Sartre

General facts about the athuor:

 Born in Paris 1905 – Died in Paris in 1980

 French existentialist philosopher, play writer, novelist, screenwriter, political activist,
biographer and literary critic
 Studies; was both a student and a professor of philosophy at Le Havre (1931), studies
philosophy in Berlin (1932), teaching at Le Havre, Laon and Lycée Pasteur in Paris (1937-
1939)
 Family: His father died when Sartre was only 15 months old, his grandfather was a very strict
man dedicated to learning, spent all her energy on Jean Paul Sartre, his grandfather an
attractive man sought to prove his virility at every chance having several affairs even with his
own students something that came to disgust Sartre even though he himself had several
affairs later on in life also with his students, when Sartre was 12 his mother remarried which
he viewed as a betrayal, he seemed to rebel against his grandfather and his stepfather at
every opportunity,
 Simone de Beauvoir – met in school, a noted philosopher and feminist, they were never
exclusive with both having lovers, they never lived together and marriage was out of the
question for both of them since it „represented society’s view of relationship“
 Life: was in the army as a meteorologist in 1939, got captured and held in prison for 9
months in 1940, when released he went back to Paris
 Personality: „Sartre felt most at home in cafès and restaurants where he could annex space
dominating the conversation and exhaling smoke, But like Kafka, he never felt more free than
when he was writing, creating an imaginary space“ – Hayman about Sartre
 The Nobel Prize in 1964; Sartre was awarded with the Nobel Prize in 1964 the announcement
said „for his work, wich, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for
truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age“, Sartre had explained that he did not
wish to get the prize and that he would not accept it, it was due to personal and objective
reasons of his own, Sartre said that „a writer’s acceptance of such an honour would be to
accosiate his personal commitments with the awarding institution, and that, above all, a
writer should not allow himself to be turned into a institution“,

Sartre’s philosophy:

 Man is condemned to freedom, a freedom from all authority, which he may seek to
evade, distort, and deny but which he will have to face if he is to become a moral being.
The meaning of man’s life is not established before his existence. Once the terrible
freedom is acknowledged, man has to make this meaning himself, has to commit himself
to a role in this world, has to commit his freedom.
 “Condemned to be free” – if one considers a paper knif, one would assume that the
creator would have had a plan for it; an essence. Sartre said that human beings have no
 essence before their existence because there is no creator. “We are left alone, without
excuse”
 Existentialism: “man first is, and only subsequently is this or that. In a word, man must
create his own essence: it is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling
there, that he gradually defines himself. And the definition always remains open ended:
we cannot say what this man is before he dies, or what mankind is before it has
disappeared”
This means that man, as the only sentient being on earth, is forced to define who he is
through living, while objects are what they are until destroyed. With our ability to think,
grow and change, mankind is in the unique position of defining itself. We are each in
charge of defining our own lives, no one is complete until death, when self-definition
finishes. Humans has form then meaning, objects have meaning and then form.
 “At the root of humanity I see only sadness and boredom”
 “If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company”
 “When the rich wage war it is the poor who die”
 “We must act out our passion before we can feel it”
 “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for
everything he does”
 “Words are loaded pistols”
“Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do”
 “Everything has been figured out, except how to live”

Writing & Works by Sartre

 Famous works:
- Nausea – novel, 1938 (La Nausèe), a manifesto of existentialism and remains one of his
most famous books, the title is referred to all that the main character encounters in his
everyday life, it is suffused with a pervasive, even horrible, taste – specifically his freedom
- Being and Nothingless – essay, 1943 (L’Etre el le Néant)
- The Flies, play, 1943 (Les Mouches)
- No Exit – play, 1944 (Huis Clos)
 Novels and plays mainly
 What Sartre always wanted his audience to understand was that he believed we always have
the ability to choose a new role, a new state of being. Today, one might be a philosopher,
while tomorrow that same person might wait tables.