The notion of Freedom in Jean-Paul Sartre
Chapter One
Preamble of the Study
The topic of this thesis is Sartre’s notion of freedom. The notion of freedom has raised a lot of dust in different philosophical epochs yet it remained problematic. Man’s experience of his own behaviour seems to reveal to him that he is free, that he has ability to decide for himself, to deliberate on what to do in various situations and to come to his own conclusions about what to do or believe what he does. Also everyday experience leads man to believe that he often has a choice between alternative courses of action. We punish, condemn, or blame individuals for making certain choices and decisions and insist that they ought to have done something else, and if they had had, they would then be deserving of rewards praise.
CHAPTER TWO
GENERAL NOTION OF FREEDOM
DEFINITION OF THE TERM FREEDOM
By very nature of the term freedom, it possesses many different meanings. It can refer simply to the absence of physical or social restraints. This simply means, those areas or activities within which a man can act unobstructed by others or external force. Freedom can equally be regarded as that capacity or faculty whereby individuals are left to form their own lives through their choices.
According to the encyclopedia of philosophy, freedom refers primarily to a condition characterized by the absence of coercion or constraint imposed by another person, a man is said to be free to the extent that, he can choose his own goals or course of conduct, can choose between alternatives available to him, and is not compelled to act as he would not himself choose to act, or Prevented from acting as he would otherwise choose to act, by the will of another man, of the State, or of my other authority.1
To this extent, man can be viewed as bundle of freedom. He has the right to do or not to do, to act or not to act. This is typically the type of freedom Sartre is advocating for man but in effort to stress the necessity of this freedom, he stretched it to the extreme.
SOME PHILOSOPHERS VIEW OF FREEDOM
It is a clear fact that man’s existence has been endowed naturally with freedom. Thus, freedom is as old as man himself. Locke speaking on human freedom says, “men are naturally in a state of perfect freedom, to order their actions and dispose of their possessions as they think fit…”2
Though freedom is as old as man, it started in time with the ancient Greek thinkers, but only on moral reflections. They did not delve directly into the problem of freedom because of three prominent reasons, which include;
- They believe that everything is subjected to fate and absolute will superior to men as well as gods, which invariably determines every action.
- Man is part of nature and thus is subjected to the general law that governs everything including man himself and as such cannot but obey such laws.
- Man is also subject to the influence of history, which the Greeks conceived as a cyclical movement in which everything repeats itself within a certain period of time.
The above reasons led into asking various question such as: are we truly responsible for our actions, and how imputable our deeds to ourselves? The issue of freedom went philosophical when Socrates took it up. He argues that virtue is connected with knowledge but vice is simply due to ignorance. This view, rather than solving the issue of freedom, exonerated men totally from any act of intransigence. Plato instead of rejecting the claims of Socrates broadens the scope. He argues that the body is a kind of prison and the soul is trapped in it but could be liberated through the exercise of virtue and philosophical contemplation. He also declares that the divine knowledge gave us the will which we can develop into morals hence, one can choose between two types of life, good or bad, rich or poor and lazy or agile etc.
CHAPTER THREE
SARTRE’S ABSOLUTE FREEDOM
Having seen in previous chapter, the general notion and philosophers’ conception of freedom, in this chapter we shall concentrate on J.P. Sartre’s view on notion of freedom. Sartre links consciousness, nothingness and freedom together by placing them in the very being of man. They are directly linked with human existence. He means that, in so far as man has nothingness in him, by which he can become other than he is, he must be absolutely free in his action. According to Sartre, “Man is thrown into the world and he is free to act as soon as he gains consciousness of himself. Like Heidegger’s “DASEIN”, he neither knows nor cares whence he came or wither he is going”1. To be human is to be free. This thought emanates from his understanding that, every man defines himself by his action. “…We must recognize that, the indispensable and fundamental condition of all action is the freedom of the acting being”2.
CHAPTER FOUR
CRITICAL EVALUTION AND CONCLUSION
EVALUATION
In previous chapters, we concentrated so much on the concept of absolute and infinite freedom of man in the existentialist philosophy of J.P. Sartre. So far it is a clear fact that, the absolute freedom of Sartre was deeply influenced by the thoughts of the modern and contemporary thinkers, consequently it succeeded only in the deontologisation of the human person. A man by nature always aspires to transcend his present state hence, Sartre advocates for absolute freedom which he believes will always help man to create meaning in his life through man’s free decisions. But this absolute freedom cannot exist without absolute responsibility.
A brief glance at modern philosophy reminds one that it is not oriented to metaphysics rather, to anthropology. And this anthropology was basically individualistic. This philosophy lays much emphasis on the subject of freedom and for them (Modern Philosophers) the essence of this freedom lies in choice.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
So far, we have explored Sartre’s notion of freedom and detected some mistakes he made by advocating for absolute freedom for finite beings. Freedom in the real sense is to be free from restraint and violence from others, otherwise it cannot exist where there is no law.
Human beings have freedom but it is necessary to note that one’s freedom stops where another person’s begins. We must discard the idea of freedom in which one does whatever he/she likes whenever the individual wishes to do so to ensure peace and harmony in our society.
However, Sartre’s philosophy is not completely a failure. On the contrary there are still some positive dimensions present in his philosophical thought as fagothey writes. “Much can be learnt from Sartre’s Existentialism with its insistence on Freedom, authenticity and commitment”5. His numerous works on philosophy, article, plays etc is evident in his Being And Nothingness. Marry Warnock in commenting on Sartre’s philosophy says that his philosophy has some credit. Even till date his philosophy still raise some dust. The fact that am still writing on this topic attest to that. All these prove that Sartre is a pen pusher.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Breisache, E., Introduction to Modern Existentialism, New York: Groves Press Inc. 1962.
- Copleston F., A History of Philosophy, Vol. IX, Pt. 11 New York: Image Bks. Inc. 1977.
- Descan, W. The Tragic Finale, An Essay on the Philosophy of J.P. Sartre, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954.
- Edward, P., (ed) Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vols, 3 and 4, London: Macmillan Press, 1967.
- Ekwutosi, C.M., Unpublished Lecture on Ethics, P.J.P.S, Awka, 2003. Unpublished Lecture on Metaphysics, P.J.P.S, Awka, 2005
- Heidegger, M., Being and Time, Trans. By Macquarrie, J and E, Robinson, New York: Harper and Row Publishing Co. 1962.