JEAN-PAUL SARTRE - THE ADVOCATE OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY - EXISTENTIALISM

 



JEAN-PAUL  SARTRE  -  THE  ADVOCATE  OF  WESTERN  PHILOSOPHY -  EXISTENTIALISM



                                        

Jean-Paul Sartre (born June 21, 1905, Paris, France—died April 15, 1980, Paris) was a French philosopher, novelist, and playwright, best known as the leading exponent of existentialism in the 20th century. In 1964, he declined the Nobel Prize for Literature, which had been awarded to him “for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age.”

The other dignitary to refuse the Nobel Prize was Le Duc Tho (1973 Peace), who declined it, citing the lack of peace in Vietnam.

Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology). His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies.



Existentialism - Philosophy, any of various philosophies, most influential in continental Europe from about 1930 to the mid-20th century, that have in common an interpretation of human existence in the world that stresses its concreteness and its problematic character.

Biography:



                                             

Sartre lost his father at an early age and grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Carl Schweitzer, uncle of the medical missionary Albert Schweitzer and himself professor of German at the Sorbonne. The boy, who wandered in the Luxembourg Gardens of Paris in search of playmates, was small in stature and cross-eyed. His brilliant autobiography, Les Mots (1963; Words), narrates the adventures of the mother and child in the park as they went from group to group—in the vain hope of being accepted—then finally retreated to the sixth floor of their apartment “on the heights where (the) dreams dwell.” “The words” saved the child, and his interminable pages of writing were the escape from a world that had rejected him but that he would proceed to rebuild in his own fancy.



Sartre attended the Lycée Henri IV in Paris and, later, after his mother's remarriage, the lycée in La Rochelle. From there, he went to the prestigious École Normale Supérieure, from which he graduated in 1929. Sartre resisted what he called “bourgeois marriage,” but while still a student, he formed with Simone de Beauvoir a union that remained a settled partnership in life. Simone de Beauvoir’s memoirs, Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée (1958; Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter) and La Force de l’âge (1960; The Prime of Life), provide an intimate account of Sartre’s life from his student years to his mid-50s. It was also at the École Normale Supérieure and at the Sorbonne that he met several persons who were destined to be writers of great fame; among them were Raymond Aron, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Simone Weil, Emmanuel Mounier, Jean Hippolyte, and Claude Lévi-Strauss. From 1931 until 1945, Sartre taught in the lycées of Le Havre, Laon, and, finally, Paris. Twice his teaching career was interrupted, once by a year of study in Berlin and the second time when Sartre was drafted in 1939 to serve in World War II. He was made prisoner in 1940 and released a year later.

 

During his years of teaching in Le Havre, Sartre published La Nausée (1938; Nausea). This philosophical novel, written in the form of a diary, narrates the feeling of revulsion that a certain Roquentin undergoes when confronted with the world of matter, not merely the world of other people but the very awareness of his own body. According to some critics, La Nausée must be viewed as a pathological case, a form of neurotic escape. Most probably, it must be appreciated also as a most original, fiercely individualistic, antisocial piece of work, containing in its pages many of the philosophical themes that Sartre later developed.



Sartre took over the phenomenological method, which proposes careful, unprejudiced description of the phenomena of conscious experience, from the German philosopher Edmund Husserl and used it with great skill in three successive publications: L’Imagination (1936; Imagination: A Psychological Critique), Esquisse d’une théorie des émotions (1939; Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions), and L’Imaginaire: Psychologie phénoménologique de l’imagination (1940; The Psychology of Imagination). But it was above all in L’Être et le néant (1943; Being and Nothingness) that Sartre revealed himself as a philosopher of remarkable originality and depth. Sartre places human consciousness, or no-thingness (néant), in opposition to being, or thingness (être). Consciousness is not matter and by the same token escapes all determinism. The message, with all the implications it contains, is a hopeful one; yet the incessant reminder that human endeavour is and remains useless makes the book tragic as well.



From 1960 until 1971, most of Sartre’s attention went into the writing of L’Idiot de la famille (The Family Idiot), a massive—and ultimately unfinished—study of the 19th-century French novelist Gustave Flaubert. Two volumes of the work appeared in the spring of 1971. This huge enterprise aimed at presenting the reader with a “total biography” through the use of a double tool: on the one hand, Karl Marx’s concepts of history and class, on the other, Sigmund Freud’s illuminations of the dark recesses of the human mind through explorations into Flaubert’s childhood and family relations. Although at times Sartre’s genius comes through and his fecundity is truly unbelievable, the work’s great length and minutely detailed analysis of even the slightest Flaubertian dictum made it difficult to read. As if he himself were saturated by the prodigal abundance of his writings, Sartre moved away from his desk during 1971 and did very little writing. Under the motto that “commitment is an act, not a word,” Sartre often went into the streets to participate in rioting, in the sale of left-wing literature, and in other activities that, in his opinion, were the way to promote “the revolution.” In 1972, he published a third volume of the work on Flaubert, L’Idiot de la famille.

 

The enormous fecundity of Sartre came to a close. His mind, still alert and active, came through in interviews and in the writing of motion picture scripts. He also worked on a book of ethics. However, his power was no longer that of a genius in full productivity. Sartre became blind, and his health deteriorated. In April 1980, he died of pulmonary edema. His very impressive funeral, attended by some 25,000 people, was reminiscent of Victor Hugo's burial, though it lacked the official recognition his illustrious predecessor had received. Those who attended were ordinary people whose rights Sartre’s pen had always defended.

His most notable works included Nausea (1938), Being and Nothingness (1943), and Existentialism and Humanism (1946).



In 1943, Jean-Paul Sartre published his masterpiece, Being and Nothingness, and laid the foundation of his legacy as one of the greatest twentieth-century philosophers. A brilliant and radical account of the human condition, Being and Nothingness explores what gives our lives significance.

Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist theory centers on the idea that "existence precedes essence," meaning humans are not born with a predetermined purpose or nature, but must create themselves through free choices. This absolute freedom entails immense responsibility and "anguish," as individuals are entirely responsible for their actions and values.


Key Works -


Being and Nothingness (1943): Defines the difference between conscious, free "being-for-itself" and unconscious "being-in-itself".



Existentialism is a Humanism (1946): A defense of his philosophy, highlighting its focus on action and human freedom.

 
Sartre's philosophy encourages a "heroic" life of active engagement and authenticity, emphasizing that there is no divine creator to give life meaning; humans create it themselves.

Jean-Paul Sartre, a titan of existentialism, is best known for emphasizing radical freedom, personal responsibility, and the authentic life. His famous quotes emphasize that humans define their own meaning rather than being born with a predetermined purpose. Key, oft-quoted phrases emphasize that existence precedes essence, we are condemned to be free, and hell is other people.



Here is a list of what Irv Yalom boiled down to the four “existential givens” that we wrestle with: our essential freedom and ultimate responsibility; our isolation and unavoidable loneliness; the meaning we must provide or find in life's meaninglessness; and the inevitability of our death and the deaths of everyone.



Possessiveness is so fundamental to the experience of love, Sartre thought, that to overcome the desire to possess a lover might be to overcome love itself. And yet in many ways, he advocated less for the padlock and more for the key: Love is like hurling yourself off the bridge into the Seine.

                                          The Bridge on the Seine River


The Seine is a 777-km (483-mile) river in northern France, famous for flowing through the heart of Paris and acting as a central, UNESCO-listed landmark. It rises in Burgundy and flows into the English Channel at Le Havre. Historically, its banks have been pivotal for commerce, leisure, and tourism, including famous boat cruises.



Sartre's famous Plays :

No Exit (1944)

The Flies (1943)

The Respectful Prostitute (1943)

Dirty Hands (1948)

The Condemned of Altona (1959)

The Devil and The Good Lord (1951)

Since my teens, I have been introduced to Existentialist and Absurdist philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Franz Kafka. They were the modern writers who influenced me. I used to read their prominent works translated into my mother tongue.