What is the role of language is Sartre’s ethical existentialism? Sartre attributed much significance to language. His famous phrase, “I am language” (in “Being and Nothingness”) shows this. For Sartre, language has a primary role in individual’s pursuit of ethics of freedom, he believes language to be the foundation of consciousness; and, for him, language has a clear instrumental role. While language is, above all, action for Sartre, he attributes other roles to it: a medium of some magical action, creative freedom, passive fascination, and alienation. Let us look deeper into his views of the role of language in the context of his philosophy of ethical existentialism.
The ethical theory developed by Sartre places authenticity at the heart of ethical value. For Sartre, authenticity is individual’s disposition both to recognize and promote the fundamental nature of his or her existence, i.e. what is genuinely his or hers. For Sartre, the goals that people choose are chosen freely. Thus, freedom is the foundation of all other values. Moreover, the importance of freedom is reinforced when one understands Sartre’s view of freedom: he describes all values as chosen freely, as well as ways in which we see our world as chosen freely, and the ways in which we feel about and think of the world as chosen freely.
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"The Role Of Language Is Sartre’s Ethical Existentialism".
In this pursuit of freedom, language is the medium through which other people’s existences come into contact and through which the freedom of others is revealed in silence (Sartre 237). For Sartre, in the for-itself world, it is important that human existence would be being-for-others (Sartre 236). “The other”, in his turn, is an object of subjectivity that is outside our grasp, “the one who looks at me” (Sartre 226). Interactions with others are actions toward the world when internal and external should co-exist. Language is the medium between this internal and external. It is within consciousness of people and language of one individual will immediately resound in the consciousness of others. Sartre believes that linguistic interactions are inseparable from people’s interactions. He believes that language is “being-for-others” (Sartre 236). Again, he says “I am language” and assumes that all objects are constituted through language (in “Being and Nothingness”). His is the view that language is praxis, i.e. practical realization of people’s relationships with each other, and language is the instrument of consciousness.
Just as the key role of language is instrumental, Sartre sees more roles to the language. Specifically, he speaks of its sacred and magical nature (in “Being and Nothingness”). Language, as sacred for the speaker, turns into a magical object for the listener, which operates at some distance. For example, Sartre says, “The word is sacred when I employ it and magic when the Other hears it” (Sartre 238). One of the examples that show such language is seduction. In pursuit of one’s own freedom, the individual uses language to seek the freedom of the other, and the effect of the language here depends on its affective role rather than experiential or cognitive. For example, in “Being and Nothingness”, Sartre writes that “by language we mean all the phenomena of expression and not the articulated word (…)” and further writes that “language can be revealed entirely and at one stroke by seduction as a primitive mode of being of expression.” He finishes this thought by saying, “in seduction language does not aim at giving to be known but at causing to experience” (Sartre 237)
This is how the language which is sacred for the speaker turns into a magical object which operates through irrational means.
The next question is how Fanon’s political existentialism makes use of the ideas of Sartre and criticizes them. It should be argued that Fanon’s views derive from Sartre’s views in many issues, yet contradict some of Sartre’s views on the meaning of race/negritude.
First of all, let us look into Fanon’s political existentialism. Here we clearly see the influence of Sartre. Sartre’s existentialism was about the importance of personal experience, crucial role of freedom of choice, importance of responsibility, and accountability for creating a life that will be full of meaning (Sartre 194). Fanon, too, emphasizes the importance of freedom, for instance in “Black Skin, White Masks” he writes, “what is most human in man: freedom” (Fanon 148). Further, similar to Sartre, Fanon believes that freedom is the premise of freedom that lets man “create the ideal conditions of existence for a human world.” Also, similarly to Sartre, Fanon believed that individuals have to lay claim to their fates. Yet, in his view, this responsibility for life and fate should drive people to create an egalitarian society free from inequality and racism.
Essentially, Sartre provided support to the founders of negritude, however, as Fanon notes, Sartre’s view of negritude failed to liberate the Negro and saw it as a negative concept. For example, in “Black Skin, White Masks” Fanon criticized Sartre’s abstraction of the experience of blackness and representation of negritude with a moment of negativity. Fanon writes that for Sartre “my negritude was nothing but a weak stage” and criticizes Sartre for he “forgets that the black man suffers in his body quite differently from the white man.” (Fanon 98). While Fanon asserts that “between the white man and me [the black man] there is irremediably a relationship of transcendence”, Sartre, “the Other,” offers a dialectical schema, which, of course, suggests the opposition of the whiteness and blackness. For instance, Fanon admits to this when he writes, in Sartre “negritude appears as the weak stage of dialectical progression: the theoretical and practical affirmation of white supremacy is the thesis.” Fanon stresses that this position of “Negritude as antithetical value is the moment of negativity.” (Fanon 96). Yet, the conclusion that Sartre draws from this view is that “Negritude is dedicated to its own destruction, it is transition and not result, a means and not the ultimate goal.” (Fanon 96) In Fanon’s view, Sartre’s approach “robs [him] of [his] last chance” and is a “fatal blow” (Fanon 96), because of establishing the relativity of negritude.
Overall, this paper has examined the two major issues: the role of language in Sartre’s ethical existentialism and Sartre’s impact on Fanon, as well as Fanon’s criticism of Sartre. It has been found that Sartre saw the language as the medium of being and interaction with other people at the level of “being-for-other”, and the medium of contacting with others at the level of consciousness. Apart from this, the language is said to have a magic role, when it appeals to some affection. As for Fanon, it has been found that Fanon derived his ideas from Sartre on many issues but the meaning of negritude. For Fanon, negritude was a positive experience by and large, without any moment of negativity. He criticized Sartre for his belief that negritude was “the weak stage of dialectical progression”, “dedicated to its own destruction” (Fanon 96).
- Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Grove Press, 1967. Print.
- Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness, trans. H. Barnes. In Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings: 191-243. Print.
