“…So what does Sartre mean by ‘humanism’? Humanism is a term that alludes to a shift in our intellectual and moral focus – from God to human beings. Sartre deplores a certain type of humanism, one that sees all human beings as ‘magnificent’, as people who must be loved no matter what they may have done, simply because they are human. Sartre’s humanism recognises that there is nothing other than ‘the universe of human subjectivity’, that we all have the potential to invent ourselves and change our lives, and that although moral values are created by individuals we still have a responsibility to every other human being.
The accusation laid at Sartre’s feet by those familiar with his novels, short stories and earlier philosophy, is that existentialism is not a humanism: it is a pessimistic and rabidly individualistic philosophy which leads either to a concern only for oneself, or to an abandonment of social action – the ‘quietism of despair’…”
https://philosophynow.org/issues/53/Was_Existentialism_a_Humanism
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.