Alienation and Vulnerability in the Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre
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ALIENATION AND VULNERABILITY IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF JEAN-PAUL SARTRE A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By VINCENT BEAVER AUGUST 2012 Examining Committee Members: Lewis R. Gordon, Advisory Chair, Philosophy Jane Gordon, Political Science Owen Ware, Philosophy Joseph Schwartz, External Member, Political Science i © Copyright 2012 by Vincent Beaver All Rights Reserved ! ii ABSTRACT This project has two aims. First, to provide a comprhensive interpretation of Sartre’s theory of alienation, beginning with the discussion of alienation in Being and Nothingness and concluding with Critique of Dialectical Reason. I argue that the meaning of alienation throughout these works is the revealation or experience of being an object for another freedom. I argue that this experience is fundamentally an experience of vulnerability, in the sense of the capacity to be wounded. The meaning of alienation in Sartre’s philosophy is therefore an experience of vulnerability. Understanding alienation as an experience of vulnerability provides an alternative to the conventional understanding of Sartrean alienation as equivalent to violence and oppression. The second aim of this project is to discuss the way alienation is related to the concepts of violence and oppression. Violence and oppression are understood, by Sartre, in terms of alienation, but alienation itself is not identified with either violence or oppression. I explore Sartre’s discussions of violence and oppression in the posthumously published Notebooks for an Ethics and in the Critique of Dialectical Reason, and show through these texts, that alienation consistently refers to the experience of vulnerability, but also, that and this experience is the basis of violenct actions and oppressive social relations. Although alienation is not equivalent to violence and oppression, and these concepts must not be confused, violence and oppression must be understood in terms of alienation, according to Sartre’s thought. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The completion of this project would not have been possible without the support of numerous individuals, some of whom I would like to acknowledge. I would like to thank my parents, Tom and Carmella, for all their support beyond the context of this dissertation. I would also like to thank Katya Quinn-Judge, for reasons too numerous to list. I would also like to thank Paul and Sophia Quinn-Judge, who made it possible for Katya and I to spend a summer in France during which this project actually came together. And I would like to thank my good friend Zach Rosenau for our many conversations. I would like to thank all my friends, collegues, and students at Temple University. I benefited greatly from countless stimulating conversations over the years with Doug Ficek, Devon Johnson, Greg Graham, Anthony Dandridge, Joan Jasak, and Phillip Honenberger. I was also lucky enough to study Ancient Greek thanks to the generosity of David Wolfsdorf, and this opportunity allowed me to spend a great deal of time with Oz Blaker, Lior Levy, and Qrescent Mason, with whom I had a great deal of fun and learned much from. I would like to thank the members of my Dissertation Committee, Lewis Gordon, Jane Gordon, Owen Ware, and Joseph Schwatz, thank you all for the supportive remarks and interesting comments on this project. Special thanks are due to Lewis Gordon. I was lucky enough to attend Professor Gordon’s seminar on Sartre in my second semester in graduate school, and my interest has not abated since. I was also able to attend several fascinating international conferences thanks to Professor Gordon’s generous support. Thank you Professor Gordon for advising this project to completion, and for everything else, I am truly grateful. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... iii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 2. BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................19 Prelimary Considerations.................................................................................20 Being In-itself and for-itself..............................................................20 Existence and Knowledge.................................................................23 The Self and Possibilities..................................................................27 Others...............................................................................................................33 Husserl’s Fifth Meditation ................................................................35 Sartre’s Criticisms of Husserl and Others.........................................42 Sartre’s Criteria for a Valid Theory of Others..................................48 Sartre’s Theory Of The Look...........................................................................52 3. ALIENATION IN BEING AND NOTHINGNESS..............................................58 Alienation and “The Look”..............................................................................59 Alienation of Possibilities.................................................................60 Ignorance and Obstacles ...................................................................67 Alienation and Vulnerability.............................................................73 Alienation Beyond The Look...........................................................................82 Language & Death ............................................................................83 Being for Others................................................................................87 4. ISSUES AND CRITICAL DISCUSSION ............................................................96 Implications......................................................................................................96 Alienation & Violence ......................................................................98 Alienation in “Concrete Relations With Others”............................105 Bad Faith & Anguish ......................................................................115 Critical Discussion.........................................................................................131 v The Meaning of Opposition............................................................132 Work & Interchangeability .............................................................139 Vulnerability, Inescapability, and Risk...........................................144 5. ALIENATION, VIOLENCE AND OPPRESSION IN THE NOTEBOOKS FOR AN ETHICS.......................................................................148 Questions........................................................................................................150 Alienation, Violence, Oppression..................................................................154 Alienation........................................................................................155 Oppression ......................................................................................161 Violence ..........................................................................................168 Alienation and the Origins of Oppression ......................................180 Conclusions....................................................................................................186 6. ALIENATION IN THE CRITIQUE OF DIALECTICAL REASON.................189 Alienation and Individual Praxis ...................................................................189 Fundamental Alienation..................................................................191 Scarcity ...........................................................................................199 Counter-finality...............................................................................205 Seriality...........................................................................................207 Common Praxis And The Negation Of Alienation........................................209 The Group-in-Fusion ......................................................................210 The Statutory Group .......................................................................213 The Organization ............................................................................214 The Institution.................................................................................217 Alienation: The Deterioration Of Common Praxis........................................220 Conclusion ....................................................................................................224 7. CONCLUSION....................................................................................................226 Summary........................................................................................................226 Alienation and Oppression.............................................................................229 Potential Issues for Further Study..................................................................245 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................248 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ALIENATION