Sartrean Existentialism Research Articles

Film Attack on Titan dalam Pandangan Filsafat Eksistensialisme Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre is a famous figure in the fields of philoshophy and literature, considered one of the parents of contemporary existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical school which argues that all phenomena originate from existence, or the existence of something. Existentialism is a protest against the concept of “logic” and “nature” which were emphasized in the enlightenment period (Enlightenment) in the eighteenth century. Sarte’s existentialist philosophical thought is La Liberte or human freedom. Humans are free, independent. Therefore, he must be free to determine and decide, he acts alone without other people around or with him. This research analyzes Jean-Paul Sartre's views on the theory of existentialism in the film Attack on Titan. This film is related to the theory of existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre, a philosopher who developed the current of existentialism. By using the research method "library research" with a qualitative approach. The aim of this research is to describe the philosophical views of existentialism and analyze the extent to which the values and concepts in Jean-Paul Sartre's theory can be harmonized with the principles of Islamic teachings. In conclusion, it can be seen that the film "Attack on Titan" effectively reflects Sartre's thoughts about free human existence and responsibility for the world around him. Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism, although emphasizing personal responsibility and individual freedom, was secular and perhaps not in harmony with religious principles, especially Islam. Some concepts of existentialism, such as the emphasis on absolute freedom, can conflict with the Islamic view which places obedience to Allah as the main principle.

Where does philosophy begin when rationality is denied? Tsenay Serequeberhan’s concept of a lived existence as a means of decolonizing philosophy

Tsenay Serequeberhan’s hermeneutics has been crucial to the development of African philosophy. Initially employed as a pathway through the ethno- and professional philosophical debates, scholars have engaged how Serequeberhan’s hermeneutics grapples with one’s own place within a socio-historical world in service of liberation/self-determination. However, this scholarship mainly has focused on his adaptation of Gadamer’s ‘effective-historical consciousness’ for his own concept of heritage. This consequently leaves his concept of a ‘lived existence’ – which is equally crucial – under-examined. This paper probes what a ‘lived existence’ entails and its essentiality when explicating how one even begins to authentically think, which is the groundwork to Serequeberhan’s hermeneutics. This deepens why his concept of heritage matters as a starting point for self-determination. Addressing this lacuna, this article asks, where does philosophy begin and where should it go, particularly when rationality has been historically denied? Serequeberhan’s point of departure to answer this question proposes Heidegger’s concept of thinking itself to arrive at a notion of existence; contrariwise to most African scholars who employ a Sartrean existentialism via Frantz Fanon. As such, this paper gives an in-depth exploration of Serequeberhan’s initial reading of Heidegger, and then unfolds how he appropriates Heidegger to craft his notion of ‘lived existence’. The upshot this is twofold: First, a broader understanding of Serequeberhan’s project, its non-existentialist view of existence; Second, it describes how he specifically tailors his ‘lived existence’ to undergird his hermeneutical approach to heritage as a prescriptive, activist project which dynamically addresses the postcolonial situation.

A Study on Death and Sex in Rick and Morty in Existentialism Perspective

Animation has become one of the emerging forms of cultural communication due to the advantage of exceptional creativity and expressiveness. Rick and Morty, as a phenomenon-level animation conveys the profundity philosophical thinking of social problems by absurd painting imagination. Especially in the discussion of the two sensitive topics of death and sex which correspond to the French philosopher Sartre's Existentialism. This paper aims to analyze the two topics of death and sex in Rick and Morty by Sartre's Existentialism. The topic of death will be based on Sartre's discussions of two body cognitions and deprivation, and analyze the definition of death limit from combining with the background of science development. In the topic of sex, the paper will have the discussions of Physiological level and Psychological level to divide into sexual organs, sexual desire and sexual relations to analyzed the symbol of sex from a philosophical perspective. This article hopes to use Existentialism perspective to open a new angle for the study of Rick and Morty. It will take deep thinking on the two major themes of death and sex by philosophical analysis and interpretation, and also through the sexual symbol to discuss sexual culture and female standing to promote cultural exchange.

ESSENTIALISM AS THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (1969)

The article focuses on the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), known as the San José Pact of Costa Rica, because of its political and legal importance for protecting and promoting the Americas' rights. The objective is to analyze the consistency of the theoretical foundation of that human rights document. Therefore, we will first analyze the Convention's text and point out essentialism as the philosophical foundation. Then, we will discuss the essentialist assumption philosophically. Finally, the theoretical problem of essentialism as the foundation of the Convention will be analyzed in light of Sartre's existentialism. From the considerations presented, the philosophical foundation of the rights in the 1969 Convention, essentialism, is not theoretically consistent, despite being an indispensable rhetorical argument.

Elements of Existentialism in the Works of Arun Joshi

Arun Joshi is an existential novelist that occupies a distinct and distinctive place in the world of post-Independence Indian English writings. Unlike his contemporary Indian English writers, he neither writes for entertainment nor for any political or social issues. He experiments with the issue of human predicament through his protagonists, particularly the motives responsible for their freedom of choice and the effect of these choices on their psyche. In his fictional world, he probes deep into the psyche of his protagonists and highlights their interactions with the Sartrean view of life. Through his protagonists, he portrays the inner recesses and existential trauma of modern men and deals with their efforts to search a meaning of life in this materialistic world. The problem of alienation and isolation from self and society is a major issue in his fictional world which parallels him with the Western existential novelists. His first novel The Foreigner is excellently parallel with Camus‟ The Outsider. He received the most prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for his fourth existential novel The Last Labyrinth in 1982. The fictional world of Arun Joshi mainly consists of five novels as: The Foreigner (1968), The Strange Case of Billy Biswas (1971), The Apprentice (1974), The Last Labyrinth (1981), and The City and the River (1990). His fictional world surprisingly represents the Western existential philosophy in general and Sartrean existentialism in particular.

신시론의 실존주의와 김수영

The poets of “New Poetry” published the first volume of “New Poetry” in April 1948, and in October of the same year they participated in the special edition of Sartre's existentialism in “Shincheonji”. However, there is no trace of Kim Sooyoung's official activities as a member of the same poetry association until “New City and Citizens' Chorus” was published in 1949. In the early days of the New Poetry Theory, Kim Sooyoung seems to have concentrated on studying poetry theory rather than on external activities. Because he had no basis in poetry theory, he had no personal relationship with the modernist poets, and his pride was hurt. However, Kim Sooyoung did not show such an expression until the mid and late 1960s. However, about 10 years after Park Inhwan's death, he criticized Park Inhwan's criticism and at the same time expressed his critical attitude toward the past modernist activities to the outside world. This seems to be connected with the period when Kim Sooyoung first realized the “dimension of criticism”.
 Kim Sooyoung was deeply concerned with the concept of conscience, one of the central themes of Heidegger's existentialism. Park Inhwan and the New Poetry poets, on the other hand, focused on Sartre's existentialism. In particular, Heidegger's existentialism had a great influence on Kim Sooyoung's poetic worldview and became the basis for his original poetic theory called “Whole Body Poetics. Ten years after Park In-hwan's death, Kim Soo-young acquired the “level of criticism,” and on this basis he criticized the “difficult poetry” of Park In-hwan and New Poetry. Park Inhwan and the New Poetry Theory insisted on the social responsibility of literature, but Kim Sooyoung criticized this position of the New Poetry Theory. However, since Park Inhwan died in 1956, the question remains whether it is justified for Kim Sooyoung to blame Park Inhwan for the literary trend of the 1960s ten years later. Therefore, this paper will reveal new facts about Park Inhwan's cultural and artistic activities after his death. In addition, this paper points out that it is not possible to evaluate Park Inhwan properly due to the lack of data.

Freedom and Agency in The Second Sex

Freedom and Agency in <i>The Second Sex</i>

Investigation on the Mediality of Cahiers du Cinéma in the New Wave Period from the Perspective of Material Space Production

From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, New Wave as a film revolution started in France, with the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma as its position at that time, thus forming the "Handbook School" of the director. Its characteristics such as reflecting social reality, challenging traditional narrative, and deviating from the Hollywood model all proved that it was a significant breakthrough in film history. The vigorous spiritual return behind these characteristics was once regarded as the highlight of individualism philosophy, which is also the origin of most studies on Cahiers du Cinéma. However, these studies often dwell on the close reading of the text, which seemingly tells a lot of complicated content but forms the myth of power and relationship. Therefore, the meta-process of meaning space construction needs to be uncovered from scattered rhetoric and explanation, and the investigation of the mediality provides a reliable clue. This perspective starting from the concrete intermediary structure, identity dispatch, and then to the call of connected reality is imaginative to the existentialist practitioners who seem to be unique and independent. When space production is projected into the history continuation and reality evolution, the new wave spreads all over the world. For example, Cahiers du Cinéma inspired Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Edward Yang, Ang Lee, and others to the stage, opening another chapter of Taiwanese films. Coinciding with Sartre's existentialism, author theory, and Bazin's documentary aesthetics shows its unique theoretical bridging value and the construction of media ontology, which is also the theoretical contribution of this paper.

Implications of Sartre's Existentialism Philosophy on the Moral Education

사르트르는 인간의 근원적인 불안이 자유에 기인하는 것으로 파악한다. 의식으로서의 대자(對自)는 타인의 시선에서 결코 자유로울 수 없다. 그러나 인간은 불안을 지우기 위해서 자유를 포기하고 자기기만에 빠지는 경향이 있다. 실존으로서의 인간은 스스로 자신을 만들어가는 존재자다. 사르트르는 인간 실존의 핵심으로 자유를 꼽는다. 인간존재는 고정되어 있지 않다. 끊임없이 변화하며 다수성을 내포하고 있는 자유로운 의식의 존재다. 대자는 자신을 대상화하여 바라볼 수 있다. 대자는 실체로서 존재하지 않지만 자유롭게 즉자(卽自)를 부정할 수 있다. 자유로운 인간은 자기 내면성에 대한 내적 부정을 통해서 자기 자신을 새롭게 형성할 수 있다. 자율적 선택에 따라 자기 삶을 사는 사람만이 도덕적 주체로서 자신의 존재론적 책임을 다할 수 있다. 인간의 자기기만 극복과 자유를 강조한 사르트르의 실존주의 철학은 도덕적 주체의 정립을 추구하는 도덕교육과 관련하여 이론적 뒷받침이 되어준다.Sartre understands that the fundamental human anxiety is caused by freedom. For itself as consciousness can never be free from the gaze of others. However, humans tend to give up their freedom to get rid of their anxiety and fall into self-deception. Human beings as existential beings are beings who create themselves. According to Sartre, freedom is the essence of human existence. Human existence is not fixed. It is an existence of free consciousness that is constantly changing and contains a plurality. For itself can objectify itself and look at it. Although for itself does not exist as a substance, it can freely deny in itself. A free man can reshape himself through an inner denial of his inner self. Only those who live their lives according to their autonomous choices can fulfill their ontological responsibilities as a moral subject. Sartre's existentialist philosophy, which emphasized overcoming human self-deception and freedom, provides theoretical support in relation to moral education that seeks to establish a moral subject.

Interpreting How Much Land does a Man Need: A Sartrean Existentialist Perspective

Jean Paul Sartre, one of the key figures in the philosophy of Existentialism, explores man and the world from the perspective of human consciousness and puts forward the concept of subjectivity, believing existence precedes essence. Leo Tolstoy, one of the heavyweights in the literary world, has produced a number of impressive short stories with philosophical wisdom, among which stands How Much Land does a Man Need. Pakhom, the protagonist of the story, totally gripped by his lust for land, meets the end of his existence after making a series of choices. From the perspective of Sartrean existentialism, this paper analyzes the tragic existence of Pakhom and holds that it is Pakhom who should and must bear full responsibility for the destruction of his existence which is resulted from his inner desire on one hand and the state of contradiction and opposition among people on the other.

The Clipped Life of the Wife in Edith Wharton’S Short Story Entitled “A Journey”

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the life of the young wife that is clipped by many “othering” factors that prevent her from becoming a Self. The analysis is focused on the “othering” factors and the impacts on the young wife and on her relationship with her sick husband. The analysis is done through the perspective of existentialism combining the existentialism of Sartre and Beauvoir. Since the focus is on the female character, the particular perspective used is on the existential feminism focusing on the “woman-being-for-others” mode of being. The methods of research are the combination of library research method with its close-reading technique, the qualitative method, and the contextual method of literary analysis. The result shows that it is difficult for a wife to be a Self when she has to face many “othering” factors such as the husband’s illness, the doctors’ suggestion to move to a temperate climate State, the new environment, and the death of the husband while they are still on the train. These “othering” factors do not only clip the wife’s socialization, love and relationship with her husband, and anticipation to return home, but also clip the wife’s life so that she will never have a chance to be a Self forever.

Lukács and Kierkegaard: Decadence or Despair

Abstract A distrust of focus on subjectivity and the individual provoked by his meeting with Sartrean existentialism led György Lukács to turn his early but qualified admiration of Søren Kierkegaard into an accusation of fostering a bourgeois culture of the kind Kierkegaard is usually thought to have opposed. Not every Marxian thinker has been equally wary of subjectivity, but all have found in Kierkegaard a crucial absence of concern for human exploitation within a context of natural scarcity. However, a more measured reading suggests a case for resolving the need to choose between Lukács’s insistence on “spirit” as a collective notion and Kierkegaard’s as cultivation of a trans-historically oriented, self-stabilizing social will.

A Study on the Theory of Ethical Literary Criticism

A Study on the Theory of Ethical Literary Criticism

“Western Marxism” in Mao’s China

China’s reception of “Western Marxism” is a critical part of the global history of Marxism. This paper examines three aspects of the reception of Western Marxism in literary and art criticism during the early years of Mao’s China (1949-65): the Western Marxist critique of surrealism, debates over Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, and Sartrean existentialism and Western Marxism. The impacts of Western Marxist literary thought upon Chinese literary studies during the early years of the PRC are discussed, along with the extensive influx of Western Marxism that began in the reform era of post-Mao China (1978- ) as a renewal of the early exchanges that were disrupted during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

“Indulgence towards Lies:” Reintroducing the Philosopher Brice Parain

This article seeks to draw attention to the work of Brice Parain, an under-examined figure in mid-twentieth-century French philosophy. It considers Parain's most influential work, Recherches sur la nature et les fonctions du langage (1942), through the lens of his contemporaries: the critical essays of Sartre and Camus, and the film representations of Godard and Rohmer. Parain's focus on the paradoxes of language, and on the ethical problem of lying, anticipate later criticisms of Sartrean existentialism, and his humanistic and historically sensitive approach to philosophizing render his a unique and powerful voice in modern intellectual life.

On Existentialism in Doris Lessing`s One off the Short List

Doris Lessing`s short story ------ One off the Short List, like most of her famed novels, is a manifestation of individual`s living state in the lonely and absurd world. In this thesis, the writer attempts to interpret this story from the view of Sartrean existentialism by analyzing the middle aged protagonist`s special journey of exploring himself with suffering of being “others” so as to indicate Lessing`s pessimistic attitude to modern people`s existence.

The Death of God in Sartre's The Flies

The death of god, which refers to the absence of god's value, weight, significance, and role from people's life experience, is among the most dominant themes of existential literature, especially that of Sartre. It is heavily investigated in his theoretical as well as creative works, such as Being and Nothingness (1969) and The Flies (1989) as it constitutes the cornerstone of his philosophical views of Existentialism, nihilism, freedom, and responsibility. It is hard to understand Sartre's The Flies (1989) and its philosophical background as well as theme(s) without considering the concept of the death of god and its involvement in the development of actions. Accordingly, this paper reads The Flies (1989) investigating Sartre's techniques of introducing and contending that god is dead and has nothing to do with people's life or prosperity. Considering the related literature and the different perspectives of Nietzsche and Hegel regarding Existentialism, the paper deciphers certain scenes and speeches delivered by several characters, such as Zeus, Orestes, and Electra, and it concludes that Sartre’s The Flies (1989) shows how the belief in the death of god may function as a productive force in humans' life and existence. Thus, the paper may help readers of Sartre better understand the existential mechanism of the death of god and comprehend why Sartre's Existentialism is to be viewed as an optimistic, rather than pessimistic, approach.

Simone de Beauvoir, stream of consciousness and philosophical fiction: Becoming a self in the first draft of She Came to Stay

AbstractThis article locates Simone de Beauvoir in the stream of consciousness, metaphysical novel, and Bildungsroman writing traditions. Its focus is the two opening chapters from the 1938 draft of Beauvoir's first novel, She Came to Stay—first published in French in 1943 as L’Invitée—and deleted at the insistence of her publishers. Although Beauvoir's own philosophical fictions are, in general, linked to Hegel's phenomenology and to Sartre's existentialism, in the discarded text, it is Schopenhauer and Nietzsche who are key to Beauvoir's account of the developing female self. Beauvoir's narrative and philosophical strategies are compared to those adopted by May Sinclair in Mary Olivier (1919). The influence of other stream of consciousness novelists is also registered. Beauvoir's recently published teenage diaries, which record a “passion” for Schopenhauer, are discussed, together with his mysticism and his misogyny. The article ends by considering Beauvoir's reasons for abandoning stream of consciousness narrative techniques.

El existencialismo de Sartre, origenes y contextos: Una lectura a partir de Hannah Arendt

Abstract: First, the objective of this article is to know Sartre's existentialism in the French and European context, its origin, its response to the reality of the time from its own interpretation. Then, it is essential to analyze Hannah Arendt's point of view regarding existentialist philosophy; Her reading of Sartre is quite illuminating because, both she and he, were witnesses and victims of the two world wars, especially, they lived in their own flesh, one in France and the other in Germany, Hitler's National Socialist totalitarianism that caused the suppression of the political liberties of the time. Sartre and Arendt represent intellectual resistance in order to rebuild citizenship based on freedom, spontaneity and plurality.Keywords: Existentialism; Resistance; Sartre; Camus; Arendt

“Conscious Life” in the Existentialism of M. Mamardashvili

The article explores Merab Mamardashvili`s philosophy of consciousness focusing on its existentialist core. It is shown that Mamardashvili developed a special type of existentialism in which the main role was given to thinking and special state of conscious activity of human being. The similarities and differences in its version of existentialism with other known existentialist theories are also outlined. Unlike the French existentialism questioning the role of ratio, Mamardashvili directly links thinking and existence. However, this opposition must be understood with reservations as Mamardashvili's thinking is not understood as conceptual-discursive processes but as search of meaning, the nature of which according to Mamardashvili is purely existential. In what sense, existentialism of Mamardashvili can be called the doctrine of "conscious life" and special "existential eschatology" [11, p. 406]. Mamardashvili's idea of alternating human existence in two dimensions - living consciousness and its "dead double", in the clarification of which an essential role belongs to the "engagement" of consciousness, namely his interest in "his true position", is analyzed. Mamardavshvili's existentialism notes a special "Russianness" in which he develops a productive role of moral suffering and suggests considering it as the true beginning of "philosophical astonishment", interpreting any initial metaphysical inquiry as necessarily ethical, not epistemological. It is shown that despite of similarity of Mamardashville's existentialism with existentialism of Sartre, Camus and Heidegger, his reasoning is more close to existentialism of Pascal, as nontrivial combines post-metaphysical existentialism and metaphysical platonism.