Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher, writer, and playwright known for his existentialist theories and their connection to social and political struggle. He studied philosophy at École Normale Supérieure and taught at Le Havre and Lycée Pasteur in Paris. Sartre believed in man’s freedom and the need for solidarity with others. His most famous works include La Nausée, Le Mur, and L’Etre et le Néant. Sartre died in 1980, leaving a lasting impact on philosophy and literature.
Jean-Paul Sartre was born in 1905 in Paris. Sartre is best known for his philosophical theories on existentialism and its connections to social and political struggle. Jean-Paul Sartre not only focused on these theories but also wrote novels, plays and political pamphlets. He was considered one of the most important leaders of postwar French culture.
In 1924, Jean-Paul Sartre began studying philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In 1931 he became professor of philosophy and taught at Le Havre. In 1932 he moved to Berlin to study the philosophies of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. He also taught at Le Havre and at the Lycée Pasteur in Paris from 1937 to 1939. From the end of World War II to his death, Sartre made a living as a freelance writer.
For Jean Paul-Sartre, his philosophies on existentialism were the center of his writing and the core of his identity. Drawing on the teachings he had learned from Husserl and Heidegger, Sartre popularized existentialist theories that were themselves very original. Although the popularity of his writing peaked in the 1940s, his writings, novels and plays would become classics of modern literature.
Jean-Paul Sartre believed that atheism was taken for granted and that the loss of God was not something to mourn. Man is condemned to freedom, a freedom from all authority. He may try to evade, deny and distort this freedom, but it is only when he has the courage to face it that he becomes a moral human being. Once this freedom is recognized, man must commit himself to a role in the world. Man’s attempt to commit himself to freedom is in vain without the solidarity of others.
Jean-Paul Sartre presented these theories to the world in 1948 with Qu’est-ce que la littérature? (What is literature?). In this book, he explained that literature is not just about stories, characters and situations, but should focus on freedom and the author’s commitment to freedom. Artistic creation is a moral activity, and therefore literature should be committed to those (Sartre’s) theories.
Sartre’s early works were mainly psychological studies and were not very successful at the time. It was with his first novel, La Nausée (Nausea), in 1938 and a collection of short stories, Le Mur (Intimacy), published the same year, that Jean-Paul Sartre’s name was finally recognized. The books use dramatic terms to express his themes of alienation, commitment, and the search for salvation through art.
In 1943, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his most central philosophical work, L’Etre et le Néant (Being and Nothing), his enormous formula on the concept of being. Most modern existentialist thinking stems from the concepts and theories that Jean-Paul Sartre has outlined in this book. Sartre died in 1980 at the age of 75. His funeral attracted one of the largest crowds France has ever seen. Sartre’s influence changed thoughts and attitudes around the world.
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