Philosophy › The 20th century › Existentialism
Jean-Paul Sartre
1905–1980· Philosopher· Ethics & how to live
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
French philosopher, novelist and playwright who made existentialism famous with the claim that we are 'condemned to be free'.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: humans have no fixed nature, so we are wholly responsible for what we make of ourselves. Being and Nothingness (1943), written after his release as a German prisoner of war, analyzes consciousness, freedom and 'bad faith', like a waiter playing at being a waiter. His play No Exit (1944) gave us 'Hell is other people.' Later he tried to merge existentialism with Marxism, and refused the 1964 Nobel Prize. Main objection: radical freedom ignores real constraints, as de Beauvoir herself argued.
Why it matters
He was the defining public intellectual of postwar France, joining philosophy, literature and activism, and made existentialism a worldwide cultural movement.
Legacy and sources
His books, plays and the journal Les Temps modernes, founded with de Beauvoir in 1945. About 50,000 people followed his funeral procession in Paris in 1980.
Still debated
His long support for Soviet communism, and later Maoism, after their abuses were known is still debated as blindness or principled solidarity.
Connections (6)
▸Husserl and phenomenology shaped Jean-Paul SartreWell documented
The connection
Phenomenology gave Sartre a way to do philosophy about everyday experience: a glass, a café, a stranger's look. He adopted Husserl's idea that consciousness is always of something, and pushed it further: consciousness is empty in itself, a 'nothingness', which is why it is free.
When and how
Over apricot cocktails in a Paris bar in 1932–33, Raymond Aron told Sartre that phenomenology could make philosophy out of the cocktail; Sartre then studied Husserl in Berlin, 1933–34.
How we know
De Beauvoir recounts the scene in her memoir The Prime of Life; Sartre's The Transcendence of the Ego (1936–37) engages Husserl directly.
Debates and open questions
Husserl scholars say Sartre's reading was selective, keeping the method while rejecting Husserl's 'transcendental ego', the self standing behind experience.
▸Martin Heidegger, Being and Time influenced Jean-Paul SartreWell documented
The connection
Sartre adopted much of Being and Time: humans as beings whose own existence is at issue for them, the flight into the anonymous crowd, anxiety and authenticity. Being and Nothingness recast these into a philosophy of radical individual freedom. Heidegger rejected the result, denying he was an existentialist or a humanist.
When and how
Sartre studied Heidegger in Berlin in 1933–34 and again in a German POW camp in 1940–41; Heidegger replied in his 'Letter on Humanism' (1947).
How we know
Being and Nothingness cites Heidegger throughout; the Letter on Humanism quotes and rejects Sartre's 1945 lecture.
Debates and open questions
Whether Sartre misread Heidegger, for instance by rendering Dasein as 'human reality', was long debated in France; Heidegger thought he had.
▸Jean-Paul Sartre defined ExistentialismWell documented
The connection
Sartre gave the movement its public face and slogan: 'existence precedes essence'. In a packed 1945 lecture he defended existentialism against charges of despair, arguing that because we are not designed for any purpose, we are free and fully responsible. The talk, printed as a short book, became the movement's manifesto.
When and how
Club Maintenant, Paris, 29 October 1945, before a crowd so dense that people reportedly fainted; published in 1946 as Existentialism Is a Humanism.
How we know
The lecture text survives, and Paris newspapers covered the evening as a sensation.
Debates and open questions
Sartre reportedly came to regret publishing it as too simple; scholars debate how well it represents Being and Nothingness.
▸Jean-Paul Sartre answered "radically free" to Do we have free will?Well documented
The connection
Sartre gave the strongest yes: humans are 'condemned to be free'. We cannot escape choosing, since refusing to choose is itself a choice, and we cannot blame nature, upbringing or God. He even wrote that the French were never freer than under German occupation. Pretending otherwise is 'bad faith'.
When and how
Being and Nothingness (Paris, 1943) and Existentialism Is a Humanism (1945), written during and just after the German occupation of France.
How we know
These claims are stated explicitly in his texts.
Debates and open questions
Determinists and neuroscientists question whether such freedom exists at all; Sartre himself later stressed social and economic limits in his Marxist work.
▸Jean-Paul Sartre partnered with Simone de Beauvoir, The Second SexWell documented
The connection
Sartre and de Beauvoir met as students and formed a lifelong partnership, never marrying or living together, open to other lovers. They read and criticized each other's manuscripts. She pressed him on how one's situation limits freedom; his framework of freedom and 'the Other' supplied tools for The Second Sex.
When and how
Paris, 1929, while preparing for the agrégation, France's elite teaching exam; he placed first and she second. They were together until his death in 1980.
How we know
Their letters, her memoirs and diaries document the partnership; they are buried together in Montparnasse Cemetery.
Debates and open questions
Who influenced whom more is disputed: Kate and Edward Fullbrook argue key ideas of Being and Nothingness first appeared in her novel She Came to Stay (1943).
▸Albert Camus and the absurd broke with Jean-Paul SartreWell documented
The connection
Camus and Sartre were friends and stars of postwar Paris, though Camus rejected the existentialist label. Camus' The Rebel argued that revolutions, communism included, end in murder justified by history. Sartre's journal ran a scathing review, and Sartre's public reply ended the friendship. The quarrel came to symbolize the French left's split over the Soviet Union.
When and how
Paris, 1951–52: The Rebel (1951); Francis Jeanson's review in Les Temps modernes (May 1952); Camus' letter and Sartre's reply in the August 1952 issue.
How we know
The review, Camus' letter and Sartre's reply were all published and are still printed together.
Debates and open questions
Who was right is still argued: many think the Soviet record vindicated Camus, while others share Sartre's view that Camus' moral stance was too abstract for real politics.