LESSON 1.2

• Jean Paul Sartre

  • June 21, 1905 to April 15, 1980
  • French novelist
  • Playwright
  • Philosopher
  • Leader figure in 20th-century French philosophy
  • Exponent of a philosophy of existence
  • Existentialism
• Freedom

  • power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint
  • state of being physically unrestricted and able to move easily
• Responsibility

  • duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform or complete a task which has a consequent penalty or failure
• Freedom


  Implies Responsibility
• Human


  • Free to choose their actions
  • Free to create meanings in their own life
• Responsibility


  Not only for themselves but for others
• Person


  • In charge of his/her own life
  • Free but freedom does not mean a license to do anything
  • Free but does not exist alone, coexists with others and their actions surely affects others
  • Responsible not only for themselves but also for others and for HUMANITY
• Anguish


  Feeling of being burdened by their own awareness of their own total responsibility
• Autonomous Rational Being


  person acts freely only if they act for the sake of duty in accordance with the moral laws
• Autonomous Being


  one that does not have an authority other than its reason
• Moral Law

  • this is the first; governs all human persons in the world this moral law is universal it applies that all human as rational beings regardless of space and time
  • moral law is also absolute in the sense that it requires complete obedience from its subjects
• Rational Being

  • second; they should be governed by their reasons
  • this makes them an autonomous being, one who performs actions based on their own will
  • to be autonomous is to be an authority of oneself; is to will one's actions freely
• • Third, a human person acts freely only if they act for the sake of duty which is self-imposed but in accordance with moral law
  • as an autonomous being, a person ought to act in accordance only with the commands they impose upon themselves
  • has an obligation to obey the decrees of moral law
• Two (2) Obligations of Humans

  1. to obey the dictates of their reason
  2. to obey the decrees of moral law
• Iris Marion Young (2007)

  • the concept of reality is used in two senses
  • FIRST SENSE: to be responsible is to be guilty or to be at fault to be deserving of blame and punishment
  • SECOND SENSE: to be responsible is to carry out a task morally or legally required of a person by virtue of their position, authority, or power