Jean Paul Sartre and the Fundamental Project

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Jean Paul Sartre and the Fundamental Project In this paper I am addressing Jean Paul Sartre premise of the fundamental project. In my presentation I will first give a brief over view of Sartre's existentialism. Next Sartre's a notions of the spontaneous and reflective phases of consciousness will be my focus Upon discussing the reflective phase I will go into depth about the fundamental project, and why it is pursued, and I will give examples from No Exit. I will conclude by making a brief contrast and comparisson between Garcin, a character from No Exit, and myself. Of all the philosophers we have studied in our forum, I find I am most intrigued by the opinions of Jean Paul Sartre. Jean Paul Sartre is accredited with articulating the premise that "existence precedes essence." Sartre believes that man one day happened, occurred, or arrived on the scene, or in his words, man was one day "dehissed from the hole" and after this anomalous event his life took meaning. I think Sartre is bold in positing this notion which is in stark contrast of widely accepted belief. It is well regarded that life has a meaning that far transcends our short and insignificant lives. For many cultures life is and whether we ever come to terms with life is irrelevant because life will continue regardless of our of whether or not we understand it to any extent. Sartre believes quite the opposite. He believes that life could have no meaning unless we gave meaning to it. I think anyone pondering this notion to any depth would agree. How could life possibly have any meaning if we do not give any meaning to it. For some life has no meaning and they committed horrible atrocities in strict accordance to their belief. For others life has too much meaning and... ... middle of paper ... ...severed. Garcin was truly anguished by his predicament and made poorly contemplated decisions in an attempt to bring peace of mind. Garcin was a coward because Inez wished. The situations that I have been in that I perceived as desparate were only so because others perceived them as desparate. If I had initally used a clear head and made a balance between how the situation was perceived by others and what the situation really meant to me, then I would none of my bad experiences would have come the hinderances upon my life they turned. In the end for both Garcin and myself it became clear that peace of mind would not come until clear headness was employed. Once a clear head is put to use then Sartre's belief that reconciliation and peace of mind will inevitably come is vindicated. In Garcin case we can only assume this. In my instance you can bank on it. Thank you.

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