity. For example, imagine a man who is told he will die in 10 minutes, he

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
  • Superior Essays

    Each work of literature explains the theme of freedom differently with each author having a similar purpose in mind. The theme…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World - Society of Imprisonment True Freedom is having the right to act, speak and think whatever one wants without any hesitation or restriction. Imprison [im-priz-uh n] to confine in or as if in a prison (dictionary, 2018) Why is it so important that freedom is achieved? The motto that shapes the World State is “Community, Identity, Stability” (p.1). The motto tricks the citizens into thinking that they have achieved the utmost freedom and are content with the way they live their lives.…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 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
  • Decent Essays

    Then all of a sudden, someone tries to grab their attention because that person was blocking the way for others to pass. They get embarrassed, and feel ashamed. This person displays this emotion because how those other individuals perceived them. With this analogy, Sartre shows that an individual does not exist alone…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How do you think of free? Do you think to be free is only means to get out of one’s control and keep yourself free or is to use your hands to be respect and enhance the freedom of others? Before I finish reading the book “Looking for Alibrandi”, I may believe that get out of one’s control is the meaning of to be free. However, when I finish reading the book, I started wondering, living in a way of respects and enhances the freedom of others is the truly meaning of “to be free”. Therefore, I agree with Nelson Mandela’s quote, “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Story of an Hour & An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Freedom In the short stories, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce both characters try to reach for there freedom in society. When having freedom, you have the power or the right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint (dictionary.com). As they reach for freedom it is taken away because of the actions they committed. “The story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, a woman named Louise Mallard has a heart condition…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 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

    Philosopher Jean- Paul Sartre also wrote about freedom. He believes freedom…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the novel The Stranger, the author Albert Camus emphasizes the absurdities of life and he does this by striking the audience with Meursault’s blunt nature and his embodiment of existentialism. The novel explores existentialist ideology which represent the philosophy of life essentially being “pointless” .Since the message of existentialism can have a powerful negative connotation it can be surprising to understand how Meursault can be considered anything close to free especially , considering the freedom he gained happened after he committed murder but that’s what happened considering the sequence of events , since his routine hindered him from the enlightenment he gained from being captured. The Webster dictionary defines freedom as “the power or right to act, speak,…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior 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

    Hence, Sartre states that we are condemned to be free and that fact comes from the absence of God that was agreed upon earlier. Since God does not exist, there exists no moral reference to measure right or wrong against and so the individual person is condemned with absolute freedom of…

    • 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
  • Improved Essays

    Early in the text he discusses it is action that gives each man his truth, “Man is not only that which he conceives himself to be, but that which he wills himself to be” (Sartre 22). To Sartre, no matter the circumstances of birth any man can make the proper choices and actions to become whoever they wish to be within society. A pauper may be more moral than the King upon the throne because it is more important the moral decisions one chooses over the course of life than of status. Humans have the capability to decide their own destiny at any point and create themselves into the moral direction they wish to see the world. He states, “Existentialism will never consider man as an end, because man is constantly in the making” (Sartre 52), which is to say that every decision and every choice is important in deciding who someone is morally.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays