Jean-Paul Sartre is quoted as saying “Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.” Sartre’s sense of responsibility rests upon his views on freedom, in that everyone is absolutely free and the only restrictions we place on our freedoms are projections of actions upon it, such as the example of the insurmountable cliff. My objection with Sartre lies in the simple idea that we are responsible for all of mankind and its actions. As an individual, I find it hard to conceptualize that I can be responsible for an occurring across the globe, simply on the premise that I am human being with free will on earth. In other instances, such as disapproving of the government’s action as I had a choice in voting and partaking in its form and function, I can see the point. I just simply find it hard to believe that one can be held responsible for acts he has no clue about or any idea that they could even happen.
Sartre claims that man’s “existence comes before essence.” In this sense, if it is up to man to define himself, it is not possible for him to choose his own essence in an accord that is against free will? Or would this simple be a projection of his free will to try to act against his free will that is stopping him from being free? Sartre claims that by choosing one’s own essence, which he is making this essence upon others “a certain image of a man he would have him to be.” If everyone chooses a different essence, how can one be held responsible for the essences of others, if they are completely different and unrelated and cause one to act in a contradictory way?
Also, if man is always changing as well as the way he defines himself, is it possible to place responsibility of all the world on one’s view that is always in flux or place it on a view he could have held in the past but no longer holds? Also, if man is always put in situations where he has to choose, how can he be held responsible for his actions if the only choices are those in which negative consequences will come, and must all humankind then be responsible for this unavoidable problem?
Sorry about all the questions, but reading Sartre and discussing this in class raised more questions for me than it answered.
I find it helpful to consider responsibility as one's freedom to act rather than the blame for a given issue. In the war analogy we discussed in class, a man could be called "responsible" for the war continuing if he does nothing to stop it. He has the freedom to try stopping the war (even if he doesn't have the power to ACTUALLY bring it to a halt), but if he doesn't fight it, he is in a way responsible. It's a very radical idea, and I'm sure Sartre realized that to a certain degree as he was writing it.
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