Study On The Subject’s Freedom And Unfreedom In Sartre’s Existentialist Philosophy

The freedom has always been the focus of attention, so freedom and responsibility have become the survival paradox of human’s life. And existentialism is a philosophy of life. Sartre is representative of it, whose view of freedom provides the solution to this paradox with a creative idea. However, Sartre’s view of freedom is always misunderstood as a result of absolute individualism under capitalism.This article attempts to analyze the logic connection about subject’s freedom and unfreedom in Sartre’s Existentialist philosophy. In order to reveal the solution by Sartre and its practical significance.Existentialism philosophy focuses on this question: what is the proper place of the human being in the material and cultural world? Against the materialists, existentialism argues that the human is more than the sum of physical, psychological and social forces.And because of the methodological doubt from Descartes, people were separated from the world. So Sartre’s Existentialist philosophy started from many different kinds of alienation’s phenomenon. Firstly, this article combes the reasons causing the estrangement since Descartes’s ideas.Then try to expound the criticism of transcendental ego from Sartre. In the criticism, Sartre uses existential phenomenology’s method to divide the consciousness into two aspects, the pre-reflective and the reflective.Fundamentally, consciousness is object-oriented and translucent. It harbors no blind spots. So the spontaneity of consciousness is the foundation of subject’s freedom.Secondly, this article discusses a new alienation’s phenomenon which is led by Sartre, described as a relationship between myself and the other. This new type of alienation is derived from the theory of people’s being in the world, and their self-estrangement. Because of the attitude of bad faith which allows another subject to determine the identity to which we try to conform, people’s exist presents a peculiarly particular way. So Sartre applied one theory named being-in-situation to solve the problem.The situation’s characteristic is Absurd which becomes the foundation of subject’s unfreedom.Thirdly,this article analyzes Sartre’s freedom theory from two aspects, outlining two criticisms of causality and rationality which always restrict Sartre’s freedom, also expounding the connotation of it.This article emphasizes being-in-situation’s significance, through the sense of action, introduces the conception of responsibility to the freedom of choice, then points out in the later criticisms of its early absolute freedom.Finally, for the existentialists, ethical considerations are paramount. This article tries to deal with the problem about the existential individuality and authenticity, and uses Sartre’s Commitment theory and his Reciprocal freedom theory to sort out the existentialist truth of our condition and its ethical significance.After all, Sartre’s Existentialist philosophy shows that Sartre’s view of freedom is not individualism, also not an irrational and abstracted freedom. He brings people to the center of the world, restores the tradition of practical philosophy and leads us to be connected with another’s freedom. Only in this way can we enjoy a long run in a harmonious society.