Summary of 8 Life Lessons from Jean-Paul Sartre (Existentialism)

00:00:00 - 00:20:00

In this video, Jean-Paul Sartre discusses 8 life lessons derived from his philosophy of existentialism. He urges people to take responsibility for their actions and to always ask themselves what their values are in any given situation. He also discusses the importance of embracing your fears in order to act.

• 00:00:00 Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher and playwright who is best known for his work on existentialism, a philosophical movement that holds that humans are born with no inherent essence, and that freedom is a product of one's own choices. One of Sartre's key concepts is "bad faith," which he uses to describe how most people deny their own freedom. In this video, Sartre discusses 8 life lessons derived from his philosophy.
• 00:05:00 Jean-Paul Sartre believes that living in bad faith is a choice we make, and it has negative consequences. He urges us to take responsibility for our actions and to always ask ourselves what our values are in any given situation.
• 00:10:00 Jean-Paul Sartre discusses the importance of taking responsibility for your actions and setting an example for others. He says that whenever you express values through your actions, you communicate to the world that these are desirable actions or values. He urges everyone to live consciously and be true to themselves, make sure to always act in a way that expresses your values, and take responsibility for each value you express through your actions. Finally, he says that embracing your fears is necessary in order to act.
• 00:15:00 Jean-Paul Sartre urges people not to wait their whole lives to overcome their fears, but to instead act despite them. He points out that we look at others as "objects-in-itself" and that this makes us feel vulnerable. To regain our freedom, we need to have a relationship with others without seeing their judgment as an objective fact.
• 00:20:00 Jean-Paul Sartre discusses the two choices that a soldier in World War II had: to serve the war effort and succeed, or to serve the war effort and have no guarantee of success. Sartre claims that doctrines, or rules that are general enough to be applied to all cases, are useless and that only the individual can make the choice. He encourages the student to focus on their own actions and to embrace their lack of a fixed essence, or nothingness. This allows for the possibility of becoming something new.