Jean-Paul Satre

def. For-itself and In-itself

• For-itself is the subject, self-conscious being that can perceive itself
• In-itself is the object, things that for-itself percieves, and just exists in the world.
• Simpler and more Subject-Object Dialectic focused than Heideggar’s Sein-Dasein. Focus is on Lit 285 Existentialism and not metaphysics.

Constructing the Existential Moment §

hyp. Existence is superfluous. The existence of a being for-itself. Theme. Nausea is the emotional description of the Existentialist moment when you realize existence is superfluous

1. Objects becoming meaningless because…
2. Words are things that distinguish boundaries between things. That is falling apart. (See also Lord Chandos Letter for an example of a deconstruction of language)
3. Viscosity of existence
   • Scene. Roquentin picks up a chestnut tree root.
4. Ultimately he concludes he himself is the Nausea, i.e. existence itself is nausea

hyp. Forcibly Injecting Essence into Existence (Storytelling) Scene. Roquentin considers how any Storytelling in Life is an post-hoc situation. Existence itself is moment-to-moment, and no story is toldForcing an essence into existence is done post-hoc, ¶Telling an adventure play. Motif. He studies the life of a guy called Marquis de Rollebon, but sees that there’s conflicting second-hand accounts of his personality, his ideas, and what kind of person he is. ⇒ The idea we have of a single person, is still Storytelling, a post-hoc forcing of essence into existence

hyp. You can achieve a Justification for Existence via:

• Above, focibly injecting essence (=telling a story). This is a failure.
• Contingency (Sociability): via being needed, desired by other people.
  • Scene. “When the [black woman] sings” Some of These Days. He wants to be Desired by others like the black woman desires her lover in the song.
  • Scene. The art gallery scene. “The father of my father…” These people have Contingency because they have Family, history, and connections to others
• Connecting with in-itselves: Roquentin decided to write a book instead. Leaving behind something intentional that is material evidence of one’s Subjectivity.
  • Authenticity is also key, because the material existence needs to authentically represent you and your existence to serve as justification
• If you fail, commit suicide (failure)

Interpreting Nausea (via Moi) §

Existence	Essence
Moment-to-moment	Storytelling, “Play of life (Walt Whiteman)”
Post-structuralism (Foucault)	Modernist three-act play

hyp. Nausea is a story with conflict not with a character, but with the hollowness and emptiness of existence.

• The resolution is to find a justification for existence, or commit suicide

Views on Oppression (via Moi) §

1. Becoming aware of subjectivity
2. Becoming aware of role in history
3. Becoming an anti-thesis
4. voila! Dialectical Synthesis