Philosophy-becoming-the-world: An existentialist reading of Sartre\u27s later philosophy

For the reason that Sartre’s later writings were commonly understood as different and separated from the early Sartre of Being and Nothingness, this paper argues in opposition to those who dismissed the continuity of his thought as he joins the political arena. With the objective of tracing the existential phenomenological foundation of Sartre’s political viewpoints, this study will scrutinize his earlier and later works, and thereby show how the former is fundamental to the latter. I propose that Sartre neither embraced insincerity nor turned his back on his earlier philosophy. Because if one will have a careful scrutiny of Being and Nothingness, of his plays and essays, among others, then Sartre’s later writings can be read as having consistency with his ontology. Sartre’s phenomenological ontology imbued with action, as in his later writings, transcends experience and the social dimension of the world, and thus engenders a philosophy-becoming-the-world. For Sartre, humans being condemned to be free are not only responsible for themselves, but such freedom also denotes that they carry the world on their shoulders. Philosophy-becoming-the-world is Sartre’s reference for a theoretical project that discovers its place and role in the materiality of the world. As I propose that an existentialist reading of Sartre’s later works reveals that they are leaning towards a philosophy-becoming-the-world, I will thereby show that Sartrean ontology can serve political action