Today in class we were introduced to Jean Paul Sarte and
existentialism. We discussed an object as being “in-itself” and a human as
being “for-itself.” In other words, humans can transcend into something more or
different, while objects (the example used was a table) can only be objects,
nothing else. Dr. J explained that often times, people use the excuse of being “in-itself”
to not take responsibility for an action. For example, saying “I’m a jerk because
I’m white,” using being white as an excuse. Because how much easier would our
lives be if we didn’t have to take responsibility for anything?
I found a quote by Jean Paul Sarte on
brainyquote.com. “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is
responsible for everything he does.” I think this goes along really
well with this particular blog post. It also reminds me of something my dad
used to tell us kids when we were growing up. He used to tell us, “I can’t make
you feel anything; you’re responsible for how you feel.” So if we would get mad
and say something like, “you make me so mad!” he would reply with, “I can’t make
you feel anything.” As we got older, he added to it and said, “You choose to be
mad because of what has happened.” Ugh! Even typing it is starting to frustrate
me…err...I choose to be frustrated because of something that frustrated me when
I was a child. I always felt like he didn’t understand me! He’s not listening
to how I feel! Now that I’m older, I’ve realized that he was always right. I am
responsible for how I react and my emotions, no one else. Sounds like Sarte and
my dad may subscribe to the same school of thought.
Oh and here's the lazy eye.
It's funny that you write this, because I've had similar experiences with my parents. I was always told that I had total control of how I felt, and therefore had to assume total responsibility for my emotions. I figured that this was just one of those backhanded ways that parents have of telling their children to "grow up and deal" when there is a disagreement between parent and child. Little did I know that my parents were pretending to be philosophers!
ReplyDeleteI would be curious to read what Sarte believes about emotions, and their role in our freedom. I certainly don't feel as if I am totally able to control my own, just as I am not aware of what my next thought will be, or when it will occur. Of course, emotions can be "tamed" and compartmentalized to minimize their effects, but the idea that I am totally responsible for how I feel is foreign to me.
If I am badly insulted, if my house burns down, If i feel some injustice against me or if a loved one dies, is it realistic to say that I am totally "free" to be emotionally unaffected? Without totally evicting our humanity and becoming so tranquil and logical as to be robots, isn't it true that we only have so much control?
It seems that this might be a blind spot in the idea of "radical freedom", because our own thoughts seem to simply appear out of nowhere.
So, honestly, I have never quite bought into what my parents always told me about my own responsibility. I will gladly own up to my actions, including the those things that I chose NOT to do, and I will try my best to handle my emotions, but it seems as if assuming complete responsibility is simply counter-intuitive for most situations where emotions are stirred.
Also, Sarte looks like a guppy. That is all.
I can totally understand why you'd feel frustrated growing up, and not gonna lie, I would feel very annoyed if anyone said that to me now as an adult. I rather agree with the commenter above me. I don't think we can control how we feel. If it annoys you, it annoys you. If I could choose my feelings all the time, I would be super happy all the time. I would never choose to feel sadness or worry or anger. Like they said above, what you can control is your actions. I think that's what I found really cool about the stoics. I know I can't stop myself from feeling sad that, for example, the show Selfie got cancelled (it was that awful name they stuck on it, I swear! It's so good! It had potential to grow! The injustice!!!). I can, however, "logic" my way out of that bad mood by thinking well, this isn't the first time one of my favorite shows got cancelled before they could truly bloom (Almost Human deserved better!), I'll still get to see John Cho in the next Star Trek film, "Let be", etc, etc.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Sarte that we are responsible for all that we do, but I don't know if we can ever truly master absolute control over our initial reaction to things. Maybe we can tame it a bit with practice, but most of the time emotions are unexpected reactions, not actions.