First Long Question

(answer 1 of two which will be present. so learn two)

QUESTION1

1. in existentialism and humanism, sartre states tha the first effect of existentialism is "that it puts man in posession of himsel as he is and places the entire responsibility for his existence squarely on his shoulders" (29) explain whether you agree or disagree with this statement. and defend your position by drawing on the work of at least three of the philosophers studied this term.

[annie]
According to Sartre, the first effect of existentialism is “that it puts every man in possession of himself as he is and places the entire responsibility for his existence squarely on his shoulders” [E.H. 29]. Existentialism puts each man in possession of himself in the sense that man makes itself. Man has no essence; he surges up into the world and exists. His essence becomes what he wills it to be, what possibilities he exists. Since there is therefore no ‘model’ of man, each man creates himself, each man chooses whether or not he will be an individual, and if so, he makes his own individual self. He is aware of his moving towards a future. According to Heidegger, it is his authentic existence, or consciousness that makes him different from objects that exist after their essence. Along the same lines, Ortega claims that man acts out a ‘self-fashioning’, a carrying-out of oneself, a self-performance. Man makes himself.

Each man is responsible for himself and his own actions. Existentialists believe that passion is not something that can take over an individual; it is something that one is in power to control. Also, there is the absence of ‘fate’, therefore no one can blame a turn of events or one’s own actions on something that was pre-decided.

[NICHOLAS]

Sartre says: existentialism puts a person in possession of him or herself as he or she is and places the entire responsibility for his or her existence squarely on his or her shoulders. I agree with this. All philosophers from the course posit that in order to understand one’s place in the world, the only starting point, the only certainty is the self. If the only thing one can be certain of is the self, then a person has no point of reference to base his or her own actions on (Sartre and Ortega say this, I imagine Heidegger does, I’m not sure)
Therein, a person can only realize him or herself by using the self and the fact that that self is living in the world as a filter for which to act. This is subjectivity. Kierkegaard is all about reflecting on the self as an infinite being in a finite world, and therefore unleashing possibility and being able to be act ethically, but only through the subjective as the subjective is the only way to the infinite and in the infinite is God. Sartre’s foresakeness is based on this idea, that there is no reference point “the existential thinker finds it very embarrassing that there is no God”. The definition of Dasein is the self living alongside the self in the world, which is existence. Therefore, the individual perceives the world, and realizes that he or she perceives the world with them as part of it and acts accordingly. Therefore, they are responsible for their own actions as they are an individual in the world.