Existentialism

This week in class we discussed existentialism, which is based on the idea of human freedom, and two philosophers of existentialism, Jean Paul Sartre and Frantz Fanon. In Sartre's book, "Being and Nothingness", he tries to explain what kind of being a human being is; a being-in-itself or a being-for-itself. Beings-in-itself are objects that are entirely defined by facticity. For example, a table will always be a table. "It is what it is, in the mode of being". Beings-for-itself are the class humans fall into. They are subjects that are still somewhat defined by facticity, but are also defined by transcendence. "It is what it is in the mode of not being it".

Frantz Franon uses the idea of a being-in-itself and a being-for-itself in a chapter from his book "Black Skin, White Mask". In this book, Franon describes the existence of blacks being different than the existence of whites. He uses life examples to describe the different existences. In one example, he recalls a time when he was on a bus and a young white child turned to their mother and basically said look mom there's a dirty nigger. Franon describes the feeling he felt as being a being-in-itself. What the child did was objectified and alienated Franon as if him being black was like a table being a table, and that's all he was and would ever be.