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Old 11-17-2007, 07:03 PM
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Yardbird
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Northern California
Posts: 57
I was very "into" Sartre in my late-teens/early 20s--a long time ago now, and about the same time that I got heavily into other bad habits.

Not that the bad habits were Sartre's fault, but self pity/self abuse went well with statements like "Every living thing is born without reason, preserves itself out of cowardice, and dies by chance." I'm quoting that from memory, but it was something like that. Oh, yeah, and the last line from No Exit, "Hell is other people." Gotta love that one, especially when in-laws are visiting.

I did like his novels--not Nausea so much as The Age of Reason and Troubled Sleep--and his plays, but the philosophy was just too much Hegelian hijinks to make sense to me.

I vaguely remember the distinction between Being in-itself and Being for-itself, or at least my interpretation of it: We human folks are being for itself, having constantly to make decisions, choices, etc--we never have the luxury of simply "being,"
in the way of being-in-itself (physical objects, abstract ideas, etc)--we are "condemned to be free"--but are always attempting to act otherwise, since the act of constantly making choices is painful. So we declare "I'm in love" as if it were a permanent state when in fact it requires constant work--especially for a horndog like my man Sartre. We live in bad faith when we convince ourselves that we simply "are" something.

Probably interesting for someone who calls himself an "alcoholic" to think about, but not necessarily healthy. Today I worry about myself if I spend too much time in heavy abstract reading--it's a pleasant way to pass time but doesn't do me nearly as much good as going out and doing things, being with other people...all the stuff I avoided in the past.

Tonight's philosophy lecture has been brought to you by Really Strong Coffee: Have a cup today! What the heck, have two!
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