Jean-Paul Sartre
"Nausea" penned him
Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher, novelist, and playwright who became the leading figure of existentialism in the mid-twentieth century.
His philosophy emphasized radical human freedom and the anxiety that accompanies it—existence precedes essence, meaning we define ourselves through choices rather than inheriting a fixed nature.
Sartre declined the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964.
His name often invokes Left Bank intellectualism, black turtlenecks, and Parisian café culture: He sat there brooding like a junior Sartre.
Intentional deception in dealings
- authenticityQuality of being genuine
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- nothingnessComplete absence of existence
- consciousnessState of sentient awareness
anguish · absurdity · the look · engagement · commitment · lived experience · human condition · phenomenology
Class-based revolutionary philosophy
- communismCollective ownership system
- socialismCommunal economic control
- anti-colonialismOpposition to foreign domination
- Cuban RevolutionCaribbean island's 1959 overthrow
commitment · praxis · anti-capitalism · Maoism · revolutionary · leftist · activism · solidarity
France's chief city
- Left BankParis's intellectual quarter
- MontparnasseParis arts district
- French ResistanceWWII underground liberation movement
- SorbonneFamous Parisian academic institution
Upright structural boundary
- BaudelaireFrench decadent poet
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- novelistWriter of prose narratives
- essayistAuthor of short prose
- open relationshipConsensual romantic nonexclusivity
- rivalryOngoing contest between opponents
- falling outRelationship-ending dispute
- correspondenceExchanged written communication
bad faith
Intentional deception in dealings
- authenticityQuality of being genuine
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- nothingnessComplete absence of existence
consciousness · anguish · absurdity · the look · engagement · commitment · lived experience · human condition · phenomenology · ontology
Marxism
Class-based revolutionary philosophy
- communismCollective ownership system
- socialismCommunal economic control
- anti-colonialismOpposition to foreign domination
Cuban Revolution · commitment · praxis · anti-capitalism · Maoism · revolutionary · leftist · activism · solidarity
Paris
France's chief city
- Left BankParis's intellectual quarter
- MontparnasseParis arts district
- French ResistanceWWII underground liberation movement
The Wall
Upright structural boundary
- BaudelaireFrench decadent poet
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- novelistWriter of prose narratives
Simone de Beauvoir
- open relationshipConsensual romantic nonexclusivity
- rivalryOngoing contest between opponents
- falling outRelationship-ending dispute
Albert Camus · correspondence · companionship · collaboration
- French AuthorsVictor Hugo, Jules Verne, Voltaire, Albert Camus, Marcel Proust
- AuthorsShakespeare, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Literary AuthorsC.S. Lewis, Dostoevsky, J.R.R. Tolkien, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde
- French LiteratureVictor Hugo, Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Dumas, Jules Verne
- 20th Century AuthorsErnest Hemingway, Hemingway, William Faulkner, Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- EssayistsFrancis Bacon, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau
Jean-Paul SartreThomas Aquinas
Scholastic philosopher-theologian
C.S. Lewis · Pope John Paul II · B.F. Skinner · G.K. Chesterton · determinists
Jean-Paul SartreWinston Churchill
Britain's WWII premier
Milton Friedman · Margaret Thatcher · Charles de Gaulle · Albert Camus · Ayn Rand