Sartre's Argument For The Existence Of God

Professor Aaron Brooks
PHI2010 (176040)
December 1, 2017
Essay 3 Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre’s argument for the claim that without God, a person is “nothing else but what he makes of himself,” is based in the Age of Forlornness. According to the philosopher, the existence of God is impossible, since the very concept of God is contradictory, because it would be the achieved in-itself-for-itself. Therefore, if God does not exist, he has not created man according to an idea that fixes his essence, so that man meets his radical freedom. This theory has an ethical consequence: Sartre affirms that values depend entirely on man and are his own creation. Man is condemned to be free and to take responsibility for this freedom, nothing else can force him

to decide but himself. Even if he was compelled, only the physical body can be manipulated in essence, what he decides remains up to him; his freedom is untouchable, though he would gladly deny it and claim that circumstance forced him into it. According to Sartre, forlornness is the idea that “God does not exist and that we have to face all the consequences of this.” There is no morality a priori. There is no absolute right or wrong. There is no ultimate judge” (Soccio 1

The Assignment:
Analyze Sartre’s argument for the claim that without God, a person is “nothing else but what he makes of himself.”
Examine the following passage, and note the argument that Sartre uses to establish the idea that without God, each person is left to define him- or herself.

“If God does not exist … it means that, first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself … because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be. Thus, there is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it. Not only is man what he conceives himself to be, but he is also only what he wills himself to be.”
First, you will quickly summarize what his claim means, along with his argument for it (1-2 paragraphs). Second, I want you to come up with one – and only one – objection to this argument. That is, tell me where you think this argument might go wrong. Do you disagree with one of its premises? Or do you think the conclusion does not necessarily follow from the premises? (1 paragraph). Third, you will present a response to your own objection. In other words, do your best to respond to your own objection with something Sartre might say himself (1

paragraph).