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Dissertation
Voluntary Self-Reform in Being and Nothingness
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Year: 2018 Publisher: Leuven KU Leuven. Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte

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Abstract

Can we voluntarily reform ourselves? In Being and Nothingness, Sartre rejects this possibility. For him, all attempts at voluntary self-reform are in “bad faith”. In this thesis, I argue that Sartre’s rejection is incompatible with several aspects of his theory. To do this, I first trace Sartre’s arguments for the rejection of voluntary self-reform back to the theory of motivation and to their ontological foundations. For Sartre, the motive is a non-being. Since the in-itself is full and solid of being, it cannot be the condition of possibility for the motive. This leads him to the for-itself. The for-itself is responsible for the motive in two ways: it is the conditions of possibilities for “there to be” a world and for the world to have a meaning. As the ontological foundation for meaning, the for-itself chooses its fundamental project via ontological freedom and maintains this choice by determining particular projects. Following these ontological arguments, Sartre moves onto the rejection of voluntary self-reform. Voluntary self-reform is a particular project. In addition, it requires the recognition of the fundamental project. However, recognition implies the nihilation of the thing recognized. Since the for-itself chooses particular projects in accordance with the fundamental project, a genuine voluntary self-reform is impossible. In my opinion, Sartre’s rejection contradicts with three elements of his work, namely his positions on self-determination, radical conversion and existential psychoanalysis. First, I argue that the alignment between the particular project and the fundamental project implies that once the for-itself chooses its fundamental project, it cannot change this choice. Second, I attempt to show that radical conversion requires the nihilation of recognition. This nihilation implies two paradoxes: the for-itself must choose without values, and it must nihilate itself without recognizing itself. Third, I suggest that existential psychoanalysis requires the open possibility for recognition. In the final section, I propose lifting Sartre’s ban on voluntary self-reform would make Being and Nothingness more consistent.

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Dissertation
What Does It Mean To Be Authentic? Authenticity in Being and Nothingness

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Abstract

In everyday life, authenticity is a reoccurring theme. We would like to know ourselves better and to face the desires and feelings that might have been hidden from reflection. This article investigate the question: what does it mean to be authentic? I think we can find some answers to this question in existentialism. I specifically look at Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness. By investigating Sartre's understanding of bad faith and existential psychoanalysis, I argue that to be authentic is to recognize our responsibility for our being. This includes two dimensions: the recognition of our fundamental project and the recognition that we are responsible for choosing this project. To recognize these two dimensions of our being requires us to shift the way we reflect upon ourselves.

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