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Abstract
This essay explores the relationship between Sartre and Sloterdijk in the domain of ethics. The major Sloterdijkian imperative, “You must change your life,” is considered in its multiple aspects as an “unconditional instruction,” “the absolute imperative” and shown to exceed the Kantian options of hypothetical and categorical. Sloterdijk’s relations to Sartre are examined in the domains of human freedom, commitment, self-creation, practice, and habit. Ultimately, I conclude that Sloterdijk’s understanding of subjectivation and self-transcendence is, despite initial apparent similarities, profoundly at odds with the Sartrean philosophical vision insofar as it can be seen as, at least partially, alienated, prescriptive, and mystified.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 “Archaic Torso of Apollo” in The Poetry of Rilke, trans. and ed. Edward Snow 223.
2 Of course, Rancière and Sloterdijk make very different uses of the Torso: for Rancière it helps illustrate his idea of a new regime of sensibility, the aesthetic regime, whereas for Sloterdijk, as we shall see, it is used to explain the aesthetic imperative.
3 See an interesting discussion by Ronald Cordero 117–24.
4 It is a form of ventriloquism common to many modern French philosophers including Derrida but is probably most clearly illustrated by Foucault.
5 See, e.g., Howells, Sartre: The Necessity of Freedom, ch. 1.
6 Ibid. 32.
7 Sloterdijk too is, of course, aware of these dangers (see, e.g., “The Inner Witness” in You Must Change 237–39) though he is not always able to steer clear of them himself.
8 See the film by Astruc.