Jean-Paul Sartre

EXISTENTIALISM defined

"someone who believes and acts upon the followign proposition as it applies to human beings: EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE"

famous works

**-1943: "BEING AND NOTHINGNESS" -1936: "The Psychology of the Imagination" -1937: "Transcendence of the Ego" -1938: "Nausea" (phenomenological analysis of a glass of beer) -1945: "The Age of Reason" -1960: "The Critique of Dialectical Reason" (Marxian work) -1985: ""The Critique of Dialectical Reason" Volume 2 (abandoned the manuscript, published in French after his death)

Sartre's influences

-*Maurice Merleau-Ponty (influenced him to move to the left) -Raymond Aron (studied the philosophy of "phenomenology" in Germany) -Soren Kierkegaard (influenced his theory of existentialism) -Friedrich Nietzsche (influenced his theory of existentialism) --> announced that "God is dead" -Gabriel Marcel (called himself an existentialist when the Pope announced that there were no Catholic existentialists) -Franza Kafka -Martin Buber

early life

-1929: began 18-months of obligatory military service -offered a teaching job at a lycée once discharged on the northwest coast, while de Beauvoir taught at a lycée on the southern coast -1933: Sartre went to Berlin to study "phenomenology" (founded by Edmund Husserl) -returned to his teaching job and incorporated his newly-discovered phenomenological insights into his writings -1935: first experiences with the drug mescaline -1939 (September, 3): peace ended when France/Britain declared war on Germany --> Sartre was re-inducted into the army

post Nobel Prize (post 1964)

-1986: Paris streets were filled with students in rebellion, and Sartre supported the students (right-wing press blamed Sartre for the revolt -he criticized the French conservative government of President de Gaulle for oppressing the young and attacked the French communist party for betraying what he thought was a true revolution -1977: "I am no longer a Marxist" -Sartre -Sartre drank too much whisky and smoked too much (almost blind by the end of his life); took drugs to "rev" himself up when he wrote philosophy

what philosophical term did he start?

-EXISTENTIALISM -he later abandoned existentialism for marxism (which he abandoned later too)

Sartre's friends

-Raymond Aron (studied the philosophy of "phenomenology" in Germany) -Albert Camus (friendship ended when he defended the Soviet Union) -Pablo Picasso -*Maurice Merleau-Ponty (influenced him to move to the left)

post-war life

-became famous for his works among Parisian intellectuals -existentialism was even in Vogue -travelled the world to lecture; his ideas were spread through famous journals -fell under the political influence of the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and began a rapid move to the left (abandoning existentialism) -he abandoned his promised sequel to "Being and Nothingness" because he had "converted" to Marxism (but refused to join the French Communist Party) -aligned himself against the US with the Soviet Union (causing a split between him and Albert Camus) -1968: he broke away from the Soviet Union (Kremlin) when they invaded Czechoslovakia but still continued his Leftist activities -5,000 army veterans marched down the Champs-Elysées because he sided with the native Algerians in the French war (so he was forced to go into hiding)

brief introduction

-born in Paris on June 21, 1905 -lived from 1905 to 1980 -he influenced writers, artists, and political activists around the world -one of the most famous philosophers of his century, as well as an influential novelist, playwright and political activity (yet he was never satisfied with his own intellectual views) -was so popular that 50,000 people followed his funeral cortege through the streets of Paris

Sartre's death

-died on April 15, 1980 -he was still very popular at the time of his death; the streets of Paris were filled with people to join him on his final journey to the cemetery

Sartre's relationship with his parents

-father died when he was only 1 years old -moved to his grandparent's home (grandfather was a big influence on him) -mother remarried when he was twelve --> he viewed the marriage as a betrayal and a loss -he decided that God did not exist (though his grandfather and his stepfather definitely did exist)

EXISTENTIALISM

-he established his first fame as an existentialist -no religious/political common denominator -there is almost as much political divergence as there is religious variety among those who have been called "existentialists" -"there is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it" -each human is alone, abandoned, and free --> each human creates and re-creates his or her essence in every moment of their life -"EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE" --> "if you belive this, and you feel it in your bones, you are an existentialist" -there are no instincts that causes specific ations -biological "drives" like nutrition and sex are not INSTINCTS, because they involve intention and choice -"there are always alternatives to anything that counts as human actions" --> this is always true, even when we FEEL that there are no alternatives -"a belief in God could only be that - a BELIEF, an article of faith grasped passionately, and never scientific datum nor logical deduction" -God had left us in absolute isolation -"when we call out to God, we are greeted by a massive silence. For Kierkegaard, that silence is God's presence" -"in turning to God, we are turning to our own freedom. Therefore, for Kierkegaard too, human existence precedes its essence"

relationship with Simone de Beauvoir

-his delay in his acedemic career resulted in his meeting of de Beauvoir, a young philosophy student -they never married or lived together and had other lovers -they influenced each other's work -ashes are buried next to each other in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris

structuralism

-late 1950s: structuralism was stealing the thunder from existentialism (but he had moved away from existentialism by then)

life during the war (and in the army)

-rarely washed/shaved (became dirty) -began writing "The Age of Reason" (1945) -snuck out of Stalag, sneaked back to Paris, and returned to a teaching job that he began before the war -formed "Socialism and Liberty" --> a resistance group with other intellectuals (ended after a few months of accomplishing little) -contributed articles to underground newspapers (dangerous) and wrote "The Flies" (1943), containing blatant anti-Nazi messages --> not suppressed by Nazis

Sartre's education

-received his baccalaureate at 17 and began his six-year study at the Sorbonne for his "agrégation" (the exam that would be a ticket to an acedemic career in philosophy) -failed his agrégation, coming last in his class

physical appearance of Sartre

he had a strabismus (wandering eye) due to an illness when he was 4 yers old

Nobel Prize for literature (1964)

he was awarded the award in 1964, but rejected it on political grounds