About this episode
Ryan and Todd discuss Jean-Paul Sartre's lecture on existentialism, its criticisms, and its implications for individual action and political change.
On this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss Jean-Paul Sartre's 1945 lecture titled "Existentialism is a Humanism." In it, Sartre answers criticism that existentialism has received from lay people, concerned Christians, and Marxists, and clarifies what existentialism means and (more importantly) what it hopes to do and inspire in action. The existential method that Sartre advocates is universal and optimistic, advocating for political change by encouraging everyone to see that their individual actions include every other person in them. Ryan and Todd discuss the main thrust of the lecture, Sartre's eventual shift to Marxism (covered in the Critique of Dialectical Reason episodes), how psychoanalytic theory intersects with and pushes back on Sartre's ideas, and why Total Recall is the perfect Sartrean film.
People in this episode
Hosts: Ryan, Todd
Topics covered
- Existentialism
- Sartre
- Political Change
- Psychoanalysis
- Film Analysis
Keywords
- Existentialism
- Sartre
- Humanism
- Political Change
- Psychoanalysis
- Total Recall
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Existentialism is a Humanism, Critique of Dialectical Reason, Total Recall
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