Liberdade, responsabilidade e história no pensamento de Jean-Paul Sartre

Abstract

This work investigates the fundamental structure of Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism, and the articulation between freedom, responsibility, and social and historical determinations. Based on the existentialist assertion that "existence precedes essence," this analysis examines how the Sartrean individual in Being and Nothingness (2011) is a man condemned to freedom and entirely responsible for his choices and self-construction. The research demonstrates how the early Sartre was anti-historical, which would leave freedom as an abstract condition. However, this freedom is situated and linked to the conditions of the real world, being mediated by praxis, bringing Sartre closer to the Marxist current in Critique of Dialectical Reason (2002). In light of this, freedom remains a fundamental aspect of existence, as well as an action of historical transformation, leaving man within social constraints, yet still the author of himself. The discussion was based on the works of the author himself, Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre, as well as on his commentaries, which helped to understand the notions of freedom, responsibility, and historical action, and how man is the creator of his own history.