Sartre and free will.

Last week we had symposium and I was chosen to be Jean Paul Sartre. Possibly the most radical philosophical proponent of free will was Jean Paul Sartre, who taught that human beings are completely free to choose, with no excuses. “Man is condemned to be free,” Sartre taught. “Condemned” is an appropriate word if Sartre is right in saying there are no objective criteria that make a decision right or wrong, and all decisions are at bottom arbitrary. Sartre praised authentic persons who wholeheartedly commit themselves to a set of values, which they have chosen arbitrarily but live up to without hypocrisy. By his standards, I’m not an authentic person. My belief in free will is selective. If I think that I exercise free choice, I take responsibility for my actions and try to improve. If I think my actions are predetermined, maybe I do and maybe I don’t. When I do something of which I am proud, I give myself credit for the good moral character as well as the ability that made my achievement possible. When I do something of which I am ashamed, I think of all the reasons why I couldn’t help doing the bad thing. I was tired, so I think; I was under pressure; I was afraid; I was needy; I didn’t think, and I wasn’t myself. The law holds people responsible for their actions, but defines some people and some circumstances in which people are not responsible. I’m responsible for my actions when driving while intoxicated because I supposedly had the choice not to become intoxicated, but if somebody drugged me without my knowledge, I wouldn’t be responsible.