Sartre and the Moral Limits of War and Terrorism (ePub)

Based on the latest debate on Jean-Paul Sartre's works on ethics and politics, thisbook examines the relevancy and importanceSartre holds for contemporary concerns - the reactionary nature of terrorism, the extremity of counter-violence, and limitations of democratization efforts in our post-9/11 era - all claiming the name of 'freedom' and 'liberation'. It presents a different version of the 'violent Sartre', which was presented recently as militant and supportive of terrorism by critics who were concerned with the terrorist nature of his writings. Sartre in this project is reconstructed as a philosopher who, although gave importance to the notion of 'violence' in his politics, was actually more concerned with containing violent means within morally excusable limits. He is presented as both a realist who understood the inevitability of 'dirty hands' in political struggles and also an absolutist against terrorism; heconsidered wars that derailed fromtheir purported ends of freedom as morally condemnable. Arguing for the need for moral limitations to all violent struggles, and the need for seeing others as ends-for-themselves, this project outlines an existential response needed to help us reaffirm our moral compass through the invention of existential humanist ethics.