Applying Jean Paul Sartre’s Freedom and Responsibility

on Nuclear Weapons

I. Jean Paul SartreBiography• Jean Paul Sartre was born in Paris on June 21, 1905.

• He was a dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic.

• Sartre entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1924 received first place in the agrégation of philosophy in 1929.

• There, he met Simone de Beauvoir, who studied at the Sorbonne and later went on to become a noted thinker, writer, and feminist. They became inseparable and lifelong companions.

• Sartre took a teaching job at a Lycée in Le Havre. There he wrote his first novel, Nausea in 1938.

Biography•In 1939 Sartre was drafted into the French army, where he served as a meteorologist. German troops captured him in 1940 in Padoux, and he spent nine months as a prisoner of war.•While a prisoner of war, his first theater piece: Barionà, fils du tonnerre, a drama concerning Christmas.•After the war Sartre abandoned teaching, determined to support himself by writing. He was also determined that his writing and thinking should be engagé.•Sartre suffered from detrimental health throughout the 1970s. He died of a lung ailment in April 15, 1980.

Freedom and Responsibility

• Sartre thinks that Man is nothing but what he makes of himself

• Sartre calls this Subjectivity but explains his meaning to avoid misunderstand. Subjectivity –We mean that man exists first and he is capable of realizing this.

• He uses his “will” to make conscious decisions and he is held responsible for his actions because his existence and free choice precedes his essence

• Sartre says because man has free choice he is responsible for his action.

• Sartre also goes further by maintaining that his choice can also be seen as advocating it for others

• “And when we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men”

•Freedom is based on choice•Every situation is an opportunity that is made use of or neglected•Hence, such situations force us to make a choice.•We are free in that we are constantly making decisions for the paths our lives will take.•We are anguished because we can never shift that responsibility onto someone else

•According to Sartre, freedom means always being forced to make a choice.

• 1. Every situation is an opportunity that is either made use of or neglected.

• 2. Hence, every situation forces us to choose what we will make of it.

• 3. In this sense we are free, but our freedom comes ultimately from the fact of our being as a for-itself, a being who is thrown into this situation of being forced to choose at every moment.

• 4. Hence, although we are free, we are also anguished - we are always having to make difficult choices and never allowed to shift responsibility onto others.

(Source: http://web.ku.edu/~acudd/phil140-s20/index.htm)

Rejection of God• If God does not exist, then we have to face all the consequences of our actions alone

• The Existentialist finds it distressing that God does not exist because then finding a firm foundation for values disappears

• Sartre explains because human beings are responsible for their actions this realization leads them to a state of forlornness

• Sartre also claims that human nature does not exist, there is no determinism and therefore man is free.

• In fact “man is condemned to be free”• “Condemned because he did not create himself, yet in other respects is free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”

• Sartre rejects the idea that God created the Universe and man

• His philosophy states that God does not exist

• He states along with Heidegger that Man exists first and then creates himself

• Thus there is no such thing as human nature because there is no God to conceive it

• Man then is said to have existence first and then the essence of what becomes of him or her will be created by their own free choice

Paradox of Freewill• This paradox is one which relates to the concept of cause and effect, and freedom’s role in action. Sartre first denies determinism, and then says that no action can be free of a cause.

• The proponents of free will are concerned to find cases of decision for which there exists no prior cause, or deliberations concerning two opposed acts which are equally possible and possess causes (and motives) of exactly the same weight.

Being For Other• Sartre believes that his opponents equivocate of the meaning of Subjectivism

• “The word subjectivism has two meanings, and our opponents play on the two.”

• Sartre discusses both meanings in order to clarify his philosophy

• The second meaning he believes is the essential meaning of existentialism

Two Meanings of Subjectivism

• Subjectivism can mean that an individual chooses and makes himself

• In the second sense, it means that “ it is impossible for man to transcend human subjectivity.”

• When on chooses for himself Sartre takes this to mean that his choice is not only his responsibility but it serves as a model for others.

• “Therefore. I am responsible for myself and for everyone else. I am creating a certain image of man of my own choosing. In choosing myself, I choose man”

Personal Responsibility• Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

Universal responsibility

• “And when we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men”

II. Nuclear Weapons•A nuclear weapon is a weapon deriving its energy from nuclear reactions. These weapons have enormous destructive potential and are possessed by only a handful of nations. They have been used only twice in combat, by the United States against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the conclusion of World War II.

History of Nuclear Weapons

• A nuclear weapon is a weapon of enormous destructive potential, deriving its energy from nuclear fission or nuclear fusion reactions. These weapons were initially developed in the United States during World War II in the Manhattan Project. A considerable amount of international negotiating has focused on the threat of nuclear warfare and the proliferation of nuclear weapons to new nations or groups.

History of Nuclear Weapons

•In 1905 Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity. According to this theory, the relation between mass and energy is expressed by the equation E = mc, which states that a given mass (m) is associated with an amount of energy (E) equal to this mass multiplied by the square of the speed of light (c). A very small amount of matter is equivalent to a vast amount of energy.•In 1932 the neutron particle was discovered by James Chadwick.

• Early delivery systems for nuclear devices were primarily bombers like the American B-29 Super fortress and B-36 Peacemaker, and later the B-52 Stratofortress. Ballistic missile systems, based on designs used by Germany under Wernher von Braun (specifically the V2 rocket), were developed by both American and Soviet teams of captured scientists and engineers from this program. These systems, after testing, were used to launch satellites, such as Sputnik, and to propel the Space Race, but they were primarily developed to create the capability of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) with which nuclear powers could deliver that destructive force anywhere on the globe. These systems continued to be developed throughout the Cold War, although plans and treaties, beginning with the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), restricted deployment of these systems until, after the fall of the Soviet Union, system development essentially halted, and many weapons were disabled and destroyed (see nuclear disarmament).

Effects of Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear weapons today present tremendous dangers, but also a historic opportunity.

U.S. leadership will be required to take the world to the next stage -- to a solid consensus for reversing reliance on nuclear weapons globally as a vital contribution to preventing their proliferation into potentially dangerous hands, and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world.

Nuclear weapons were essential to maintaining international security during the Cold War because they were a means of deterrence. The end of the Cold War made the doctrine of mutual Soviet-American deterrence obsolete. Deterrence continues to be a relevant consideration for many states with regard to threats from other states. But reliance on nuclear weapons for this purpose is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective.

Positive Effects (Political Power)

1. Nuclear means Power:In today international political scenario, nuclear power is equated with political power. A country that owns nuclear weapons is feared and respected in the international circuit. Nobody thinks of waging wars or getting into political or cultural chaos with these nations, and for obvious reasons. Nobody looks forward to another Hiroshima in their life time. Any country is threatened by the prospects of their enemy possessing nuclear weapons.

2. Powerful negotiation tool:Nuclear weapons are considered as one of the best negotiation tools available in the international political circuit. Nobody wants to argue with someone who holds the power of complete destruction. And what if both parties involved in the negotiation are nuclear nations? Still it acts as a negotiation tool, because both are aware of the destructive power they possess and that the destruction would be mutual. In other words, it nullifies the supposed power both countries possess and prompts them to find a more amiable solution for their differences

3. Pride of the nationOn the one hand when organizations and nations debate and question the need for nuclear weapons, still countries continue to research methods to develop their own nuclear weapons. And nations that already possess these weapons are proud to own them. Many consider it as a satisfaction that feeds the sadistic side of the human mind. Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that these weapons do create a sense of power and pride in the nations that possess it.

4. Prevents warsAlthough weapons are generally created and accumulated to ensure that a country is in a position to defend itself in the event of war, nuclear weapons actually serve the contrary purpose. Nuclear weapons are one of the biggest reasons that nations do not want to go to war, but instead try to seek and find solutions through negotiations. Nuclear weapons lead to, what is popularly referred to as, Mutually Assured Destruction.

When friction reached a high between the two nations it was this fear of mutual destruction that prompted them to think about alternate more peaceful solutions instead of war

Negative Effect (Destruction of Life)

•The energy released from a nuclear weapon comes in four primary categories: Blast 40-60% of total energy Thermal radiation - 30-50% of total energy Ionizing radiation - 5% of total energy Residual radiation (fallout) 5-10% of total energy•The amount of energy released in each form depends on the design of the weapon, and the environment in which it is detonated. The residual radiation of fallout is a delayed release of energy, the other three forms of energy release are immediate.•Much of the destruction caused by a nuclear explosion is due to blast effects. Most buildings, except reinforced or blast-resistant structures, will suffer moderate to severe damage when subjected to moderate overpressures. The blast wind may exceed several hundred km/hr. The range for blast effects increases with the explosive yield of the weapon.

•The dominant effects of a nuclear weapon (the blast and thermal radiation) are the same physical damage mechanisms as conventional explosives. The primary difference is that nuclear weapons are capable of releasing much larger amounts of energy at once. Most of the damage caused by a nuclear weapon is not directly related to the nuclear process of energy release, but would be present for any explosion of the same magnitude.• The damage done by each of the three initial forms of energy release differs with the size of the weapon. Thermal radiation drops off the slowest with distance, so the larger the weapon the more important this effect becomes. Ionizing radiation is strongly absorbed by air, so it is only dangerous by iteself for smaller weapons. Blast damage falls off more quickly than thermal radiation but more slowly than ionizing radiation

The Proper Use of Nuclear Weapons

• It is used for protection against enemy nations who want to destroy the other nations for their own interest.

• Nuclear always set treat to others and protect those who have them so that the other powerful nations will not take the holders for granted.

• Changing the Cold War posture of deployed nuclear weapons to increase warning time and thereby reduce the

• danger of an accidental or unauthorized use of a nuclear weapon

• Halting the production of fissile material for weapons globally; phasing out the use of highly enriched uranium in civil commerce and removing weapons-usable uranium from research facilities around the world and rendering the materials safe.

• Redoubling our efforts to resolve regional confrontations and conflicts that give rise to new nuclear powers.

Synthesis• Nuclear Weapons as a Form of Expressing Freedom

Freedom to Scientific DiscoveryFreedom to Attain Political Power

• Jean Paul Sartre’s View of Responsibility as a Guide to Proper Use of Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Weapons as a Form of Expressing Freedom

Freedom to Scientific DiscoveryScientific discovery is the process or product of successful scientific inquiry. Objects of discovery can be things, events, processes, causes, and properties as well as theories and hypotheses and their features.

Nuclear Weapons is one of the outputs of scientific discovery.

Thus, it is a form of expressing freedom in discovering nuclear weapons.

Freedom to Attain Political Power:Political freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression.

For Sartre, man is free to choose (gain power in his capacity)

Nuclear weapons is form of political power and within his capacity, a country can produce a nuclear weapon.

Thus, it is a freedom for a country to attain political power by producing nuclear weapons, Sartre would say.

Jean Paul Sartre’s View of Responsibility as a Guide to Proper Use of Nuclear Weapons• Man is responsible for himself and for others in the action that he chooses.

• It is in this notion of responsibility that the nuclear weapons would have a proper use.

• Thus, during the Cold War, the two superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, relied on a strategy that used to be termed, mutual assured destruction or MAD. Its intent was simple enough: to hold off a planetary holocaust by threatening to commit one.

• That is, being aware of the destructiveness of this nuclear weapon that they chose to not going to war for the safety of the people.