Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre was the public face of twentieth-century existentialism, a philosopher, novelist, and playwright deeply engaged in the politics of his time. He argued that human beings have no fixed essence: we exist first and define ourselves through our choices. With this freedom comes inescapable responsibility and the anxiety that accompanies it.
Schools
Key concepts
Core works
Being and Nothingness
1943Sartre distinguishes two modes of being: the being of objects, which simply are what they are, and the being of consciousness, which is always beyond itself, questioning and negating. Because consciousness is this 'nothingness,' human beings are not fixed things but radically free — condemned, in his phrase, to be free. Much of the work analyzes how we flee this freedom through 'bad faith,' pretending we are determined by our roles, our pasts, or others' expectations. Sartre also examines how the gaze of other people objectifies us, generating conflict at the heart of human relations. Freedom is unavoidable, and with it the full weight of responsibility for who we become.
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Existentialism Is a Humanism
1946Originally a public lecture, this is Sartre's accessible defense of existentialism against charges that it is gloomy or amoral. He argues that because there is no God-given human nature, we are wholly responsible for what we make of ourselves — and, in choosing for ourselves, we implicitly affirm an image of what a human being should be. Freedom, then, is not a license for despair but a call to engaged, responsible action. Anxiety, abandonment, and despair are simply honest names for the human condition once illusions of a fixed essence are dropped. Far from pessimistic, Sartre presents existentialism as a demanding humanism centered on action and responsibility.
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