Being and Time - Sartre
Two kinds of consciousness in Sartre ⁃ reflective consciousness: consciousness of X ⁃ pre-reflective consciousness: simple awareness, more passive than the above
Asking a question implies the possibility of a negative reply
e.g. going to the cafe ⁃ made an appointment to meet Peter at cafe ⁃ gets there and discovers Peter is not there ⁃ this is a "not," but of what kind? Is Peter actually missing from the particular table? ⁃ No, Peter is missing from the whole cafe. "The cafe is a fullness of being." p 112 ⁃ difference between abstract absence and concrete absence: the King of France not being there is an example of an abstract absence. Peter not being there is concrete. p 112 Figure vs Ground ⁃ one table is a figure, if that is the object of my attention, in which case ⁃ the whole cafe is the ground from which the table arises; the ground is "that which is seen only as the object of a purely marginal attention." p 113 ⁃ but if I am thinking of the cafe as a whole where I should find Peter, then ⁃ the cafe becomes the figure that arises from some other ground ⁃ the cafe is the ground that does not support Peter's presence Conscious can nihilate reality Anguish / Anxiety, starts on p 115 ⁃ Terms ⁃ two qualities of human beings ⁃ facticity: facts about things, easy to answer ⁃ transcendence: to do with the projects we make in our life, like what does "your favorite pet" mean? Definition of favorite can change over the course of our life ⁃ being in-itself: the being of a thing that does not have consciousness, rocks, chairs, etc ⁃ being for-itself: the being that consciousness assumes when it reflects on something for itself; can never ground itself or be its own foundation ⁃ being for-others: being with other people, intersubjective relations with others; related to being in-itself when we sometimes wish we could be like a rock and not have the anxiety we experience as conscious beings Two opponents of Sartre ⁃ Freudians ⁃ Determinists Anxiety is the psychic experience that comes when we realize that "nothing compels me" to do X or Y ⁃ opposite of determinist account ⁃ objection: but we may not be aware of what compels us, so freedom could be an illusion ⁃ "Freedom is the human being putting his past out of play by secreting his own nothingness." p 116 ⁃ freedom implies nothingness, because in freedom there is nothing that compels me; so people want to go back to "being in-itself," a determined state, so that they do not have to choose or fret over possible future choices ⁃ Difference between fear and anguish ⁃ fear: of a particular thing, like a soldier being afraid of being killed ⁃ anguish: not knowing how you will respond in a future moment of decision making ⁃ Sartre says this is part of the structure of consciousness ⁃ we usually try to distract ourselves from this ⁃ "Anguish is precisely my consciousness of being my own future, in the mode of not-being." p 120 ⁃ man walking along edge the cliff ⁃ nothing compels me to stay on the edge, I could just through myself over, i could go either way; there is nothingness that is there; in the presence of the nothingness I must decide what to do next ⁃ two kinds of nihilation in freedom ⁃ to choose one thing is to nihilate another
Self ⁃ "I am not the self which I will be. First I am not that self because what I am is not the foundation of what I will be. Finally, I am not that self because no actual existent can determine strictly what I am going to be. Yet as I am already what I will be (otherwise I would not be interested I being this rather than that), I am the self which I will be, in the mode of not being it." p 119 ⁃ "Anguish is precisely my consciousness of being my own future, in the mode of not-being." p 120 ⁃ "The self which I am depends on the self which I am not yet to the exact extent that the self which I am not yet does not depend on the self which I am." p 120 (in the context of man walking edge of cliff)
The gambler - "anguish in the face in the past" p 120+ ⁃ the gambler who quits, but then one day approaches a gambling table and senses his resolution melting away ⁃ but there is nothing in us that resembles an inner debate, where the temptation wins out ⁃ therefore the present act of gambling is a result of the gambler's choice to annihilate his former resolution to quit ⁃ so his new act of gambling is an act of freedom
Bad faith ⁃ a aspect of being in the world ⁃ lie to oneself ⁃ lie to others ⁃ in here is always myself and others ⁃ how can there ever be a lie to oneself? ⁃ he thinks bad faith happens all the time, but it is a bad thing because it is not using responsibility responsibly ⁃ examples ⁃ the woman and the date ⁃ the man is complementing her; she wants him to respect her ⁃ she disengages from herself as a woman who he would want to have sex with ⁃ she does not want to acknowledge this reality ⁃ she leaves her hand there when he holds it, but now she is disconnected from her hand; her hand is an object, a being in-itself ⁃ she is now in bad faith because she has spilt her reality into facticity and transcendence ⁃ Sartre says we have both these aspects of our reality but we should keep them in better correspondence ⁃ this gap between facticity and transcendence is what allows us to lie to ourselves, this is an ambiguity in human reality ⁃ the waiter and the cafe ⁃ here the gap between facticity and transcendence are very different from the previous example ⁃ the waiter is balancing his tray, playing his role as waiter, but exaggerating his moves as waiter ⁃ because he is playing at, exaggerating waiter-ness, so in a sense he is not a waiter but only acting as a waiter ⁃ the man is the agent putting himself into this role; he still has freedom; the role is not in charge of the man; the man is in charge of the role
