Seminar notes on Sartre

Most closely associated with e.m. Major work is Being and Nothingness (1943). Sartre is the one who gave us the phrase I’ve already used - ‘existence precedes essence’. This can be taken to mean that what our natures are not given to us but that we make them. It fits in with the general Sartrean discussion of freedom - we are free to make ourselves. It would be a mistake to see freedom in itself as a good thing. In the Sartrean sense we are condemned to freedom. Along with ‘existence precedes essence’ Sartre’s other most famous catch-phrase is ‘hell is other people’. If each autonomous individual is striving for his or her own freedom, in order to be a ‘being-for-itself’, this is in conflict with the freedoms of others. One of the problems therefore is how to reconcile the desire for freedom with this being-in-the-world-with-others. Even more crucially perhaps, and this is where e.m became very much entangled with political affairs and could be classed as a social movement, was how the search for such individual freedom could be squared with the need for revolutionary (Marxist) action. The answer, is something like Kierkegaard’s leap of faith. We choose to commit ourselves to something. But it should be remembered that commitment means the giving over of one’s self, the annihilation of one’s self.

Edmund Husserl, the inventor of ‘phenomenology’, the study of phenomena. He was Heidegger’s teacher and the role of phenomenology has been massive, affecting psychology, and attempts have been made to use its methodology in mathematics, art, social science history, psychoanalysis. Husserl himself denounced e.m, but we need to have some understanding of it.

Consciousness is always consciousness of something, that is, it is always directed towards some external object. C.s is thus what is called ‘intentional’, it sort of proposes an object. This is a basic premiss of phenomenology. What Husserl then aimed to do was to describe accurately the experience of phenomena, and this was to be done by bracketing out the natural world to achieve pure consciousness. All prior beliefs have to be suspended in order to get at the essence of the phenomena. The aim is to provide descriptions that are pure and accurate because there are no preconceptions. It might take the form of trying to describe the experience of memory and perception, and objects that come within this realm (WPP). With this kind of programme available, Sartre and others were so enthusiastic they philosophised ‘about everything - even the essence of a gas street lamp’.

Well, it may seem rather trivial to use a whole methodology to describe the essence of a gas lamp, but ultimately, of course, it is a system that can be used to try to get to the heart of life, the heart of existence. And after all, that is perhaps the strength of existentialism over other philosophies, but also leaves it open to criticism for its mysticism [?].

You can quite clearly see how Sartre is doing his best to describe the very nature of thisness, of experience, of the kind of phenomena that go to make up everyday existence.

Nausea

What is the significance of writing a biography; of diary form?

How can the opening (undated sheet) be interpreted in relation to:

consciousness;

phenomenology (see notes above on Sartre);

knowledge?

How does the novel deal with time (the role of the future - a nothingness to be fulfilled?)

What is the connection between 'adventure' and 'death'?

Why does Roquentin criticise the autodidact or being a humanist?

Describe nausea in terms of the physical, the psychological and the existential.

Why can't Roquentin understand Anny's ideas?

How does the chestnut tree relate to the contingency of existence?

Web-sites

There used to be a couple of good websites, but they're closed down now and I'm afraid I can't find anything worthwhile. Do let me know if you find anything.

s.l.earnshaw@shu.ac.uk