quoting a line here from Sartres lecture, ‘Existential and Humanism’…
“When a man commits himself to anything, fully realising that he is not only choosing what he will be, but is thereby at the same time a legislator deciding for the whole of mankind - in such a moment a man cannot escape from the sense of complete and profound responsibility.”
I can certainly see how the meaning of this would result in anguish to an individual but am having great difficulty is striving to see how this in anyway relates practically rather than in theory or in a hypothetical. How does a decision I make for my life affect the ‘whole of mankind’? It seems it would only affect my subjective reality and those who coincide or cross that path from the previous choices I have willed myself to do in action.
In the realization of your lives, has anyone else come across this same thought as Sartre? I understand he believed in universalizing ethics, thereby universalizing human conduct, essentially behavior of our species.
Could someone help explain this small excerpt for me in greater understanding and drain this shallow merkiness that poisons my ability to comprehend this.
Thanks.