{"id":717,"date":"2010-09-13T19:54:31","date_gmt":"2010-09-14T03:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sisyphus.ca\/?p=717"},"modified":"2010-09-13T19:54:31","modified_gmt":"2010-09-14T03:54:31","slug":"man-is-the-future-of-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/2010\/09\/13\/man-is-the-future-of-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Man is the Future of Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea that \u2013 in the absence of God or a creator \u2013 we will be the exclusive<\/em> authors of our own fate was a favorite topic for existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). Quoting fellow author Francis Ponge in saying that \u201cMan is the future of man\u201d \u2013\u00a0 that this is absolutely true so long as you don\u2019t<\/em> believe there is a God out there who has already a future laid out for us,\u00a0 and he knows exactly what that is, for then it would no longer even be a future.<\/p>\n

That is what I mean when I say that man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment that he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything that he does. (Existentialism is a Humanism, by Jean-Paul Sartre, 1945)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You might want to question Sartre\u2019s use of the word \u201ccondemned\u201d here \u2013 because of its strong negative intent, as well as the sense of melodrama<\/em> that it would seem to convey. But, presumably,\u00a0 that is exactly what he had in mind.<\/p>\n

Instead,\u00a0 he might have said that –\u00a0 contrary to all<\/em> other creatures on earth that do not have a choice in the matter –\u00a0 we have been given the freedom to determine our own destiny.<\/p>\n

And surely, that has to be a preferable state of being<\/em> in spite of the daunting challenge that this presents us with. This would include not being paralyzed\u00a0 by the weight of the obligations that follows from this predicament;\u00a0 something we can run – but not hide from.<\/p>\n

Directly or indirectly, we will be confronted by this challenge at every decision we make on behalf of ourselves, and \u2013 by extension \u2013 on behalf of anyone else in this world.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea that \u2013 in the absence of God or a creator \u2013 we will be the exclusive authors of our own fate was a favorite topic for existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). Quoting fellow author Francis Ponge in saying … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[479],"tags":[75,150,215],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy-science-religion","tag-condemned-to-be-free","tag-future-of-man","tag-jean-paul-sarte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essays.rsree.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}