Absolute Responsibility for All ? Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a French philosopher who believed in existentialism. He was also an atheist. He used literature to convey his message of existentialism to the public. In "III. Freedom And Responsibility" of his essay Being and Nothingness, (1943) Sartre's argument states that since there is no God, human beings must give meaning to their own lives. That we alone are the "incontestable authors of an event or of an object" (707). …showed first 75 words of 1000 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1000 total…be wholly true if we are discussing only average adults of who society would label as the norm. It would be untrue if we are discussing all children, inasmuch as they have not made any of their own choices. Sartre is convincing in his argument, if excluding children and the mentally ill. If all human beings were absolutely equal in all aspects, it would only then be fair to expect absolute responsibility from each individual.