On Sartre's Conception Of Freedom

Sartre, Jean-Paul (1905-1980), French philosopher, dramatist, novelist, and political journalist, was a leading exponent of existentialism. The problem of freedom is his central task which comprises his engagement in philosophy, literature and social political activities. Somebody terms Sartre's philosophy as "free philosophy", and the novels and plays as "free art" which reflect this theory.Since 1980s, the worlds of both philosophy and literature in China have begun to introduce and study Sartre systematically. Generally, some problems and shortages exist in the research on Sartre's conception of freedom: the expression about his conception cannot be separated, but most of the past exposition related to it is separated or not clear-cut. This thesis pays much attention to the intrinsic relationship between philosophy and literature in the course of exploring Sartre's conception of freedom. It argues that Sartre's novel Nausea, philosophical work Being and Nothingness, trilogy The Roads of Liberty and another philosophical work Critique of Dialectical Reason comprise the thread of his thought of freedom.This thesis is divided into five chapters:The Introduction briefly states the background of the formation of Sartre's conception as well as his leading position in both worlds of philosophy and literature. Sartre's conception of freedom is the result of the crisis of politics, economy, alienation of people and spirit that happened between the late 1920s and 60s in France. As the representative of existentialist philosophy and literature, Sartre uses these two ways to expound his theory and combines both intrinsically.The First Chapter explores the theoretical origin and the development of Sartre's conception of freedom. The theories of S.Kierkegaard, Edmund Husserl, and Heidegger,Martin deeply influenced the formation of Sartre's conception. This paper divides this formation into two periods which are marked by Nausea, Being and Nothingness and Les chemins de la liberté, Critique of Dialectical Reason, respectively.The Second Chapter summarizes and elaborates systematically and entirely the main contents of Sartre's conception of freedom from three aspects: Sartre voiced initially freedom in his Nausea, but the inclination of it still remained inside and belonged to psychological category ,which was not yet linked together with action and choice. In his later Being and Nothingness, Sartre interpreted comprehensively the absolute freedom in theory, which transcended the conception of freedom stated in Nausea. The change of Sartre's conception of freedom began from late 1940s, which had a direct relation with the change of his attitude toward historical necessity and the problem of social connections. In The Roads of Liberty and Critique of Dialectical Reason, Sartre realized that human was not isolated, but existed in society and history. Human was free, but his choice of freedom should be considered based on the social practice.The Third Chapter theoretically and realistically analyzes the reasonable elements in Sartre's conception of freedom; meanwhile, it also points out that his conception has its own defect that it cannot be remedied. At long last, Sartre never gave up completely the idea of "absolute freedom".The Fourth Chapter discusses the significance of Sartre's conception of freedom at present age as well as the important enlightenment of it. The spirit of freedom and consciousness are necessity of development of individual and society, which is just the value in Sartre's conception of freedom, also its everlasting charm.