Existentialism Essay -- Analysis, Jean-Paul Sartre

In his 1946 article Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre embraces the undertaking of safeguarding existentialism against what he characterizes as “charges” (341) brought against it. Sartre starts to diagram the “charges” brought against existentialism and further, existentialists. Following the medieval quaestio-structure, Sartre starts with the announcement of the complaint, a short conversation, and afterward his answer to each.The first of the charges is that of quietism. “First, it has been accused of welcoming individuals to stay in a sort of edgy quietism in light of the fact that, since no arrangements are conceivable, we ought to need to consider activity in this world as very impossible” (341). Generally, quietism was a Christian way of thinking that supported withdrawal from common exercises for uninvolved and steady consideration of God. The Roman Catholic Church formally proclaimed quietism to be blasphemy. The Christians at that point bring up the criticism that existentialism centers around the sadness of the human circumstance and accordingly, the way of thinking leaves little desire for activity.The following of these protests is that of “…dwelling on human debasement, with facing up wherever the shameful, obscure, and foul, and disregarding the benevolent and delightful, the splendid side of human nature…” (341) As Sartre clarifies, the complaint is basically that existentialisms centers around the “evil” or troubling side of life.The third charge made against existentialism is that of separation. “(FINISH QUOTE)…having disregarded human solidarity, with considering man as a disengaged being.” (341) The protest is that existentialism overlooks human solidarity and looks at people as people.The fourth and last charge laid against existentialism is that of assertion. “…we are charged w......o condemn others, in light of the fact that there’s no motivation to lean toward one design to another’” (360). “…one can in any case condemn, for, as I have stated, one settles on a decision in relationship to other people. Initial, one can pass judgment (and this is maybe not a judgment of significant worth, yet legitimate judgment) that specific decisions depend on blunder and others on truth” (362).The last “sub charge” is that “‘everything is discretionary in this picking of yours. You take something from one pocket and imagine you’re placing it into the other.’” (360) Sartre clarifies, “…if I’ve disposed of God the Father, there must be somebody to develop values,” (365) and that “…to state that we design esteems amounts to nothing else except for this: life has no significance from the earlier. Before you wake up, life is nothing; it’s up to you to give it a significance and worth is nothing else except for the implying that you choose” (365).