Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophy is an attempt to explore the fundamental structure and significance of human existence. Through his penetrating phenomenological analysis, he has brought to light some of the unique regions of human existence. The transcending character of human consciousness is the outstanding discoveries of this analysis. The most important role of human consciousness is, for Sartre, its capacity to transcend into the unreal. This view, besides providing an insight for the appreciation of art, helps to understand the most unique and complicated process of creativity. In the present study, Dr. Ahmad, focusing upon this peculiar role of human consciousness i.e. its transcendence into the unreal, critically evaluates existentialist philosophy, particularly Sartre’s, contribution to aesthetics, deahenating the fundamental character and role of art in human life and society.
This aspect of existentialist philosophy presupposes a number of original theses concerning the nature of Being, Consciousness, Historicity of human situation, Transcendence, Authenticity of man’s existence, Freedom, Anguish, Commitment and Creativity, which the author has very refreshingly and critically attempted to expound, examine and analyse. The multidimensional aspects of these concepts and problems of human existence form an intricate network, wherein one leads to the other, and the author has competently shown their mutual interrelations so as to evolve an existentialist aesthetics particularly Sartre’s theory of art/literature. Dr. Ahmad has adequately demonstrated his penetrative interpretations of Sartre’s philosophical concepts with the help of his literary works, which makes the study all the more lucid and quite interesting. Sartre’s literary works take on a new meaning and purpose as a result of the approach Dr. Ahmad has established in the development of his arguments. Author’s critical analysis of some painters, beside covering the whole history of the philosophy of art, is an attempt to demistify the enigmatic character of the works of art.
The work is of importance to anyone who is interested in philosophy (particularly existentialism), aesthetics, history of art and the contemporary art.
Coming from a middle class family of Srinagar, Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad received his early education in different schools of Srinagar and graduated from Kashmir University. From an early age he has shown tremendous tendencies towards art, literature and philosophy. He painted extensively before joining his post-graduation in Aligarh Muslim University, which wedded him with distinction and a gold medal. To nourish his intellectual faculty further, he took up the research project concentrating on the transcendent character of consciousness and the contribution of J.P. Sartre to aesthetics. This project resulted into two works; Sartre’s theory of imagination, for which he was awarded M.Phil degree and the other, Sartre’s theory of art, for which he was awarded the Ph.D. degree from the Aligarh Muslim University.
While the author has the honour of teaching philosophy in various Government Institutions of the Jammu and Kashmir State, he is also the script writer of the Department of Distance Education of Kashmir University.
