Philosophy, Sartre's Existentialism - Essay Example

6). But at the end he says "even if God existed that would make no difference from [Existentialism's] point of view". Is he contradicting himself Does Sartre's Existentialism depend on atheism, or is it compatible with theism or agnosticism Jean-Paul Sartre argues that human beings are fundamentally incomplete. Self-consciousness brings with it a presence-to-self. Human beings consequently seek two things at the same time: to possess a secure and stable identity, and to preserve the freedom and distance that come with self-consciousness.

This is an impossible ideal, since we are always beyond what we are and we never quite reach what we could be. The possibility of completion haunts us and we continue to search for it even when we are convinced it can never be achieved. Sartre suggests that we have to continue seeking this ideal in the practical sphere, even when our philosophical reflection shows it to be an impossibility. Sartre puts this existential dilemma in explicitly theological terms. 'God' represents an ideal synthesis of being and consciousness which remains a self-contradictory goal.

This dilemma remains unresolved in his thinking. A richer conception of God, such as that proposed by Thomas Aquinas, might resolve the dilemma without denying the existential restlessness that underlies it. Aquinas shares Sartre's understanding of human life as an ecstatic existence that takes one beyond one's present identity towards a future fulfilment. In Aquinas's scheme, God is not just the ideal goal of human longing, he is the real possibility of ultimate completion, which must exist as a practical possibility, even if we think that this possibility cannot be realised within the limitations of temporal human life as we now understand it.

Aquinas concludes that there must, therefore, be some other kind of existence possible for us.'Happiness' is not a key term for Sartre - as we shall see, he prefers the obscure neologism l'en-soi-pour-soi - but it can stand for this universal goal which plays such a significant part in his philosophy. Sartre writes that human reality is by nature a conscience malheureuse,'an unhappy consciousness', since we are constantly frustrated in our desire to find fulfilment in a stable and freely chosen identity.

1 The suggestion, however slight, is that this fulfilled identity would be a state of happiness. What is happiness Why is it an impossible ideal Why does Sartre associate it with the Divine Can an ideal continue to function as a goal even after someone has accepted that it is a practical impossibility These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this article. In the final two sections I will look at how Aquinas can help us to draw out some of the unacknowledged implications of Sartre's existential ontology.

Sartre puts the whole ontological dilemma in explicitly theological terms.11 'God' represents the ideal synthesis between being and consciousness which we can never achieve: 'Is not God a being who is what he is, in that he is all positivity and the foundation of the world, and at the same time a being who is not what he is and who is what he is not, in that he is self-consciousness and the necessary foundation of himself'