Existentialism - By Branch / Doctrine - The Basics of Philosophy
Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. It is the view that humans define their own meaning in life, and try to ...
Sartre
Herbert Marcuse (1898 - 1979) has criticized Existentialism, especially <anchor>Sartre</anchor>'s "Being and Nothingness", for projecting some features of living in a modern oppressive society (features such as anxiety and meaninglessness) onto the nature of existence itself.
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# Jean-Paul Sartre

[Introduction](#Introduction) \| [Life](#Life) \| [Work](#Work) \| [Books](#books)

![Jean-Paul Sartre](photos/sartre.jpg)

_Jean-Paul Sartre_

(Undated photograph)

**Introduction**

**Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre** (1905 - 1980) was a **French** philosopher, writer and political activist, and one of the **central figures** in **20th Century French** philosophy.

He is best known as the main **figurehead** of the [Existentialism](movements_existentialism.html) movement. Along with his French contemporaries **Albert Camus** (1913 - 1960) and **Simone de Beauvoir** (1908 - 1986), he helped popularize the movement through his **novels** and **plays** as well as through his more **academic works**. As a young man, he also made significant contributions to [Phenomenology](movements_phenomenology.html).

He was a confirmed [Atheist](branch_atheism.html) and a committed [Communist](branch_communism.html) and [Marxist](branch_marxism.html), and took a prominent role in many **leftist political causes** throughout his adult life.

**Life**

Sartre was **born** in **Paris**, France on 21 June 1905. His father was **Jean-Baptiste Sartre**, an officer of the French Navy, who died of a fever when Sartre was only 15 months old; his mother was **Anne-Marie Schweitzer**, of Alsatian origin and cousin to the German Nobel Peace Prize winner **Albert Schweitzer** (1875 - 1965). His mother raised him with help from her father, **Charles Schweitzer**, a high school professor of German, who taught Sartre **mathematics** and introduced him to **classical literature** at a very early age. As a boy, he was **small** and **cross-eyed** and **socially awkward**. When his mother remarried in 1917, the family moved to **La Rochelle**.

He first became attracted to philosophy on reading the **_"Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness"_** by **Henri Bergson**(1859 - 1941) as a teenager in the 1920s. He attended high school at the **Lycée Henri IV** in Paris, and then went on to study at the elite **École Normale Supérieure** (the alma mater for several prominent French thinkers and intellectuals) from 1924 until 1929, where he absorbed the ideas of [Immanuel Kant](philosophers_kant.html), [Georg Hegel](philosophers_hegel.html), [Edmund Husserl](philosophers_husserl.html) and [Martin Heidegger](philosophers_heidegger.html) among others.

While at the École Normale, he came into contact with such notables as **Maurice Merleau-Ponty** (1908 - 1961), **Raymond Aron** (1905 - 1983), **Simone Weil** (1909 - 1943), **Jean Hippolyte** (1907 - 1968) and **Claude Lévi-Strauss** (1908 - ). Most importantly, he also met **Simone de Beauvoir** (1908 - 1986), who was studying at the **Sorbonne** at that time, and the two became **inseparable** and remained **lifelong companions** (although **not monogamously**), deliberately challenging the **cultural** and **social assumptions** and **expectations** of their upbringings. De Beauvoir went on to become a **noted thinker** in her own right, as well as a **popular writer** and prominent [feminist](branch_feminism.html).

Sartre **graduated** from the École Normale Supérieure in 1929 with a **doctorate** in philosophy, and then served for a period as a conscript in the **French Army** from 1929 to 1931. He obtained a position teaching philosophy at the lycée in **Le Havre**, and then obtained a grant to study at the **French Institute** in **Berlin** in 1933 where he studied the [Phenomenology](branch_phenomenology.html) of [Husserl](philosophers_husserl.html) and [Heidegger](philosophers_heidegger.html) in more detail, and began to develop his own profoundly original [Existentialism](branch_existentialism.html). He published two important early works, **_"La Transcendance de l'égo"_** ( **_"Transcendence of the Ego"_**) and **_"Esquisse d'une théorie des émotions"_** ( **_"Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions"_**) in 1936 and 1938 respectively, and his groundbreaking [existentialist](branch_existentialism.html) novel **_"La Nausée"_** ( **_"Nausea"_**) came out in 1938.

In 1939, at the start of **World War II**, Sartre was **drafted** into the French army, where he served as a **meteorologist**. He was **captured** by German troops in 1940 in **Padoux**, and he spent nine months as a **prisoner of war** in **Nancy** and then in **Stalag 12D** at **Trier**, Germany. He was **released** in April 1941 due to poor health and given **civilian status**. He recovered his position as a teacher at the **Lycée Pasteur** near Paris, and then soon after took up a new position at the **Lycée Condorcet**.

He settled near **Montparnasse** in Paris, where a **group of intellectuals** gathered around him in the cafés of the Left Bank, especially the **Café de Flore**. He participated in the founding of the underground group **Socialisme et Liberté** with other writers including de Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty. After the high-profile writers **André Gide** (1869 - 1951) and **André Malraux** (1901 - 1976) were approached but did not join, Sartre became **discouraged** and the group soon **dissolved** and he turned to **writing** in earnest. He wrote the plays **_"Les Mouches"_** ( **_"The Flies"_**) in 1943 and **_"Huis-clos"_** ( **_"No Exit"_**) in 1944, managing to avoid German censorship, and his most important scholarly work on [Existentialism](branch_existentialism.html), **_"L'Être et le néant"_** ( **_"Being and Nothingness"_**), was written in 1943.

Although some commentators **criticized** Sartre's lack of **political commitment** during the German occupation, he was an active contributor to **_"Les Lettres Française"_** and to **_"Combat"_**, clandestine newspapers of the **French Resistance**, through which he met **Albert Camus**, a like-minded philosopher and author. Sartre and de Beauvoir remained **close friends** with Camus until he turned away from [Communism](branch_communism.html) in 1951. After the War, Sartre and de Beauvoir established **_"Les Temps Modernes"_** ( **_"Modern Times"_**), a monthly literary and political review, and he started **writing full-time** as well as continuing his **political activism**. He drew on his war experiences for his great **trilogy of novels**, **_"Les Chemins de la Liberté"_** ( **_"The Roads to Freedom"_**) (1945 - 1949). In 1948, the **Roman Catholic Church** placed his complete works on its **Index of Prohibited Books**.

During this post-War period, Sartre was a very **public intellectual** and could always be found openly chatting, discussing and writing in the cafés of St. Germain des Près and the trendy Left Bank of Paris. Despite his rather **unprepossessing appearance**, he attracted the attentions of many **glamorous women**, and had many mistresses in addition to his on-going relationship with Simone de Beauvoir (whom he affectionately called "the Beaver") and with **Michelle Vian**. He also attracted a lot of **press coverage**, much of it negative, and he was publicly accused of moral corruption and of spreading **hopelessness** among the young. Eventually, he was **hounded out** by the attentions of the press and forced to retreat from his public **café lifestyle**. He moved back to his **mother's house** in the rue Bonaparte where he could work in peace.

Although he never officially joined the **Communist Party**, Sartre embraced  [Communism](branch_communism.html) for many years, while continuing to defended [Existentialism](branch_existentialism.html). Indeed, he spent much of the 1950s trying to **reconcile** the **individualist philosophy** of [Existentialism](branch_existentialism.html) with the **collective vision** of [Marxism](branch_marxism.html) and [Communism](branch_communism.html). His continued support for Russian [Communism](branch_communism.html) officially ended, however, on the entry of Soviet tanks into **Budapest** in 1956, and he roundly **condemned** both the **Soviet intervention** and the **submission** of the French Communist Party to the interests of Moscow.

His ongoing critiques of [Communism](branch_communism.html) led to his formulation of **"Sartrian Socialism"**, a model which demanded that [Marxism](branch_marxism.html) recognize **differences** between one society and another and **respect human freedom**. His **_"Critique de la raison dialectique"_** ( **_"Critique of Dialectical Reason"_**) of 1960 was intended to give [Marxism](branch_marxism.html) a more vigorous **intellectual defense** than it had received up until then, and also to reconcile it with his [existentialist](branch_existentialism.html) ideas about **free will**. In the 1960s, he traveled to **Cuba** to meet **Fidel Castro** (1926 - ) and spent a great deal of time philosophizing with **Ernesto "Che" Guevara** (1928 - 1967), whom he idolized.

He became increasingly **politically active** during the late 1950s and 1960s. He took a prominent role in the struggle against **French rule in Algeria**, and he was an eminent supporter of the **Front de Libération nationale (FLN)** (National Liberation Front, the Algerian [socialist](branch_socialism.html) party) in the **Algerian War** of 1954 - 1962 and one of the signatories of the **Manifeste des 121**. He also had an Algerian mistress, **Arlette Elkaïm**, who became his **adopted daughter** in 1965. Along with [Bertrand Russell](philosophers_russell.html) and others, he vociferously opposed the **Vietnam War** in the 1960s. He was actively involved in the **student strikes** in Paris during the summer of 1968, during which he was arrested several times for **civil disobedience**.

In the aftermath of the 1968 Paris unrest, Sartre lost faith in the French Communist Party and in [Communism](branch_communism.html) in general, and returned to a more **individualist**, but still **radical**, outlook, closer to [Anarchism](branch_anarchism.html). He remained outspoken in his radical views, though, and caused something of a **scandal** by trying to justify the **Munich massacre** in which eleven Israeli Olympians were killed by a **Palestinian** terrorist organization in 1972.

With his witty and sardonic autobiography, **_"Les mots"_** ( **_"Words"_**) of 1964, Sartre **renounced** literature, calling it a **bourgeois substitute** for real commitment in the world. In the same year, he was awarded the **Nobel Prize for Literature**, but he **declined** it in protest against the values of **bourgeois society** (just as he had earlier refused the **Légion d'honneur** in 1945).

During the 1970s, Sartre's physical condition **deteriorated**, partially due to his merciless **pace of work** (and his use of **amphetamines**). The last project of his life, a massive analytical biography of the French author **Gustave Flaubert**, as well as a proposed second volume of the **_"Critique of Dialectical Reason"_**, both remained **unfinished**. He **died** on 15 April 1980 in Paris from an **edema of the lung**, and was buried in the **Cimetière de Montparnasse** in Paris. His funeral was attended by **50,000 mourners**.

**Work**[Back to Top](#Top)

Adopting and adapting the methods of [Phenomenology](branch_phenomenology.html) and, particularly, the work of [Martin Heidegger](philosophers_heidegger.html), Sartre set out to develop an **ontological account** of what it is to be **human**. The basis of his [Existentialism](branch_existentialism.html) is found in his early book **_"La Transcendance de l'égo"_** ( **_"Transcendence of the Ego"_**) of 1936, was developed in **_"L'Être et le néant"_** ( **_"Being and Nothingness"_**) of 1943, and refined and summarized in **_"L'existentialisme est un humanisme"_** ( **_"Existentialism is a Humanism"_**) of 1946.

But he also believed that our ideas are the product of experiences of **real-life situations**, and that **novels** and **plays** describing such fundamental experiences have **as much value** for the elaboration of philosophical theories as do discursive essays. Thus, his **novels** such as **_"La Nausée"_** ( **_"Nausea"_**) of 1928 and the **_"Les Chemins de la Liberté"_** ( **_"The Roads to Freedom"_**) trilogy of 1945 to 1949, were also important vehicles of his thought, as were his **plays** like **_"Les Mouches"_** ( **_"The Flies"_**) of 1943, **_"Huis-clos"_** ( **_"No Exit"_**) of 1944 (with its famous line, "L'enfer, c'est les autres" or "Hell is other people"), and **_"Les Mains Sales"_** ( **_"Dirty Hands"_**) of 1948, and his volume of short stories, **_"Le Mur"_** ( **_"The Wall"_**). A whole school of **absurd** literature subsequently developed.

In Sartre's [Existentialism](branch_existentialism.html), **"existence is prior to essence"** (or, put a different way, the existence of humans **precedes consciousness**), in the sense that the **meaning** of man's life is not established **before** his existence, and man is **"thrown into"** into a concrete, inveterate universe that cannot be **"thought away"**. Thus, it is **what we do** and **how we act** in our life that **determines** our apparent "qualities". As Sartre put it: "At first \[Man\] is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be".

Sartre firmly believed that everyone, always and everywhere, has **choices** and therefore **freedom**. Even in the most apparently cut-and-dried situations, even in the face of what appears to be inevitable, a person always has a **choice of actions**, whether it be to do nothing, whether it be to run away, or whether it be to risk one's very life. This freedom is **empowering**, but it also comes with **responsibility**.

Sartre famously declared that **"man is condemned to be free"** (meaning, free from all authority) and, although he may seek to **evade**, **distort** or **deny** that freedom (what Sartre called **"mauvaise foi"** or **bad faith"**), he will nevertheless have to face up to it if he is to become a **moral being**. Individuals are **responsible** for the **choices** they make, and for their **emotional lives**, but because they are always conscious of the **limits of knowledge** and of **mortality**, they constantly live with **existential dread** or **"angst"**.

In his 1946 essay, **_"L'existentialisme est un humanisme"_** ( **_"Existentialism is a Humanism"_**), seen by many as one of the **defining texts** of the [Existentialist](movements_existentialism.html) movement, Sartre described the human condition in a succinct **summary** form: "Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism." Thus, **freedom** entails **total responsibility**, in the face of which we experience **anguish**, **forlornness** and **despair**, and genuine **human dignity** can be achieved only in our **active acceptance** of these emotions.

Sartre concluded from his arguments that **if God exists**, then **man is not free**; by the same token, **if man is free**, then **God does not exist**. [Atheism](branch_atheism.html), then, is **taken for granted** in Sartre's philosophy, but he maintained that the "loss of God" is not to be mourned. On the contrary, in a **godless universe**, life has **no meaning** or purpose beyond the **goals** that each man sets for himself, and individuals must therefore **detach** themselves from things in order to give them **meaning**.

Although Sartre is considered by many to be an important and innovative philosopher, others are much **less impressed** by his contributions. [Heidegger](philosophers_heidegger.html) himself thought that Sartre had merely taken his own work and **regressed** it back to the **subject-object** orientated philosophy of [Descartes](philosophers_descartes.html) and [Husserl](philosophers_husserl.html), which is exactly what Heidegger had been trying to **free** philosophy from. Some see **Maurice Merleau-Ponty** (1908 - 1961) as a better [Existentialist](movements_existentialism.html) philosopher, particular for his incorporation of the **body** as our way of being in the world, and for his more complete analysis of **perception** (two areas in which [Heidegger](philosophers_heidegger.html)'s work is often seen as **deficient**).

**Jean-Paul Sartre Books**[Back to Top](#Top)

See the additional sources and recommended reading list below, or check the [philosophy books](philosophy-books.html) page for a full list. Whenever possible, I linked to books with my amazon affiliate code, and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Purchasing from these links helps to keep the website running, and I am grateful for your support!

- [The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre Paperback – August 12, 1972](https://amzn.to/2HxjpTm)

  by Jean-Paul Sartre (Author), Robert D. Cumming (Editor)

- [Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology Hardcover – 1956](https://amzn.to/2KdQjud)

  by Jean Paul Sartre (Author), Hazel Barnes (Translator)

- [Existentialism and Human Emotion (A Philosophical Library Book)Paperback – December 1, 2000](https://amzn.to/2Hs0s8Z)

  by Jean-Paul Sartre (Author)

- [Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings Paperback – 2009](https://amzn.to/2JrMwIu)

  by Priest Stephen (ed.) (Author)

- [The Cambridge Companion to Sartre, ed. by Christina Howells](https://amzn.to/2HZt7ip)

  by Christina Howells (Editor)

- [Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Paul Sartre (Re-Reading the Canon)Hardcover – July 26, 1999](https://amzn.to/2HvHTwm)

  by Julien S. Murphy (Editor)

- [Using Sartre: An Analytical Introduction to Early Sartrean Themes](https://amzn.to/2HsqyZp)

  by Gregory McCulloch (Author)


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