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This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 13 Apr 2015 13:20:34 UTC
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Sartre-CamusResartus
Over a period of thirtyyears or more, Jean-PaulSartre has been
patientlybut stubbornly
workingat an understanding
of realityfrom
the roots up. The monumentalBeing and Nothingness,the likewise
Critiquede la raisondialectique,and a dozen otherworksstandwitness to the man's progress.And still Sartreis so beset withqualms
as to whatbest to do thathis long-announced
book on Ethicshas yet
to appear (thoughrumorsays it is well advanced). In 1952, after
he had gone over the problemof how to become morallyor politically involved without losing one's liberty,with a Kantian or
Husserlianthoroughness
and a modernanguish,up popped his quondam friendand ally AlbertCamus to announce that Sartre'streatmentof the whole issue was based on a contradiction:"As long as
you have notclarifiedor eliminatedthecontradiction
[roughly,
liberty
versushistoricaldeterminism],
definedyournotionof history,assimilated Marxism,or rejectedit, how can we be deprivedof the right
to contend that, no matterwhat you do, you remain withinthe
boundariesof nihilism?"
Since Camus has, in his L'Homme revolte,peremptorily
relegated
all the major mindsfromHegel to Nietzscheand beyond"withinthe
boundariesof nihilism,"Sartremay not have takenthis proscription
too muchto heart;but is it reallyfairto ask a man to solve a kind
of Zeno's paradox in the metaphysicalrealmbeforemakingan ethical move? Is it not ratherthe intensity
withwhicha man attemptsto
solve a dilemmathatcountsmost in our estimationof his fitnessto
judge and to act?
So Sartre:"I don't advise you to read Being and Nothingness,
the
readingwould seem pointlessly
arduousto you: you detestdifficulties
of thought.... But I explainedtherepreciselythe conditionsof this
break [betweenlibertyand determinism]."
And Sartreyet again patientlysummarizedthe paradox of freedom-and-involvement
with
which he has more stubbornlywrestledthan anyone in our time:
"the paradoxicalaspect of thisformulaexpressessimplythe paradox
of our historicalcondition,"meaningthat, in the realm of praxis
thereare no absolute solutions,tryas we may,and must,for them.
As forextendinghis theoreticalpositioninto the domain of ethics
and politics,fewwritershave committed
themselvesas frequently
and
concernedlyas J.-P. Sartre.The textsin whichhe had explainedhis
attitudestowardhistoryand contemporary
ideologyare both num73
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et la paix,"fromwhichwe
articleon "Les Communistes
book-length
shallquote.
But Camuswas oblivious:hereis thewayhe endsthe"Letterto
"For
whichsetoffthefireworks:
theEditorofLes TempsModernes"
and in our time,if we
in ourselves
we shallneversurpassanything,
to use
our contradictions,
howeverlittle,to forget
ourselves,
permit
and a methodforwhich
thearguments
in thecombatsofintelligence
if we conjustifications,
thephilosophic
we do notacceptotherwise
all the whileadmitting
the individual
sentto liberatetheoretically
thatmancan be enslavedundercertainconditions...
practically
howeverlittle,our contraThis "if we permitourselvesto forget,
in theIntroby Camushimself
dictions"is madepalpablenonsense
as an act,is unductionto L'Hommere'volte':"theabsurdposition,
imaginable."
- whathappens
at all thispurity
No wonderSartregotirritated
Camusseemedto be
temperateness?"
to thefamed"Mediterranean
reas soonas thelastwordwas deftly
in readiness,
sayingfarewell,
up intotheair in thewakeof St. Leopold
corded,to zoomstraight
"who
Bloom"likea shotoffa shovel."Hence Sartre'sincredulous
areyouCamus?"ButCamusis alreadyoutof sight,amidtheangels
putshimself.
and prematurely
on whosesidehe so consistently
your
his breath,and muses:"I didn'tunderstand
Sartrerecovers
- 'either
has a senseor else ithasn't,etc.'- until
History
dilemma
I rereadyourLettersto a GermanFriend.But it all became clear to
74
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77
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