Jean-Paul Sartre

Overview

Jean-Paul Sartre was a philosopher, novelist, and playwright who became the public face of existentialism in postwar France. His central claim is that existence precedes essence: unlike a tool made for a purpose, a person is not born with a built-in nature or function, and so must create who they are through their own choices. This freedom is total and inescapable, which Sartre says produces anguish, and much of his work examines the ways people try to hide from that freedom through what he calls bad faith. Being and Nothingness lays out the full philosophical system, but new readers usually start with the short, more accessible lecture Existentialism Is a Humanism, which Sartre gave partly to answer critics of the movement.

Where to start reading

• Nausea 1938

  A novel in diary form about Antoine Roquentin, whose growing revulsion at the sheer, unjustified existence of things around him becomes a way into Sartre's philosophy.

• Being and Nothingness 1943

  Sartre's major philosophical treatise, developing his account of freedom, consciousness, and bad faith at full length.

• Existentialism Is a Humanism 1946

  A public lecture, later published, that gives the most accessible summary of Sartre's existentialism and answers common objections against it.

Part of

• Existentialism

Sources

1. Jean-Paul Sartre Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
2. Existentialism Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy