Jean-Paul Sartre

Theological and Moral Nihilism

While for the philosopher Heidegger the existent is reduced to a being tending to death, for Sartre (1905-1980), the existent is identified with the series of phenomena which tell us of its existence. In other words, to be an existent means to be a series of appearances. Ordinarily, appearance tells us of a dualism, i.e., the appearance and what is hidden in that appearance. Such a dualism is denied by Sartre and he maintains instead that appearance is the entire and only reality.

As a result God, who cannot be phenomenal, does not exist; and the existent is only one unit in the complete series of phenomena, and is "without support and help." The drama of such a negative condition is manifested in moments of "nausea and disgust," similar to the anguish of Kierkegaard except that the discomfort of the Danish philosopher resulted in a quest for God, while in Sartre it is the demonstration of the "nothingness" with which the existent is infected.

However, the existent is actuated by "the other," in the sense that he finds in himself the representation of the world. Thus the existent is founded on an opposition: he is both the subject of consciousness and the representation of the world. Sartre calls the terms of this opposition the "pour-soi" or "for-self" (the existent as subject of consciousness) and the "en-soi" or "in-self" (the world, i.e., the totality of phenomena). Each of these two terms is established because of its negative relation to the other; that is, the "for-self" is not the "in-self" and vice versa.

The opposition between the for-self and the in-self is insuperable. Indeed, if the for-self were synthesized or metamorphosed into the in-self, it would become God; but we know that this idea is contradictory. Thus the existent is nothing other than a "useless passion," a "project" with the assignment of putting itself into execution.

Since, according to Sartre, God does not exist and man is without "support and help," the existent must construct his existence freely: "Man is damned to be free." In regard to the free execution of the project of existence, Sartre repeats the maxim of Ivan Karamazov of Dostoevski's famed novel: "If God does not exist, all is permitted"; hence freedom results in arbitrary acts in the carrying out of the project of existence.

The atheism and amoralism of Sartre may be considered as the ultimate corruption of Existentialism, and of philosophy in general.