ABSTRACT
In the last chapter, we touched upon a very important aspect of Sartre’s philosophy, namely the idea that the human being makes him/ herself. The individual surpasses herself towards some goals and thus exerts her own transcendence. The human being is a project. What allows the human being to make him/herself is the fact that he is fundamentally free. It is to the notion of Sartrean freedom that this chapter is devoted. Many readers of Sartre are initially shocked by his view that the individual is absolutely free and absolutely responsible. Taking this literally, they believe that Sartre means that one is always free to do whatever one wants. Readers often confuse Sartre’s notion of freedom with the freedom of acting whimsically upon any desire or the capacity to achieve whatever one wishes. It would be shocking if he did claim that. However, when Sartre claims that we are absolutely free, his claim stems not only from his ontology but also from his atheistic position. There is no God who decides for us and imposes values on us; accordingly, we must create our own values. As beings that are free, we can do that-but we must be ready to accept the consequences. Indeed, for Sartre, freedom is not merely a license to act whimsically; it entails responsibility. One is free but one is also entirely responsible for one’s own freedom. Again, it is in Being and Nothingness that we find the theoretical basis for such a view. After all, Sartre has referred to his magnum opus as being a “treatise on
freedom.” So in this chapter, we will first examine the concept of freedom as exposed in Being and Nothingness and in literary texts. I will then explain what absolute responsibility is. Following this, we will address the notion of project that has been exposed very briefly in the preceding chapter. This will be the occasion to explain the Sartrean phrase “existence precedes essence.” We will also examine how Sartre explores the intricacies of freedom and responsibility in his plays and novels.
