Sartre and the Stranger

Being-for-Others vs. Being-For-Oneself in Camus' The Stranger

Hazel E. Barnes remarks that "it is a long time since serious philosophers have had to waste time and energy in showing that [Sartre's] philosophy is more than the unhappy reactions of France to the Occupation and post-war distress" (vii). Indeed, it would appear to be a waste of time to blame "post-war distress" for existentialism. In fact, to understood the evolution of modern philosophy (of which existentialism is just one more step) one must look beyond the 20th century all-together; in fact, he must place himself at the crucial moment in time when the old world definitively ended and the new world began. Richard Weaver places it in the 14th century when William of Occam denied the existence of universals, thus delivering a blow to the entire edifice upon which the medieval age of faith had been based...
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