Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre - Essay Example

Sartre’s Existentialism Jean-Paul Sartre has been one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. His views on the existence of human beings, both as beings that exist and move in their own dimensional plane, as well as having free will to do things, which he called consciousness. This kind of thinking was borne out of his criticism of the other forms of philosophy such as Neo-Kantian, German Philosophy or Phenomenology, and Classical (Gardner 3). Sartre was able to distinguish his thoughts from other philosophers by disregarding the duality of the human being as a self that shows itself to others, and a hidden self known only by this self.

The definition of the self-using Sartre’s existentialist views is that the self is a manifestation of the person’s consciousness, which connects the past, present, and future of a human being (Sartre 31). However, the self of today is not the self of the past, nor the self of the future, but rather an existing self that is only alive now, and would grow to be a different one after the present has passed. Existence is necessarily viewed from a first-person’s viewpoint, based on the person’s grasp of reality, and what kind of existing being a person is would be based on how he or she sees the self and connects it with the concept of reality (Gardner 3).

The essence is what makes a person a human being, and because of this human essence always precedes human existence due to the freedom that man inherently has, and this kind of freedom gives humanity its essence, regardless of how time flows through their lives (Sartre 25). Not only did Sartre define the human being as both essence and existence, but also the bad faith that could possibly ruin a person’s human essence. Bad faith, negative attitudes, or self-deception is what corrupts the perception of humans in the significance of their existence, which could lead to self-doubt, anguish, pity, and guilt among other negative emotions, which in turn would not affirm the person’s existence and essence, but the nothingness (Sartre 44).

The prohibition or the prevention of realizing a dream, as well as the creation of limits in an infinite universe are examples of forgetting transcendence, which counters the limitless potential that Sartre defines in his existentialist views (Sartre 47). On the other hand, the rejection of a person’s existence in the present time, failure to grasp reality, as well as realizing the negativities of a person’s transcendence are defined as forgetting facticity, which undermines the importance of human existence (Sartre 56).

These are aspects of humanity that Sartre thinks obstructing the full potential of human beings and removing or decreasing the effects of such negativities would help humanity in tapping its limitless potential.