An Analysis of Freedom in Theravada Buddhism and the Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre

Abstract

The objectives of this research were: 1) to study freedom in Theravada Buddhist philosophy; 2) to study freedom in Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophy; 3) to analyze freedom in Theravada Buddhist philosophy and Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophy. This study was carried out by means of documentary research conducted through the study of Tripitaka, academic papers, and related research. The obtained data were interpreted by descriptive analysis based on the inductive principle.
The research results were as follows:
1. According to the freedom in Theravada Buddhism is that human can defy nature both externally and internally, which is not good and take the good part into practice because all human beings are free and born with the potential to develop themselves from ordinary people to noble one by being aware of their responsibilities towards others and having a good conscience.
2. According to the freedom in Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophy is that human can decide their destiny or choose their path because human beings are free and the expression of freedom must always be associated with responsibility by allowing humans to rely on themselves, helping themselves, being responsible both to oneself and to society and learning to use freedom properly.
3. Freedom from both perspectives aims for humanity to lead a free life and not rely on gods or any supernatural beings; humans must rely on their actions to decide and act. Although the two have different ways of accessing freedom, both aims for the practitioners to achieve the goal of freedom that is, taking with full responsibility for what they do because the world and society will be happy or suffering depending on the exercise of human freedom which will bring real benefits.