Jean Paul Sartre Essays (Examples)

Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit
States of Existence

Many of the essential tenets that philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre espoused as part of his views on existentialism play an integral component in the ploy and characterization of the principle personages that populate No Exit, a work of drama that presents a decidedly human interpretation of the proverbial fires of hell. At its very essence, existentialism identifies and underpins a conception of liberty and accordant responsibility that is at the very core of the human experience -- for those astute enough, aware, and cognizant enough to grasp and take advantage of the vantage point gained from this philosophical stance. Therefore, it is quite interesting to observe that some of the characters within No Exit, one would say most but there are only four in total, and only three whom Sartre's notions of existentialism apply towards, lack the propensity to fully encompass and…

Jean-Paul Sartre No Exit and Existentialism
Jean Paul Sartre's notions of freedom and the responsibility that come with it were very important to his conceptions of and contributions to the philosophy known as existentialism. Essentially, existentialism is the idea that man lives and has to define himself by his actions and the use of his freedom (and the responsibility that accompanies it). These ideas are demonstrated in Sartre's famous play No Exit. An analysis of some of the key parts of this play such as its characters, it setting, and the dialogue that takes place between the characters, as well as of the cultural circumstances that influenced Sartre's writing of this work shows that his ideas of freedom and responsibility are demonstrated in opposition in No Exit.

Sartre believed that a true existentialist was someone who took responsibility for his or her freedom by defining himself. However, virtually none of…

The boy had conflicting religious training. Officially, he was Catholic, but his grandfather's Protestantism influenced him greatly. He learned little of the major philosophers of the day because they were not given attention at the French university of the time, but he would encounter them later when he was in his twenties. He passed his written examination for the agregation on his second try and fulfilled his military service from 1929 to 1931, doing so in the meteorological section. He then became professor of philosophy at the lycee in Le Havre and later taught at Laon. By then he had met his lifetime companion, Simone de Beauvoir. They never married, for marriage ran counter to their ideas of personal independence. Sartre's political views in the 1930s were radical, anticapitalist, antielitist, and proworker, and he was more of an anarchist than a revolutionary (Brosman 107).
Sartre's literary career began when he…

Sartre-No Exit
Jean Paul Sartre's "No Exit" is an apt description of existential hell. (Sartre, 1958) Existentialism attempts to describe our desire to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. Existentialism requires the active acceptance of our nature. Or, existentialism assumes we are best when we struggle against our nature. In either case, we should want this. Given this brief description of existentialism, what transpires in "No Exit" is that the players are trapped in their own natures. There is a loss of freedom at several levels. The stage setting reveals that even in writing No Exit, Sartre cannot completely rid himself of his existentialist leanings. He asks for a chandelier in the center of the room. And in the ceiling there is a hole -- through which he allows as an escape route.

The first loss of freedom is in the room in which Joseph Cradeau, Inez…

Teleological Suspensions & Jean-Paul Sartre
This is a paper on the topic of "Teleological Suspensions" and Jean-Paul Sartre.

ABRAHAM TO SACRIFICE OR NOT

The story of Abraham and Isaac is known throughout the world. The question that many may ask: hy was Abraham willing to sacrifice Isaac? This was murder so how could God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? hat is the essence of Existentialism?

Kiekegaard once stated, "The story of Abraham contains a teleological suspension of the ethical" (McMahon 1). The story about Abraham and Isaac is one of sacrifice. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son's life because God told him to go and sacrifice Isaac. Abraham was willing to do the sacrifice. However, God told him it was not necessary. God gave Abraham a lamb to sacrifice.

Questions are asked: How did God ask Abraham to murder an innocent child?

hen Abraham was willing to do kill…

Bad Faith" as viewed by Jean-Paul Sartre in "Being and Nothingness" and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In "The Darkness of the Cave."
e will also digress and speculate if Jean-Paul Sartre and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were to engage in a conversation on "bad faith" as to what would each of them argue? e will discuss what their alleged beliefs on bad faith and freedom would entail.

Comparison and Contrast

Jean-Paul Sartre

For Sartre, we are condemned to be free. If we do not realize this, it is an act of "bad faith." For Sartre, when one lives a life is defined by occupation, racial, social, or economic class, this is, bottomline, the very inner essence of "bad faith." Sartre defines this as a condition in which people are able to transcend their life situations so that they can realize what must be and what they are not.…

Nausea
The Depleted Life

"Things are bad! Things are very bad: I have it, the filth, the Nausea." Bang! At this point I wanted to tell Antoine Roquentin that he is not alone in his misery. That I too have been afflicted with "the Nausea."

Perhaps it would be best to describe exactly what "the Nausea" is, or at least how this humble reader has apprehended it. First I should probably state that "the Nausea" isn't misery. Misery is its own condition. However, misery can be precipitated by "the Nausea." And, yes, "the Nausea" also carries with it the same physical manifestations of the literal term 'nausea,' i.e. vertigo, sweating, upset stomach, etc.

But to better explain what "the Nausea" really is, let us turn back to the book, Antoine Roquentin writes in his journal, "I have no taste for work any longer, I can do nothing except wait for…

It happens during the time of economical crisis, depression, inability to realize ambitions, inability to influence the course of some events. And it often results in anti-Semitic moods of certain social groups: mostly radical working-class youth. We see this tendency now as the economical recession had penetrated into many spheres of life and touched nearly everyone, in addition there exist a conflict in Israel between Israelites and Palestinians, which still has no reference to the essence of the problem, but is used as a justification.
The Jew I am belongs to a traumatized generation. We have antennas. Better yet, we are antennas," he said. "If we tell you that the signals we receive are disturbing, that we are alarmed... people had better listen." says Elie Weisel (from Wiesel: Anti-Semitism Increase, article)

Most of Jewish organizations in Europe insist to make protective legislature, use educational instruments in order to protect Jewish…

The individual believes the lies imposed by society, and sees them for truth. It provides a convenient vehicle for relinquishing the responsibility of freedom. Categories and definitions limit freedom, choice, and the capacity to transcend categorization.
According to rown, it should also be kept in mind that the bad faith concept is somewhat beyond simple self-deception. It is the perpetuation of a "truth" that the individual knows to be in fact false. However, this perpetuation feeds upon itself by the individual's needs for whatever is the result of the deception. For the unhappy worker, for example, bad faith persists as a result of the paycheck, while the unhappy mother would continue in bad faith for the sake of being called a "good" mother, and so on. In Sartre's view then, it appears that there is little that the individual within such a society can do to escape bad faith. Even…

Nothingness reflects a relation with being (Sartre 309-328). As such, the human mind holds the only responsibility of drawing a conclusion of nothingness due to lack of it relative to being.
The attendant responsibility of the human mind lies in the ability to discern and differentiate on the aspects of existence and lack of existence. The ability to identify being correct proves a crucial step towards the identification of nothingness, due to the relation between the two. Therefore, the radical freedom at the disposals of the human mind enhances the undertaking of the responsibility of identification, analysis and differentiating between being and nothingness.

The rise of bad faith arises in the acceptance of nothingness at the expense of being. Sartre defines self-deception as a situation where the mind, by its freedom, chooses to deliver a situation of not being in place of being itself (Sartre, 328-348). it, therefore, allows the…

Under Sartre's theory, freedom is other than what exists now; however, it must first be imagined, from nothingness, in order for it to then become possible, as an alternative for that which how exists, but which creates the human condition of being less than free.
Explain, now, with reference to the material outlined for 2 above, how the two authors' views differ with regard to the character of human freedom.

Dostoevsky's view of the character of human freedom represents a reaction against scientific or rational systems that would serve to restrict, constrain, or otherwise discourage an individual from thinking for himself or herself, that is, originally and imaginatively, without dogmas, assumptions, or preconceived notions cluttering the thought processes. In Dostoevsky's view, systematization and scientific rationality not only prevent but impinge upon true freedom, since these constrain the human spirit and the imagination. According to the article "Radical Freedom," what is…

The first principle of existentialism is subjectivity, in the sense that existence is subject to every man's desire. There are things which man can not control in his life, but he can assume his past and change himself if what he is does not correspond to his scale of values. Man is the only creator of himself and therefore, his own possessor. Which also makes him the only one who is responsible for his life. Subjectivity is to be understood from this perspective

However, the concept under discussion is a bit wider. It also refers to the fact that human nature is a limit for the human. People can not go beyond their own nature and capacity to build the world and ultimately themselves. When creating himself, man will obey certain criteria. Naturally, he will want for these criteria to be universal. That is, while man has the power to…

Humans had to learn to use freedom in a positive, rather than a negative fashion, said Sartre.
A modern manager, cognizant of such critiques, thus must try to create a workplace where a sense of connection to the product, place, and community is fostered. For example, at Google, workers are encouraged to use company time and equipment to pursue their own projects. Google is a place where workers can eat free meals, take free fitness classes, and combine work and pleasure. This creates a sense of togetherness, rather than fosters angst, alienation and exploitation. Skinner's concept of behaviorism, or rewarding positive behavior, is transformed so that giving back to the organization with creative input and ideas is reinforced. Google's mindset shows a sophisticated evolution beyond the concept of giving a worker a crude 'carrot' in the form a small bonus when he or she succeeds in fulfilling a mechanical objective…

e. The lack of attachment to other people and things) is beneficial from an individual perspective, but damaging for society as a whole because it hinders advancement.
In reality however, in order to maintain such a belief in our own self-sufficiency and freedom of choice, we would have to rewrite the laws of human nature. As this is highly improbable, we are likely to continue in our flight from freedom for as long as we remain in existence. People are, after all, social creatures by nature and thus, according to Garcin, we "need the suffering of others to exist."

This is Sartre's way of arguing that existentialism is the only valid means of providing mankind with dignity, and life with meaning. Thus at the core of Sartre's suppositions is that the role of existentialism is vitally important in helping the individual to embrace freedom as a manifestation of nothingness and,…

Clearly, the play is a mirror-image of that time's impression of existentialism, and this is why it focuses upon both oneself and the other, as well as issues surrounding human existence, such as morality and responsibility. However, the other themes in the play that are a product of the time are also important. These include the fact that women could not have affairs without consequences, as divorce was frowned upon. This statement alone begs the questions of religion quite forwardly. Furthermore, the fact that Garcin is a coward who is executed for leaving the War (World War Two) is also important, as that would have been a common occurrence at the time and also deals with the question of responsibility. These themes, whether existential or otherwise, are very important facets that can be seen throughout this and other plays by the author.
Conclusions

The last section of this paper will…

Jean Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir on Freedom, Being-for-Others, And Sartrean Despair
Simone de Beauvoir and JP Sartre were two famous existentialists that converged and diverged on various concepts. These included the existentialist concepts of freedom, being-for-others and transcendence or despair. Their converged and divergences will be addressed in this essay.

Sartre was one of the most famous existentialists of all times. For him, existence did not base itself on an ethos of God-ordained morality nor did it have any transcendental meaning. ather meaningfulness of life -- or liberty / freedom -- depended on the meaning that one arbitrarily accorded life and he claimed that man is "what he makes of himself," or in other words "in the end one is always responsible for what is made of one" In this way, Sartre's philosophy integrated both optimism and despair: optimism in the belief that one can resolutely make something…

Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre on Existentialism and Humanism
The Essentials of Essentialism

Martin Heidegger's philosophical opus is both deep and complex and a comprehensive examination of it here would be impossible. However it is possible to provide an overview of his essential teachings - of the essential aspects of his essentialism. Doing so will allow us, in later sections, to explore his criticisms of Jean-Paul Sartre's far more famous version of existentialism as well as to examine the ways in which - despite Heidegger's criticism of Sartre - the two are in many ways the same.

Heidegger, like all modern philosophers (and possibly the ancient ones as well), incorporated the work of a number of earlier thinkers into his own formulation of existentialism and his understanding of the nature of reality of the place of humans in the world. As an existentialist, Heidegger believed in a philosophy that was…

Upon entering a place that appears to be hell, though it looks oddly like a coldly modern, windowless hotel, each of Sartre's characters expects to be tortured for his or her supposed sins. The wait; however, turns out not to be for the arrival of some "other," but rather the discovery that one's own self, and one's fellow human beings, perform the job perfectly well.
arcin, like Judas, is consumed by the need to possess powers and capabilities beyond that of any other human being. Much as Judas cannot submit to the ultimate Divine Truth, arcin fins it impossible to admit his own frailties. He detests Ines for recognizing his failings, but fails to see that his greatest weakness is his lust need for self-preservation despite the toll it takes on his psyche and his character. arcin would, in his own mind, be a noble man, if there were never…

) and towards the more practical needs for Aryan survival.
c. hy did a growing number of Germans support Hitler and the Nazi Party in the years leading up to his appointment as chancellor?

There are many arguments to this question, but one that surfaces more often than others focuses on economics and self-preservation. The German people were humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles -- their military and economic system had been stripped away, their debt unbearable, and their economy was being controlled by other countries. The ideas of National Socialism were attractive to many: unification of the German Volk, reestablishing the German lands as a country dedicated to certain ideals, focusing on ethnic and linguistic similarities, the overthrow of Versailles, the idea of German self-determination, lebensraum (room for Germans to live, grow and prosper), and an improvement over the crippling inflation and economic woes of the eimar Government, seen…

5. Kant's "Copernican Revolution" in philosophy is in his genius use of the positive aspects of Rationalism (Descartes and so on) and Empiricism (Locke, Berkeley and Hume). How can you argue this out with the help of the "Critique of Pure Reason"?

The human experience of negotiating the universe as it seems to be presented to us is one governed by a great many assumptions. Our education of this process, and in particular our capacity to become adept or even talented in various faculties thereto, is created by experience. In experience, we gain the evolving abilities to relate to objects which we can perceive in our world. However, in order to accomplish this, there are any number of beliefs which must be possessed in us that will create a framework wherein such relating can occur. These beliefs -- and the practical, ideological and physiological experiences which are dependent upon them…

It is key to understanding the author's view of love and even her own status as a woman and as a thinker. Of course, the book can simply be read as a love story of infidelity and sexual liberty gone wrong in the face of an ever-changing political society in a state of national and European chaos. But the Mandarins de Beauvoir referred to were also the elite, the intellectual elites of Chinese society who held themselves above from the common peasants.
Thus, by calling her fellow Left Bank intellectuals 'Mandarins' De Beauvoir symbolically calls upon her fellow intellectuals to become part and parcel of the political fray, rather than wasting their energies with entangling personal alliances that can be just as dissipating as the betrayals of Vichy and the subsequent alliances that sapped the French nation of its own vital energies. She calls upon the intellectual Mandarins of French…

Euthyphro then offers the third definition, derived from the second one:
I should say that what all the gods love is pious and holy, and the opposite which they all hate, impious.

Socrates then replies with the creation of a dilemma -- would the things and people be considered pious because they are loved by gods, or would the gods all love them because they are pious. After a deeper process of thought, Socrates himself defines piety as a species of the genus 'justice, but Euthyphro insists on defining piety based on what the gods like. Piety is eventually described as knowledge and prayer, to the benefit of the gods (Plato).

It is often argued that ethics has its origins in religion, which means that whenever an individual is facing a moral dilemma, they would be able to find the answer in invoking the Divinity. Nevertheless, religion is often conflicting…

Hence, "transcendence" a denial of the self at the core of Sartre's philosophy. Human beings are condemend to be free in that no religious or political doctrine is inherently or intrinisically correct in every situation. No schema can accord for every possible situation fo being or existance. All schemas that attempt to make a claim for their totality of their state of correctness at all times are thus acts of "bad faith," as they attempt to put artificial constraints on human freedom. Rather, for Sartre, life is simply what we make of it, diferent human existences bump up against one another in a random fashion. However, it should also be remembered that for Sartre, a state of human freedom also corresponded to responsibility to the world. Even free existances, not essences (i.e., human beings) are still responsible for the world, the horizon of meaning in which all free beings operate.…

The French colonial government actively sought means to control land and land use in Algeria, notes Sartre. Control over land and natural resources equals ownership of the means of production. Economic oppression also creates class conflict: the subjugated peoples become a clear and identifiable underclass. Even within the underclass, class conflict prevents political cohesion. The French and the Americans would have been far less successful in their colonial campaigns had the Algerians and the Native Americans been able to organize en masse in rebellion. Poverty pits neighbor against neighbor in the competition for limited resources.
Furthermore, race and social class become linked together and offered up as false proof that the oppressed groups are inherently inferior. Economic oppression also serves another key goal that helps perpetuate colonial rule: ignorance. Stripping the underclass of access to capital or to the means of production, the ruling class ensures lack of access to…

Reading The Sound and the Fury can be frustrating for the reader, particularly the reader who is used to the linear march of time and the orderly unfolding of the events. Classic chronology provides a sense of order and a sense of time for the reader. They can easily relate to their own experience and concept of the passage of time. Faulkner steps into an uncomfortable area for many readers, making his work difficult to follow in terms of linearity. It appears as if he is randomly leaping off in different directions with no sense of purpose or direction at time. However, if we look at the way in which time acts as a character one can glean a different perspective of time and gain a glimpse into the eternal nature of time. Jean-Paul Sartre explains that, "A fictional technique always relates back to the novelist's metaphysics" (Sartre). Such is…

Life in a Godless orld
For as long as mankind has contemplated its own creation philosophers have pondered the meaning of life largely within the context of humanity's relationship to the divine, from Aristotle's metaphysical conception of God as all actuality to Descartes' systematic attempt to develop a proof of God's existence. The dominance of Christianity throughout much the civilized world invariably constrained the ability of great thinkers to challenge many of the religion's most fundamental precepts, from the concept of free will to the nature of good and evil, leaving much of the early philosophical canon regrettably limited by a reliance on unquestioned faith. After the European Renaissance validated the structural foundations of scientific inquiry, the glaring inability to empirically observe God in any conceivable form prompted many to privately question the dogmatic assertions of the Pope and his church. It wasn't until the momentous contribution of the German…

Nietzsche's oman is by turns simply a reflection of common attitudes of the time, although he occasionally sees her in a more sympathetic view. In a modern light, the understanding of Nietzsche's philosophy has often been tainted by the view of his writings as racist and misogynist. Indeed, a cursory look shows that Nietzsche's perception of women is largely negative and unflattering. Nonetheless, the great philosopher is sometimes clearly sympathetic to women. The end result is that his work seems largely inconsistent and poorly thought out on the subject of women. Many philosophers, including Simone De Bauviour and Mill, have had a much different conception of woman than Nietzsche. Ultimately, Nietzsche has little important insight to offer on the subject of women, a disappointing oversight from a philosopher who repeatedly offered such perceptive and daring views on many important subjects.
Modern interpretation and analysis of Nietzsche's works is often tainted…

Collapsing Certainties
Theme of Collapsing Uncertainties

The Collapsing Birth Rate in the Developed orld

Human beings perceive events, individuals, and objects in different manners in relation to the circumstances and understanding. This is vital towards the development of concept of reality with the aim of continuous leadership, caring, and forms of goodness. This is an indication that human beings believe in whatever they see and purport to be ideal thus generation of meaning and form of understanding or knowledge for the purposes of guidance and leadership. Various personalities have focused on the examination of the concept of collapsing uncertainties. Some of these personalities include Timothy Eves, Plato, and Sartre. Sartre focuses on the examination of the concept of hell or the world of darkness through integration of the No Exit play. This is ideal for effective understanding and development of the forms of goodness in relation to reality and knowledge.…

status and class and how class uses words to prioritize themselves. The world as we perceive it -- or our reality -- is run according to symbols. It is symbols -- or words - that define that which is socially approved of and also symbols -- and words that peg individuals and groups in particular positions.
Bordeaux argues that the powerful elite have categorized substances, pegged certain values to them, made them correspond with particular symbols and then attached these symbols to certain class structures. These defining words are also grouped in terms of polarities and, so for instance, you have one item that may denote a positive sense whilst it's opposite condemns. These class structures also vary from generation to generation and from country to country. So for instance, a olls oyce is actually a vehicle as amongst any other, but the elite (a certain class) attached a certain…

The same fact presented to two people will be interpreted and stored in two different ways. it's almost as if there is no "real" world... just millions of versions of the world and we just haven't got the mental power as living beings to see what is real and what is not. Logic and consensus are the only ways of ascertaining what is real and what isn't, but we can only ever know to the extent that experience gives us only a fuzzy and inaccurate picture of reality, and consensus is merely a diplomatic compromise with only logic and reason to back it up. To rely, however, on logic and reason leads to problems where one person concludes that anothers' experience is false. For example a psychiatrist concludes that a patients' experience of government conspiracy is a false experience - even though it's an experience the person has been having…

" (Gibbs 226) Alvardo de Campos is a naval engineer by profession and while his earlier writings are positive, his work develops characteristics of existential angst. Furthermore, what is intriguing is that all of these fictive authors created by Pessoa interact with one another and even translate each other's works. (Gibbs 226)
One critic notes that "Fernando Pessoa invented at least 72 fictive identities. "His jostling aliases...expressed his belief that the individual subject -- the core of European thought -- is an illusion." (Gray 52) This view goes to the heart of the matter, as will be discussed in the following sections of this paper; namely that the creation of these fictive identities emphasizes and highlights the modern crisis of identity and the existential and postmodern view that the self as a coherent and continuous entity is an illusion. The following extract emphasizes this central point and also allows for…

Hence, the model of preparation applies to Guevara's situation and choices perfectly because all of the prior knowledge and experience he had through his medical visits across Latin America motivated him to be absolutely prepared for a long battle, hence he not only stayed in the area where he could learn the most, he associated with people who had been pursuing the same goal longer then him and knew more about the things that he wanted to be aware of .
Domain knowledge that Guevara gained by staying in Guatemala and preparing was also of significant importance to sharpen the technical skills he needed to possess to succeed. Two of the most important aspects that Guevara aimed to gain through the domain knowledge were:

To familiarize himself with the rules with which a revolution or change within different societies operates in differing environments and the practical wisdom to compete in…

Jack Henry Abbott
Jack Henry Abbot's In the Belly of the Beast is an unusual literary document. The book is comprised of letters sent originally to the novelist and chauvinist Norman Mailer, in an effort to give Mailer some corroborative detail for his non-fiction book about death-row inmate Gary Gilmore; Mailer, who described Abbott as a "phenomenon" for his articulate prose, then led a push to have Abbott paroled from prison. It is clear that Mailer hoped to do what Jean-Paul Sartre had done in France some four decades before, on behalf of the writer and convicted criminal Jean Genet: yet Mailer's attempt at a public role would backfire badly, when Abbott killed a restaurant worker in lower Manhattan on the day before the New York Times published its favorable review of In the Belly of the Beast. I would like to examine Abbott's work, and Mailer's advocacy of Abbott,…

He can then be influenced to live what he now understands but has yet to do. The therapist or doctor must encourage the patient or awaken his social interest and raise his level of energy along with it. y developing a genuine human relationship with the patient, the therapist or doctor can re-establish the basic form of social interest, which the patient can use in transferring it to others. oth therapist and patient must realize that the latter's ultimate cure can come only from him.
Adler's approach has similarities with that of Socrates (Stein 1991). Socrates exhorted others to "know thyself," while Adler urged that people should think for themselves (Meyer 1980 as qtd in Stein 1991). Like Socrates, he would lead the person or patient through a series of questions to a contradiction within himself as revealed by his own answers. oth philosophers were committed to the search for…

Post-Colonialism in Literature (Presentation Paragraph)
In the novel Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, a young girl named Tambu wants to attend school. After her brothers' death she is allowed to take his place at the mission school. At the end of the school term she is able to pass an exam which will allow her to further her education even more. This is the basic plot of the novel, but it shows only a fraction of what the story is about. Tambu's story is symbolic of many colonial nations. She is taught by the western world to desire their education and also many other values of the western world including their culture, in clothing, films, and books. By the end of the story she has completely been immersed in the western culture while denying this is so. In many post-colonial societies, the native people try to reestablish their unique identities…

eligion
Meaning

Ethics

Future

Monotheism

Monotheism means the worship of one god.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all monotheistic religions: God demands an exclusive relationship with His followers and an acknowledgement of His unique power.

All major monotheistic faiths have a concept of the 'end of days' or final judgment

Deism

God as the divine watchmaker.

God sent into motion the universe with His power but we are now able to use our own reason to govern our lives.

Enlightened reason and science is the best way to understand the future.

Naturalism

The natural world is the source of meaning.

Ethics can be found 'in nature.'

ather than formal religion, we must look to nature for guidance.

Nihilism

Life has no inherent meaning.

There is no system of morality inherent to the human condition beyond that which we construct.

We are adrift and not heading to a purposeful future.

Existentialism…

in "Piaf," Pam Gems provides a view into the life of the great French singer and arguably the greatest singer of her generation -- Edith Piaf. (Fildier and Primack, 1981), the slices that the playwright provides, more than adequately trace her life. Edith was born a waif on the streets of Paris (literally under a lamp-post). Abandoned by her parents -- a drunken street singer for a mother and a circus acrobat father -- Edith learns to fend for herself from the very beginning. As a natural consequence of her surroundings, she makes the acquaintance of several ne'er do wells. She rises above the lifestyles of the girls she grows up with who prostitute themselves for a living in the hope that they will eventually meet a benefactor with whom they can settle. Edith has a talent for singing and she indulges this interest by singing loudly in the streets.…

Philosophy
While there is plenty to criticize in the work of Descartes, Locke, and Hume, one cannot justifiably claim that Jose Vasconcelos criticisms of traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge apply to these theorists if only because Vasconcelos' criticisms do not really apply to anything, as his criticisms are largely based on straw men. This is not to say that traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge should be free from criticism, but rather that the problems with these traditional views are more fundamental than Vasconcelos realizes, to the point that Vasconcelos suffers from many of these same issues. Essentially, both Vasconcelos and the previously mentioned authors suffer from a simply ignorance regarding the functioning of the human brain, the nature of consciousness and memory, and the evolutionary processes by which organisms and ideas evolve, with this ignorance born out of an implicit or explicit maintenance of…

Skepticism is defined as a school of philosophical thought where a person doubts the beliefs of another person or group. hile one person might believe wholeheartedly a certain political perspective or believe completely the dogma of a religion, a skeptic would have doubts about these beliefs or about the stories related to religion. Not only do they doubt organized religion, they also doubt the validity of socially constructed morals and laws. Sometimes they doubt the world as they witness it because they are unsure of the truth of reality as they perceive it through the senses (Butchvarov 1998). Like many philosophies, skepticism has origins in Ancient Greece. Pyrrho of Elis is credited with founding the philosophy, a branch of which was later named Pyrrhonism in his honor. The philosophy was expanded into countries throughout the known world, up to and including the early modern world. During the Enlightenment, skepticism branched…

Breathless in the face of Godard's Sharp and Fragmented Vision of Filmed Sexuality all these things, at first sight...are obstacles to conventional smoothness and logic. Yet they are perfectly efficient in the sense that they crate an impression of confusion, flight, fear, restrained violence, imminent danger, etc., while staying within the bounds of possibility...The editor [Godard] is saying, in fact, "the habitual idea of screen continuity is merely an illusion which is in any case subsidiary to the communication of the scene's meaning. I am going to take advantage of your admission that it is unreal by rejecting it and substituting this cruder but more direct description of the action" -- Riesz and Millar
The thesis of the article by Riesz and Millar quoted above, on the 1960 film directed by Jean Luc Godard's entitled "Breathless," may seem quite complex on its surface. However, the authors' thesis in its most…

French literature? (Pick as many as you think are correct)
Detective stories

Songs sung by traveling minstrels (troubadours) and entertainers and jesters (jongleurs)

Oral histories evoking the exploits of saints and kings

Long verse poems telling the stories of heroes like Charlemagne, knights and ladies and their confrontations with giants, monsters, and the supernatural world

Gothic novels

The Renaissance - pick out which of the following elements characterize the changes and innovations of the Renaissance era in France - the late 15th century to the early 17th century.

An interest and celebration of the arts and thinking of ancient Greece and Rome

An attraction to humanism - a view of the world where individual choices direct one's actions more so than religious conviction

c.

Royal support for music, architecture, and art

d.

The bubonic plague

e.

The Hundred Years War

Question 4

Which of the following were important Renaissance writers?…

Nearing the end of the 1960s, the analytic or language philosophy became the central focus point which led to the isolation of the classroom setting and the problems that came with it (Greene, 2000).
Most of the educational philosophers of the time were inclined towards restricting themselves to the official aspects and problems like the sovereignty of the system without any influence from the society and the surrounding environment and the assessment of the calls and school structure conducted for its growth or for the progression of the epistemology that it embodied (Greene, 2000).

All those setups that seemed to be coming across as invasive or seemed to add a personalized bias where it didn't belong were quickly identified and removed. This was one of the reasons that led to the obsession of the possible consequences that could exist due to the practicality of the philosophical theories. Inflexibility was adeptly…

ole of Spirituality in the Treatment of Depression
Over the last thirty years, one of the most interesting paradoxes in the study and treatment of depression has been that increased knowledge about the biomedical and genetic causes of the disease has been coupled with a renewed interest in the effect of religion and spirituality on human mental health and well-being. No matter how religion and spirituality are defined -- and many scholars and laypersons see no great distinctions between the two -- there are now hundreds of studies that demonstrate the beneficial effects of religion on both mental and physical health. Indeed, the more firmly held and intrinsic a person's religious convictions are, the more salutary the effect. eligious people are more optimistic, hopeful and trusting, and have more purpose and meaning in life than those with weak or no religious views. All of these qualities are of course lacking…

Sidney echet truly led the life of a jazz musician. He was a supporter of Dixieland Jazz who played the clarinet and was the first person to play Jazz on a Soprano Saxophone. Domineering is a word frequently used to express his music. Various fights showed he had a short temper that reflects in his music. His solos were often soaring and passionate, endlessly inventive, direct rather than ornate. Throughout his life, he never had the discipline needed to play in a regular band; he always preferred to be a soloist and worked in many different bands.
Personal Life

echet was born on May 14, 1897 in New Orleans, Louisiana to a black Creole family. His father Omar was educated in a private school so he spoke and wrote both Creole Patois and English. His mother Josephine was black, but was referred to as a passeblanc. echet grew up in…

Psychology of Happiness and a Life Well-Lived
In this paper, I have discussed that happiness as well as morality (meaningful purpose) are actually the ultimate goals and the true sign of a life well-lived. I have tried to explain how morality must be considered as the most important factor to signify a well-lived life. I have also given the ideas of Aristotle and Plato regarding morality and happiness and have tried to assess the literature on my chosen factor.

If we ask people to elaborate the definition of a well-lived life, we would surely get very different answers. For some, money will be considered as the means to be happy and successful; others may count recognition of peers as the basis of a well-lived life. A well-designed and useful product will be the success for some; for others it can be a beautiful garden. Good relationships would be a mode…

Westerns soon developed into a staple of TV land. The independence and strength of the characters epitomized the ideals that made America so unique. Families sat down with their TV dinners to watch such shows as " Gunsmoke," the Lone Ranger," the Rifleman," Have Gun, Will Travel," and " Maverick." You were not anybody unless you could sing the theme songs of each show.

Moviegoers were also being drawn into the theaters by the monster/science-fiction movies. About 500 film features and shorts were produced under this broad theme in the 1950s and early 1960s, explains the 50s B-Movie website. ne might argue convincingly that never in the history of motion pictures has any other genre developed and multiplied so rapidly in so brief a period. As Paul Michael comments, "n a sheer statistical basis, the number of fantasy and horror films of the 1950s... has not been equaled in any…

Phantom Limbs
When we ask ourselves what is knowledge (as we do when we are engaged in the process of philosophy) we are effectively asking what is our relationship with the world. V.S. amachandran - as is the norm for philosophers - asks the question about our relationship to the world by using what at first might seem to be a relatively trivial issue, or at least one that very few of us shall ever actually have to worry about, which is the question of phantom limbs, the subject of both amachandran's interest and our own.

The desire to know and the desire to discover are essentially active, even aggressive actions taken on the part of consciousness to acquire pieces or aspects of the world. When we seek knowledge, we seek to take into our minds (and so to take into our bodies physically) something that exists in the world.…

Educational Philosophy
The four Educational Philosophies

Essentialism

Essentialism argues that a common core of knowledge needs to be passed to learners in a disciplined and systematic manner. The concentration in this traditional viewpoint is on moral and intellectual standards that academic institutions should educate. The curriculum focuses on knowledge, skills, and academic rigor. Although this academic viewpoint is similar in some ways to Perennialism, Essentialism accepts the idea that this core curriculum may change. Education should be realistic, preparing learners to become useful people in the society. It should concentrate on facts and "the fundamentals," training learners to speak, write, read and think clearly and rationally. Schools must not try to set or influence guidelines. Students should be trained self-discipline, respect for authority, and hard work. Instructors are to help learners keep their non-productive intuition in checks, such as mindlessness or aggression. This strategy was in response to progressivism techniques…

" (Rand National Defense Research Institute, 2009)
It is reported by Rand National Defense Research Institute that when service members and their spouses were polled for the purpose of making an assessment of the readiness of the family for the most recent deployment. Findings state as follows:

65% of service members and 60% of spouses indicated (Rand National Defense Research Institute, 2009)

The way that family readiness was defined is stated to however vary and that there are three specific readiness categories were cited including:

(1) financial readiness;

(2) readiness related to household responsibilities; and (3) Emotional or mental readiness. (Rand National Defense Research Institute, 2009)

It is critically important that knowledge be gained concerning how families prepare for deployment of the service member. It was found in the study conducted by Rand National Defense Research Institute that "…like readiness, coping meant different things to different families." (2009)

Those who…

Synthesize traditional and progressive education for today's students. Education digest. Vol. 68, Issue 7, 4-8. etrieved January 17, 2011, from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=12&sid=90682ec6-64e1-4958-adc2-32dc1555fcc4%40sessionmgr13&vid=4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&an=9317873
Cohen, L.M. & Gelbrich, J. (1999). Philosophical perspectives in education. Oregon State University, School of Education. etrieved January 17, 2011, from: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/PP2.html

Moser, .D. (1951, July). The educational philopophy of William T. Harris. Peabody Journal of education. Vol. 29, No. 1, 14-33 etrieved January 17, 2011, from http://www. Jstor, org/stable/1489104

Nehring, J.H. (2006, February 1). Progressive vs. traditional: eframing an old debate. Education week. Vol. 25, Issue 21, 32-33. etrieved January 17, 2011, from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=12&sid=90682ec6-64e1-4958-adc2-32dc1555fcc4%40sessionmgr13&vid=4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&an=19705742

Neil, J. (2005, January). John Dewey: Philosophy of education. Experimental learning. Wilderdom.com. etrieved January 17, 2011, from http://wilderdom.com/experiential/JohnDeweyPhilosophyEducation.html

Sternberg, J., & Zhang, L. (2005, Summer). Styles of thinking as a basis of differntiated instruction. Theory into practice, 44(3), 245-253. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. etrieved January 17, 2011, from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=111&sid=4dc68d17-580a=4983=af18=762283ca50ef%40sessionmgr114

In the opening paragraph, his detailed physical description of Jewel and him walking on the path exhibits what we soon see is a strong faith that language makes memory, perception, and action real. (Lockyer 74)
She also notes that Darl is the character who speaks the most in the novel, thus showing his adherence to the value of language in his actions as well as his words. In doing so, she says, "he displays the omniscience, verbal range, and responsibility for interpretation that we associate with a narrator" (Lockyer 74). hat Darl says also solidifies the view that Addie has been isolated and has also been deceived by her former faith in words. Faulkner develops a range of views of language and its use and of the degree to which different characters express their own relationship with language.

Lockyer discusses this further and cites Mikhail Bakhtin on the novel to…

Thus, free will -- as demonstrated by moral choice -- is in actuality a series of discrete and connected choices, each dependent on those preceding it as they shape the individual's attitude.
De Beauvoir then describes the sub-man, who wishes he did not exist. Yet he is the very consciousness that is willing this non-existence, and is thus self-defeating. To escape his subjectivity, he immerses himself in the object, and Lives fro a Thing rather tan for himself. She derides nihilist thought, too, claiming that though neither the world nor the individual have inherent and objective justifications, as the nihilists claim, it is the individual's responsibility to create that justification. Several other attitudes, given archetypal names like "the adventurer" and "the passionate man" are described, along with their mistaken takes on morality and free will. The truly free will, de Beauvoir claims, is in understanding and accepting -- indeed, actively…

pragmatism and analytic philosophy uniquely American movements? What elements of American culture (way of life) connect to why those two movements evolved in the U.S. What ideas make them different from the way Europeans of the same period were thinking?
Pragmatism could be called a kind of anti-philosophy. It stresses 'what works' rather than attempts to provide an overarching theory about the nature of the universe. William James, the founder of American pragmatism called ideas 'road maps,' rather than tools that were valuable in and of themselves. Abstract philosophy could not improve human existence. Pragmatists believed that philosophical ideas were valuable based upon the demonstrated benefit that they have to individuals and society, not as metaphysical abstractions.

The concept of pragmatism was well-suited to the American idea that class was an irrational idea, and that hard work should demonstrate one's merit. Proof was in the 'pudding' or the execution, not…

Personality Theories
PERSONALITY VS SITUATION

Personality refers to the unique set of relatively constant behaviors and mental processes in a person and his or her interactions with the environment (Kevin 2011). It is generally accepted that personality is influenced by genetics in the form of dispositions or temperament at 40-60% and by the environment. The tasks of the psychologist are to characterize and describe personality traits, investigate the relationship between these traits and behavior, and understand and predict behavior from these traits. The approaches to the study of personality are descriptive; biological or genetic; learning; psychodynamic; and humanistic, existential or phenomenological (Kevin).

Existentialism vs. Humanism

Existentialism is difficult to define as those who conceived it denied they started it or it even started (Corbett, 1985). It can be vaguely described as a spirit or atmosphere of one's response to human existence. Among its precursors were Soren Kierkegaard and Fredrich Nietzsche.…

Wulf, S.J. (2000). "The skeptical life in Hume's political thought. Polity, 33(1), 77.

Wulf uses David Hume's well-known skepticism to advance his concerning the extreme degrees to which philosophy had been taken before returning to less radical modes. He develops material about the antithetical ideas to those investigated here; that is, he puts into a context the ideas of those philosophers who, working at the edge of the intelligible, refused to "accede to the judgment of reason and even their own senses."

ukav, Gary. (1984) the dancing Wu Li masters: An overview of the new physics. New York: Bantam.

One of the first statements ukav makes in this book is that he found, visiting the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Berkeley, California, that physics "was not the sterile, boring discipline that I had assumed it to be. It was a rich, profound venture, which had become inseparable from philosophy. Incredibly, no…

Adorno's Negative Theology And The Religious Dimension Of Art
Religion in art can perform a variety of roles. A religious picture, literary text or piece of music can be didactic in intent, spreading knowledge of religious teachings, ideologies and practices; it can serve a commemorative purpose, reminding present generations of the significance of past episodes, or the examples of particular individuals, in shaping present religious belief and practice; it can be inspiring in an emotional or spiritual sense, acting to create a suitable emotion or feeling of a religious nature in its audience. Art with religious content or purpose can be contemplative or bombastic in character, and can convey a message that is conservative or radical in political, social or cultural terms; it can operate on an individual or a collective level, and inspire engagement with the world or withdrawal from it; it can work through great formal simplicity or…

Psychology of the Bigot -- the Anti-Semite vs. The Racist
In "Anti-Semite and Jew," the existentialist philosopher John Paul Sartre, a gentile, analyzed the psychology of an anti-Semitic individual who hates Jews. He did so from the perspective of an outsider to the group he was examining over the course of his essay, as well as attempting to plumb the psychology of the 'insider' of this group. In "The Fire Next Time," James Baldwin examined the American racist's perspective from the point-of-view of the object of racial hatred and ostrication, namely his own perspective as a Black man in America. Both, however, attempted to relate the psychology of hatred to larger political concerns, in Sartre's case that of a biased and class-oriented French society, and in Baldwin's case that of the Cold ar, which he suggested caused the fear of tragedy to intensify racial divisions in America.

At the beginning…

Heidegger
The Wall: Through the Eyes of Heidegger

Sartre's short story "The Wall" exemplifies the writers' philosophy regarding the meaning of life. He uses a true to life moment of individuals facing the inevitability of his own death to reveal the true nature of human life. In "The Wall" the reader is introduced to three primary characters: Juan Mirbal, a child who is the brother of an enemy of the State who has been arrested; Tom Steinbock, also arrested for undetermined crimes against Spain, and Pablo Ibbieta, the main character through whose eyes this short story is narrated. Sartre's philosophy, the accepting ourselves for who we are without exaggeration is exemplified in the final hours leading up to the primary character's reported demise.

Heidegger, in his famous work, "Being and Time" raises the issue of 'Being', in essence, to make sense of humans capacity to make sense of things. Moreover,…

Mill believed that any act may itself be inherently moral, so long as the outcome of that action produces a benign effect. Mill believed that the most ethical act is that which produces the most good, even if the act itself is one which is traditionally considered evil. An example of utilitarian philosophy would include the killing of innocent animals to determine a cure for some infectious disease. And while there are components of this philosophy that would certainly align with Aristotle's definition of ethics, it seems difficult to picture the latter condoning any method to achieve moral behavior, particularly in regards to the following quotation from Nichomachean Ethics. "A man will not live like that by virtue of his humanness, but by virtue of some divine thing within him. His activity is as superior to the activity of the other virtues as this divine thing is to his composite…

Timeline
Sigmund Freud (1856-1949)

Sigmund Freud is the undisputed father of psychoanalysis. Should this statement seem to contradict assertions regarding the age-old status of psychology, it must be clarified that Freud was the first theorist to formalize the process of analysis, a practice that is not used in all modalities of psychology today. Analysis, specifically the psychoanalysis so often parodied in the cartoon of the tormented patient lying on the couch before the bearded quasi-Freudian father figure of the therapist, presupposes in its theoretical structure the existence of an subconscious element to the human mind, in other words, that how humans think they immediately perceive the world is not all that there is to human consciousness.

Freud used techniques such as free association to elicit reasons for his patient's behaviors. Freud began his treatment upon hysterics. He grew to believe that unresolved childhood traumas rather than physiological causes were at…