Sartre: From I to We

Sartre's transition from Existentialism to Marxism may have a simple explanation--in Critique of Dialectical Reason he arrives at a solution to what in Being and Nothingness is a potentially fatal flaw for Marxism. The general problem for the connection of Existentialism to Marxism is how to derive a 'We' from an 'I'. On Sartre's earlier theory, the fundamental relationship of I's to one another is Hobbesian, a war of all against all. The formation of alliances is possible, but only given the presence of an excluded Other. Accordingly, an economic class, either suppressed or suppressor, presupposes the existence of the other. Ultimately, on Sartre's analysis, even the Marxist goal of a universal classless We-subject is impossible without the Other which the doctrine rejects, i. e. God. And, since he himself remains ambivalent about God by the end of Being and Nothingness, Sartre is there unprepared to commit to Marxism. However, by the Critique, he has conceived a configuration which facilitates the formation of a universal We, without recourse to God. Briefly, his solution entails the stabilization, within the We, of interpersonal relations via triangulation, such that each I also serves as a neutralizing Other to a pair of naturally antagonistic I's. So, while Capitalism lacks a concept of We, and orthodox Marxism one of I, Sartre's System supplies both. Formaterialism also presents both, but on the basis of a decidedly non-Hobbesian concept of Personhood, which, as has been discussed, transforms the traditional approaches to Psychology, Ethics, and Socio-Economics.