The Whole Idea of Existence - Essay Example

Sartre’s ideas about Nausea and Existence Perhaps one of the most difficult and evasive question among philosophical scholars is the question of ‘existence.’ For many years, scholars especially philosophers have tried to explain the debatable topic of existence. Whereas such an abstract and difficult to understand term has been so elusive to scholars, the common person has unprecedented challenge in understanding the notion of ‘existence.’ Jean Paul Sartre is arguably one of the philosophers who made significant milestone in discovering and explaining the idea of existence. His book, Nausea, seeks to explain his personal discoveries or at least his personal understanding of existence. According to Sartre, the whole idea of existence is so conscious mutating to a human consciousness built on arbitrariness such that it leaves nothing but a nauseating feeling. According to Sartre, All of sudden they existed and then, all of sudden, they no longer existed: I slumped on the bench, dazed, stunned by that profusion of beings without origin: bloomings, blossomings everywhere, my ears were buzzing with existence, my very flesh was throbbing and opening, abandoning itself to the universal burgeoning, it was repulsive. (Sartre, p. 190). The context of this quotation stems from Sartre’s effort to understand existence at a time when he was struggling with a physical problem of nausea. As he lied down and began to contemplate on the universe, things, surroundings and the general environment around him, the true idea of existence began to dawn on him. According to him “All of sudden they existed and then, all of sudden, they no longer existed” (Sartre, p. 190). This represents the bulb moment when Sartre came to a realization that all that he had thought about the universe and existence was actually limited to his thinking and perception. From this realization, Sartre began to understand that understanding existence begins when we stop seeing the world through a specific focal lens in which we define it ourselves. For example, he began to see the diversity of existence not by just looking at the inanimate objects around but by trying to understand everything from an open mind full of possibilities. Although understanding existence is difficult for the common man, existence is superfluous. This implies there exist billions of relations between physical and non-physical entities that collectively make up the universe. However, each one of us defines existence based on personal perspective. For instance, we are aware of human existence and the physical infrastructure around us. However, existence is much more than what we can perceive with our five common senses. From Sartre’s bulb moment on superfluous existence, it can be argued that existence, just like universe, is infinite. Arguably, the only way to understand existence completely, if at all it is humanly possible, is to have an infinitely imaginative mind that can interconnect all the possible relations between things that comprise the universe. Interestingly, it is possible to extrapolate from Sartre’s mindful discovery about existence the difference between the physical world full of inanimate objects and human consciousness. Humans have been endowed with a conscious mind that can assign values and attributes to inanimate objects that exists around us. Our human conscious understands the world according to the values assigned to inanimate objects. For instance, the essence of a class whiteboard or blackboard is defined by the qualities assigned to the object. We use characteristics such as shape, color, smell, weight among others to define a physical object. Therefore, our brains create essence for what we observe in daily life simply because our brain is conscious of the object and its characteristics. More importantly, the extent of its essence depends on how deep the human conscious decides to go as far as defining the object is concerned. However, on the other hand, essence of human consciousness is different from essence assigned to an inanimate object. According to Sartre’s understanding, human conscience defines and assigns personal essence. This simply implies that a person can define who they want to be or the character they want to be consciously and hence can be defined as a being for itself. This is indeed different from an inanimate object such as a whiteboard that can only be assigned a value and therefore seen as a being as itself. Arguably, although Sartre literature figure ‘Roquentin’ was feeling the physical nausea because of taking mescaline, the metaphorical ‘nausea’ emanates from the fact that his semi-permeable membrane human consciousness was being nauseated by the fact that it could only perceive existence in a particular perception. It is difficult to understand how the topic of existence, as understood by Sartre, will delve in the future. Arguably, Sartre’s idea on existence has found a place in modern science at a time when discoveries are made every day. By delimiting our consciousness into thinking about the infinite possibilities of the universal relations, much progress has and will continue to be made in the world of science. For example, the present explorations on solar systems and terrestrial bodies has only been made possible by men and women who have experienced the nausea of seeing the existence in limited scope and decided to go wild with infinite thinking into a world of infinite possibilities. Albert Einstein, one of the modern geniuses of creativity made significant scientific discoveries because he could see the world through infinite eyes with infinite possibilities. However, as more discoveries are being made, the more we discover that actually existence is much more than what our limited consciousness can possibly perceive. After Sartre opened his consciousness to a world of infinite existence not capped by human perception he was “stunned by that profusion of beings without origin: bloomings, blossomings everywhere, my ears were buzzing with existence, my very flesh was throbbing and opening, abandoning itself to the universal burgeoning” (Sartre, p. 190). Likewise, we experience a similar but different experience in life. For example, as a child, I only thought the entire universe was what I could see with my eyes only to discover that we have a world consisting of cities, countries, states, and continents. Later, I learned that we have our solar system with nine planets. Later still I learned that universe could actually be infinite with billions of solar systems with one planet such as earth consisting of billions of organisms. Therefore, it can be argued that existence has always been there but we discover existence as our human consciousness expands with time. It seems easier to understand the existence in its present form without thinking of the origin of existence. Arguably, the thought of origin of existence would bring a much more ‘nausea’ than what Sartre had felt. Several theories try to postulate the possibility of nothingness as the origin of universe. However, perceiving creation of universe from nothingness is arguably one of the most abstract thinking and most difficult to understand phenomena. According to Sartre, even the nothingness was itself existing before what ‘we’ perceive as origin of existence came to being. Therefore, from his point, existence has been around from time infinity and will be there for infinite time. On a different note, our existence in the conscious realms brings about a metaphorical nausea for people brave to think wildly about human essence. Seemingly, Sartre had a limited essence about his personal consciousness. However, after opening his mind to a world of infinite possibilities, he discovered that even his conscious existence is also infinite. For example, as a student, I can consciously assign myself personal attributes ‘essence’ such as sexual orientation, philosophical views, religious orientation, among others. However, I must have existed in the first place therefore stamping the fact that existence comes before essence. In conclusion, the topic of existence is arguably difficult to fathom in its entirety due to its superfluous and infinite nature. However, understanding existence is a continuous journey as we try to understand nature in different perspectives. More importantly understanding of our conscious existence is even more challenging to fathom with a closed mind but becomes easier as we find and expand our human essence as we grow in philosophical and scientific knowledge. Indeed according to Sartre, until our minds are open to possibilities, ‘nausea’ will always take precedence. Works Cited Sartre, J. P1963, Nausea. London, Penguin. Read More