What Jean-Paul Sartre Actually Said About Presence
All 4 Jean-Paul Sartre passages on presence, in full — what each one claims, what holds them together, and who argues the other way.
Jean-Paul Sartre returns to presence four times in thinkr's library — more often than to almost anything else. French existentialist novelist and philosopher. Held that existence precedes essence — we are condemned to be free, and to bear the weight of our choices.
What follows is every one of those passages, in full, with what each is actually claiming. The language is of its period, but the question underneath is not: what is presence for, and what does it ask of you?
Every Jean-Paul Sartre passage on presence
“The real nature of the present revealed itself: it was what exists, all that was not present did not exist.”
“Who can exhaust a man? Who knows a man's resources?”
“All that I know about my life, it seems, I have learned in books.”
“But, if it will help ease your irritated souls, please know, dearly departed, that you have ruined our lives.”
What holds these together
Read in sequence rather than one at a time, the passages stop being separate aphorisms. Jean-Paul Sartre is not offering four opinions about presence; the lines are facets of one position, and the repetition is the argument. The shortest of them — “Who can exhaust a man? Who knows a man's resources” — is the version you can carry, and the longer ones are what it unpacks into.
Jean-Paul Sartre applied to a real decision
Quotation is the easy part. The harder test is what the position actually does when it meets a situation where every option costs something. thinkr puts two such cases to Jean-Paul Sartre.
You can choose the easier year or the harder, better one.
Argued as existential challenge: You are treating growth as a responsibility, not a mood. The risk is worshiping difficulty for its own sake.
A group accepts you only when you hide a real part of yourself.
Argued as authentic freedom: You are refusing bad faith: the bargain where comfort costs your selfhood. The risk is turning every compromise into betrayal.
Work through these yourself
- You can choose the easier year or the harder, better one. — argued from existential challenge and several competing positions
- A group accepts you only when you hide a real part of yourself. — argued from authentic freedom and several competing positions
Who disagrees
Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Mahatma Gandhi and Confucius all address presence too, and they do not converge. Reading Jean-Paul Sartre alone gives you a coherent position; reading Jean-Paul Sartre against Marcus Aurelius shows you what the position is actually choosing against.