Sartre\'s Contradiction
I haven't read a lot of philosophy though I have read a lot of reviews of various philosophers. I was browsing through some stuff on Sartre and one critic said that Sartre thought that God is logically impossible because of the following:
God has to be a being-in-itself-for-itself.
I don't see the logical contradiction and though several reviewers repeated the conclusion, they didn't say why.
I break it down like this:
Being-in-itself: The aseity of God, autonomy,self-contained,independent.
Being-for-itself: This is what I'm not sure about. Whatever this means Sartre must have thought it contradicted the other statement.
One interesting thing I found is that Sartre seemed to think man's purpose is to BECOME a being-in-itself-for-itself, i.e., man's desire to be God. That doesn't surprise me. I believe Sartre thought it was impossible but was still the goal we should strive to obtain. What a burden atheists place on themselves.
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