Vivint indeterminadament dins d'un món determinant

Estudiar i llegir Sartre m’ha portat a converses del passat, tant amb altra gent com amb mi mateixa. Crec que una de les coses que més valoro de la filosofia es la seva capacitat de ser universal i al mateix temps absolutament personal. Per què diferents persones estan més o menys d’acord amb diferents pensadors? O maneres de fer filosofia? Per què prefereixen aquests més que no pas aquells? És perquè uns tenen més raó que els altres? És perquè la lògica s’imposa per damunt de tot? O és perquè ens identifiquem amb les coses a partir de la manera, única i personal, en que pensem, sentim i, simplement, vivim?

…there is no given self to be true to; that our existence precedes our essence; and that we invent ourselves as we go along. This means we make our own identity in and through our free decisions and actions. Accordingly our ‘essence’ is nothing other than that which we choose to be. We are what we are – good, bad or indifferent – not because we were born like that, or created so by God, or t so by our environmental conditioning, genetic heritage, family upbringing or social and religious training, but because we made ourselves like that.

Sartre does not, of course, wish to deny that we choose within limits. He is the first to acknowledge that our existence is always situated in a concrete historical context. I do not choose to be born, nor do I choose my physical or biological condition, not what economic class or political state or national culture I am born into. But I do choose how to exist within the limitations of thee circumstances. (…) Man is what he makes of himself in spite of the conditioning influences of his factual circumstances.

(Sobre Jean-Paul Sartre dins el llibre) Modern Movements in European Philosophy, Richard Kearney