Freedom In Jean Paul Starkre's Existentialism

Jean Paul Starkre was a famous existentialist and opposed the ideology of implying rational categories towards understanding humanity, he says its “ill-fated” (278). Rationalists have many contrasts like object and subject, being and non being and existence and essence, but all these Starkre explains prevents rationalist from encountering reality and they never encounter the existing individual in their totality. Freedom plays a big part in being an existentialist, But Starkre explains freedom in a different way. When defined by Starkre freedom is the condition of human existence, not a characteristic of human nature. Our freedom is created by our experience, decisions and spontaneous actions in life. Starkre continues to say that nothing
He continues to say that one “who escapes their burden of responsibility for their actions through an appeal to a supernatural belief as it is to avoid responsibility by claiming that one’s actions fall under natural law”.(279) Atheistic Existentialist is what Starkre claims to be. To Starkre God doesn’t exist, instead there is a being to which existence precedes essence and that being is man. Basically this means a man doesn’t come into this world already knowing who he is, he is first born, then given the ability to define himself. “at first he is nothing; only afterward will he be something”. (280) After being thrusted into this world man is responsible for what he is, not only of his individuality but for all of
So society sets a general example on what to do. This could be a conflicting issue with some who go against this notion. Starkre brings the importance of proof into the equation. Take the story of Abraham, God told Abraham to sacrifice his son and everything will be okay. Everyone’s first question might be how do you know it was an angel and how do you know if you are truly Abraham, where’s the proof? Starkre’s existentialism explains that God is a useless hypothesis but in order for there to be an ethics, a society or a civilization there are specific values and that need to be prevelant. This can be called a Priori existence. Society without God will still have Honesty, responsibility, and humanism. The existentialist does not want a God but wants the values that God shows us. An active life is important to Starke, making decisions rather than avoiding them. To Starkre failing to act is the same as retreating from the challenge of life, just because “things will be as man will have decided they are to be” (282). This doesn’t mean that we have to be quietists. Starkre explains that Quietism is people who say “let other do what I can’t do” (282). The doctrine Starkre is presenting means the opposite, “man is nothing else than his plan: he exists only to the extent that he fulfills himself” (282) being a quietist prevent this from