Begin with philosophy here.

In this episode of First Philosophy, Awee Prins begins with Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism through the lens of freedom, responsibility, bad faith, and the phenomenon of the gaze. Sartre’s insistence that we are “condemned to be free” is unpacked with care, revealing a philosophy far less nihilistic than it is often assumed to be.

From the claim that there are no accidents in life to the unsettling demand that everything that happens to us is, in a profound sense, ours, Sartre’s existentialism emerges as a radical call to take responsibility for meaning itself.

Only after moving through Sartre’s account of human freedom does the episode return to Martin Heidegger. Heidegger’s analysis of being-in-the-world and situated existence reframes Sartre’s existentialism, showing its deeper ontological roots and shifting the focus from individual choice alone to the structures of meaning that always already shape our experience.

Throughout the episode, Sonia and Kas intercede with clarifications, objections, and contextual expansions. They connect Sartre’s analysis of the gaze to later developments in feminist theory, critical theory, and to Michel Foucault’s notion of the medical and disciplinary gaze, showing how questions about being seen evolve into analyses of power, normalization, and social control.

Let's begin, finally!