Sartre held that individual lives are infinite and therefore incomparable in value.
Evidence
Merleau-Ponty, in his pro-Soviet phase, asked him what he would do if he had to choose between two events, one of which would kill 300 people and the other 3,000. What difference was there, philosophically speaking? Sartre replied that there was a mathematical difference, of course, but not a philosophical one, for each individual is an infinite universe in his or her own eyes, and one cannot compare one infinity with another. In both cases, the disaster of loss of life was literally incalculable. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 774
Categorization
- DEFINE: This illustrates the existentialist refusal to reduce persons to countable units — a conceptual contrast with utilitarian calculation.
- XREF: connects to: Sartre replaces universal human nature with a universal human condition of shared limitations. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 23; Sartre grounds all value in an unjustified, self-legitimizing freedom — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 185; Existence and limitation are inseparably linked in life narratives. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 980
Broader Connections
- Sartre grounds all value in an unjustified, self-legitimizing freedom
#expands(0.82) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 185 - Existence and limitation are inseparably linked in life narratives.
#contradicts(0.75) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 980