Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Critique on Sartre

I just finished "L'Existentialisme est un humanisme" by Jean-Paul Sartre

Here's what I think:

First off, Sartre declares himself atheistic, but in reality it would seem that he fails to take any such leap of faith (or any such leap of no faith) simply because Sartre states faith is foolish; moreover, he speaks of a more comfortable agnosticism and bases all opinion and philosophy on tangible, concrete faculties and conditions. This, I believe, is base. In his view, which is quite self-glorifying, anything poetic is not accounted for, except perhaps his despair and abandonment. In the end he embraces safety and doubt and miss out, to quote Martel, "on the better story".

Sartre's lack of a priori conditions and his vehement responsibility of choice is precisely nothing more than a new, modern view of 18th century human naturalism, though it is in a more diluted form. He argues that each man is responsible to create his own existence, and that that is inherent at birth. This is nothing more than a translated, slanted stance on the revolutionary philosophies of the mid and late 18th century.

Sartre is very scientific and sterile.

Despite my rather harsh critique, I find something about this Frenchman to be endlessly fascinating and I can't quite stamp out a stance on existentialism.