Jean-Paul Sartre and Our Responsibility for Teaching History :: Philosophy Education Research Papers

Jean-Paul Sartre and Our Responsibility for Teaching HistoryABSTRACT Historical research was one of Jean-Paul Sartres major concerns. Sartres biographic studies and thought indicate that news report is not only a field in which you gather facts, events, and processes, but it is a worthy challenge which includes a heavy personal responsibility my responsibility to the dead lives that preceded me. Sartres writings suggest that accepting this responsibility can be a source of wisdom. Few historians, however, view history as transcending the orderly presenting and elucidating of facts, events, and processes. I contend that Sartres writings suggest a personally enhancing commitment. A lucid and honest response to the challenges and demands of history and the dead lives that preceded my own existence is an engagement that requires courage, wisdom, and thought. The consequences of this commitment for teaching history is discussed. Historical research was one of Jean-Paul Sartres major co ncerns. Roquentin, the central character of his first novel, Nausea, has chosen the profession of historian. (1) He comes to Bouville in order to write a history of Monsieur de Rollebon, who was active at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. Important documents pertaining to Rollebons life are in the Bouville library. As the novel develops Roquentin decidesfor good reasonsto abandon his historical research, a decision to which we return. Unlike Roquentin, Sartre never abandoned the soil of historical research. Quite often he discussed history in his philosophical writings. His plays repeatedly deal with the need to relate authentically, truthfully to history. In addition, Sartre wrote three biographiesof Charles Baudelaire, Jean Genet, and The Family Idiot, a close to three railyard page study of the life of Gustave Flaubertin which he suggested and presented an approach to studying the life of a specific person within his or her situation. Sartre also wrote truncated studies of contemporary history, such as his short book on Castros Cuba. (2) Consequently, the corpus of Sartres writings abounds with enlightening insights and ideas on how to study and write history. Very few, if any, of Sartres insights have been transferred to the realm of historical scholarship or of teaching history. Our survey of relevant literature revealed virtually no attempts to learn from Sartre in these fields. Someone may argue that the miscellany of scholarshipwhereby many, if not most, historians rarely read books by philosophersmay be an important reason for the ignoring of Sartres insights in the fields of history and teaching history.