The Actuality of Sartre's Free Will Conception

Authors

  • Peter Kampits Vienna University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25180/lj.v17i2.20

Keywords:

Jean-Paul Sartre, freedom, will, determinism, brain research, otherness, ontology, ethics

Abstract

The main Sartrean concepts and theses of freedom of will and unlimited responsibility, which seemed for many already outdated, are gaining actually interest in respect to the recent results in brain research. The main objective of the paper is to reevaluate Sartre's free will conception trying to answer the question: How would Sartre who, in the time of his existentialist phase during which his radical theory of freedom received its most pointed articulation, was familiar with psychological theories of determinism, have responded to statements of actually leading brain researchers such as "we are determined," "brain research liberates from illusions" or "I am my brain"?


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References

Kampits, Peter. Sartre und die Frage nach dem Anderen. Eine sozialontologische Untersuchung. Wien, München: Oldenbourg, 1975.

Pauen, Michael. Illusion Freiheit? Mögliche und unmögliche Konsequenzen der Hirnforschung. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2004.

Roth, Gerhard. "Worüber dürfen Hirnforscher reden – und in welcher Weise?," in Christian Geyer (ed.). Hirnforschung und Willensfreiheit. Zur Deutung der neuesten Experimente, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2004.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness.Translated and with an Introduction by Hazel E. Barnes. New York: Pocket Books, 1984.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Basic Writings, ed. Stephen Priest. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.

Singer, Wolf. "Verschaltungen legen uns fest: Wir sollten aufhören, von Freiheit zu sprechen," in Christian Geyer (ed.). Hirnforschung und Willensfreiheit. Zur Deutung der neuesten Experimen-te, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2004, 30-65.

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Published

20.12.2015

How to Cite

Kampits, P. (2015). The Actuality of Sartre’s Free Will Conception. Labyrinth, 17(2), 39–48. https://doi.org/10.25180/lj.v17i2.20

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2015): History and Choice: Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-2015)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2015 Peter Kampits

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