Jean-Paul Sartre
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| + | "I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a [[society]] divided by [[Social class|class]] and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class ''[[by any means necessary]]''."--''[[Dirty Hands]]'' (1948) by [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] | ||
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| - | '''Jean-Paul Sartre''' ([[June 21]], [[1905]] – [[April 15]], [[1980]]) was a [[France|French]] [[existentialism|existentialist]] [[philosopher]] and [[writer]]. He was a leading figure in [[Twentieth-Century French Philosophy|20th century French philosophy]]. His most famous line is --from the 1944 ''[[No Exit]]'' -- "[[Hell is other people]]." [[Guy Debord]] had little patience with Sartre and other intellectuals who adopted [[anti-establishment]] [[pose]]s while enjoying the perks of fame. He dismissed a top film maker, Jean-Luc Godard, as an "offspring of Mao and Coca Cola". {{GFDL}} | + | '''Jean-Paul Sartre''' (21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a [[France|French]] [[existentialism|existentialist]] [[philosopher]] and [[writer]]. Although he was a leading figure in [[Twentieth-Century French Philosophy|20th century French philosophy]], he was not universally liked, [[Guy Debord]] for example had little patience with Sartre and other [[intellectual]]s who according to him adopted [[anti-establishment]] [[poseur|pose]]s while enjoying the perks of fame. His most famous line is "[[Hell is other people]]." Although never [[married]], he was [[lover|romantically linked]] to [[Simone de Beauvoir]] for most of his life. |
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| + | Boris Vian spoofed him in ''[[L'Écume des Jours]]'' (1947) as Jean-Sol Partre. | ||
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| + | [[Jean-Paul Sartre|Sartre]] contributed many other strands of existential exploration, particularly in terms of emotions, imagination, and the person's insertion into a social and political world. He became the father of existentialism, which was a philosophical trend with a limited life span. The philosophy of existence on the contrary is carried by a wide-ranging literature, which includes many other authors than the ones mentioned above. There is much to be learned from existential authors such as [[Karl Jaspers]] (1951, 1963), [[Paul Tillich]], [[Martin Buber]], and [[Hans-Georg Gadamer]] within the Germanic tradition and [[Albert Camus]], [[Gabriel Marcel]], [[Paul Ricoeur]], [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]] and [[Emmanuel Lévinas]] within the French tradition (see for instance Spiegelberg, 1972, Kearney, 1986 or van Deurzen-Smith, 1997). Few psychotherapists are aware of this literature, or interested in making use of it. Psychotherapy has traditionally grown within a medical rather than a philosophical milieu and is only just beginning to discover the possibility of a radical philosophical approach. | ||
| + | ==Sartre's philosophy== | ||
| + | Many critics argue Sartre's philosophy is contradictory. Specifically, they argue that Sartre makes metaphysical arguments despite his claiming that his philosophical views ignore metaphysics. [[Herbert Marcuse]] criticized ''[[Being and Nothingness]]'' (1943) by [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] for projecting anxiety and meaninglessness onto the nature of existence itself: "Insofar as Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine, it remains an idealistic doctrine: it [[hypostatic abstraction|hypostatizes]] specific historical conditions of human existence into ontological and metaphysical characteristics. Existentialism thus becomes part of the very ideology which it attacks, and its radicalism is illusory". | ||
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| + | In ''[[Letter on Humanism]]'', Heidegger criticized Sartre's existentialism: | ||
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| + | <blockquote>Existentialism says existence precedes essence. In this statement he is taking ''existentia'' and ''essentia'' according to their metaphysical meaning, which, from Plato's time on, has said that ''essentia'' precedes ''existentia''. Sartre reverses this statement. But the reversal of a metaphysical statement remains a metaphysical statement. With it, he stays with metaphysics, in oblivion of the truth of Being.</blockquote> | ||
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| + | ==Selected bibliography== | ||
| + | * ''L'Imagination'' (''[[Imagination: A Psychological Critique]]''), 1936 | ||
| + | * ''La Transcendance de l'égo'' (''[[The Transcendence of the Ego]]''), 1937 | ||
| + | * ''La Nausée'' (''[[Nausea (novel)|Nausea]]''), 1938 | ||
| + | * ''Le Mur'' (''[[The Wall (book)|The Wall]]''), 1939 | ||
| + | * ''Esquisse d'une théorie des émotions'' (''[[Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions]]''), 1939 | ||
| + | * ''L'Imaginaire'' (''[[The Imaginary (Sartre)|The Imaginary]]''), 1940, lit. "The Unconscious" | ||
| + | * ''Les Mouches'' (''[[The Flies]]''), 1943 - a modern version of the ''[[Oresteia]]'' | ||
| + | * ''L'Être et le néant'' (''[[Being and Nothingness]]''), 1943 | ||
| + | * ''Réflexions sur la question juive'' (''[[Anti-Semite and Jew]]''; literally, ''Reflections on the Jewish Question''), 1943 | ||
| + | * ''Huis-clos'' (''[[No Exit]]''), 1944 | ||
| + | * ''Les Chemins de la liberté'' (''[[The Roads to Freedom]]'') trilogy, comprising: | ||
| + | * ''L'Âge de raison'' (''[[The Age of Reason (Sartre)|The Age of Reason]]''), 1945 | ||
| + | * ''Le Sursis'' (''[[The Reprieve]]''), 1947 | ||
| + | * ''La Mort dans l'Âme'' (''[[Troubled Sleep]]'', title formerly translated as ''Iron in the Soul'', literally "Death in Spirit"), 1949 | ||
| + | * ''Morts sans sépulture'' (''Deaths without burial''; aka ''The Victors''), 1946 | ||
| + | * ''L'Existentialisme est un humanisme'' (''[[Existentialism is a Humanism]]''), 1946 | ||
| + | * ''La Putain respectueuse'' (''[[The Respectful Whore]]'') 1946 | ||
| + | * ''Qu'est ce que la littérature?'' (''[[What is literature?]]''), 1947 | ||
| + | * ''[[Baudelaire]]'', 1947 | ||
| + | * ''Situations'', 1947 –1965 | ||
| + | * ''[[Les Mains Sales|Les Mains sales]]'' (''Dirty Hands''), 1948 | ||
| + | * "Orphée Noir" (Black Orpheus), introduction to ''Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache.'' edited by [[Léopold Sédar Senghor]], 1948 | ||
| + | * ''Le Diable et le bon dieu'' (''[[The Devil and the Good Lord]]''), 1951 | ||
| + | * ''[[Les jeux sont faits|Les Jeux sont faits]]'' (''[[The Game is Up]]''), 1952 | ||
| + | * ''Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr'', 1952 | ||
| + | * ''Nekrassov'', 1955 | ||
| + | * ''[[Existentialism and Human Emotions]]'', 1957 | ||
| + | * ''[[The Problem of Method]]'', 1957 | ||
| + | * ''Les Séquestrés d'Altona'' (''[[The Condemned of Altona]]''), 1959 | ||
| + | * ''Critique de la raison dialectique'' (''[[Critique of Dialectical Reason]]''), 1960 | ||
| + | * "Preface" to [[Frantz Fanon]]'s ''[[The Wretched of the Earth]]'', 1961 | ||
| + | * ''[[Search for a Method]]'' (English translation of preface to ''Critique'', Vol. I), 1962 | ||
| + | * ''[[Colonialism and Neocolonialism]]'', 1964 | ||
| + | * ''Les Mots'' (''[[The Words]]''), 1964, autobiographical | ||
| + | * ''L'Idiot de la famille'' (''The Family Idiot''), 1971–1972 - on [[Gustave Flaubert]] | ||
| + | * ''Cahiers pour une morale'' (''[[Notebooks for Ethics]]''), 1983, 1947-48 notes on ethics | ||
| + | * ''Les Carnets de la drôle de guerre: Novembre 1939 - Mars 1940'' (''[[War Diaries|War Diaries: Notebooks from a Phony War 1939-1940]]''), [[1984]], notebooks from Sartre's time in the [[Phony War]] of 1939-1940 | ||
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| + | == See also == | ||
| + | *[[Existentialism]]{{GFDL}} | ||
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"I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary."--Dirty Hands (1948) by Jean-Paul Sartre |
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Jean-Paul Sartre (21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French existentialist philosopher and writer. Although he was a leading figure in 20th century French philosophy, he was not universally liked, Guy Debord for example had little patience with Sartre and other intellectuals who according to him adopted anti-establishment poses while enjoying the perks of fame. His most famous line is "Hell is other people." Although never married, he was romantically linked to Simone de Beauvoir for most of his life.
Boris Vian spoofed him in L'Écume des Jours (1947) as Jean-Sol Partre.
Sartre contributed many other strands of existential exploration, particularly in terms of emotions, imagination, and the person's insertion into a social and political world. He became the father of existentialism, which was a philosophical trend with a limited life span. The philosophy of existence on the contrary is carried by a wide-ranging literature, which includes many other authors than the ones mentioned above. There is much to be learned from existential authors such as Karl Jaspers (1951, 1963), Paul Tillich, Martin Buber, and Hans-Georg Gadamer within the Germanic tradition and Albert Camus, Gabriel Marcel, Paul Ricoeur, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Lévinas within the French tradition (see for instance Spiegelberg, 1972, Kearney, 1986 or van Deurzen-Smith, 1997). Few psychotherapists are aware of this literature, or interested in making use of it. Psychotherapy has traditionally grown within a medical rather than a philosophical milieu and is only just beginning to discover the possibility of a radical philosophical approach.
Sartre's philosophy
Many critics argue Sartre's philosophy is contradictory. Specifically, they argue that Sartre makes metaphysical arguments despite his claiming that his philosophical views ignore metaphysics. Herbert Marcuse criticized Being and Nothingness (1943) by Jean-Paul Sartre for projecting anxiety and meaninglessness onto the nature of existence itself: "Insofar as Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine, it remains an idealistic doctrine: it hypostatizes specific historical conditions of human existence into ontological and metaphysical characteristics. Existentialism thus becomes part of the very ideology which it attacks, and its radicalism is illusory".
In Letter on Humanism, Heidegger criticized Sartre's existentialism:
Existentialism says existence precedes essence. In this statement he is taking existentia and essentia according to their metaphysical meaning, which, from Plato's time on, has said that essentia precedes existentia. Sartre reverses this statement. But the reversal of a metaphysical statement remains a metaphysical statement. With it, he stays with metaphysics, in oblivion of the truth of Being.
Selected bibliography
- L'Imagination (Imagination: A Psychological Critique), 1936
- La Transcendance de l'égo (The Transcendence of the Ego), 1937
- La Nausée (Nausea), 1938
- Le Mur (The Wall), 1939
- Esquisse d'une théorie des émotions (Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions), 1939
- L'Imaginaire (The Imaginary), 1940, lit. "The Unconscious"
- Les Mouches (The Flies), 1943 - a modern version of the Oresteia
- L'Être et le néant (Being and Nothingness), 1943
- Réflexions sur la question juive (Anti-Semite and Jew; literally, Reflections on the Jewish Question), 1943
- Huis-clos (No Exit), 1944
- Les Chemins de la liberté (The Roads to Freedom) trilogy, comprising:
- L'Âge de raison (The Age of Reason), 1945
- Le Sursis (The Reprieve), 1947
- La Mort dans l'Âme (Troubled Sleep, title formerly translated as Iron in the Soul, literally "Death in Spirit"), 1949
- Morts sans sépulture (Deaths without burial; aka The Victors), 1946
- L'Existentialisme est un humanisme (Existentialism is a Humanism), 1946
- La Putain respectueuse (The Respectful Whore) 1946
- Qu'est ce que la littérature? (What is literature?), 1947
- Baudelaire, 1947
- Situations, 1947 –1965
- Les Mains sales (Dirty Hands), 1948
- "Orphée Noir" (Black Orpheus), introduction to Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache. edited by Léopold Sédar Senghor, 1948
- Le Diable et le bon dieu (The Devil and the Good Lord), 1951
- Les Jeux sont faits (The Game is Up), 1952
- Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr, 1952
- Nekrassov, 1955
- Existentialism and Human Emotions, 1957
- The Problem of Method, 1957
- Les Séquestrés d'Altona (The Condemned of Altona), 1959
- Critique de la raison dialectique (Critique of Dialectical Reason), 1960
- "Preface" to Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, 1961
- Search for a Method (English translation of preface to Critique, Vol. I), 1962
- Colonialism and Neocolonialism, 1964
- Les Mots (The Words), 1964, autobiographical
- L'Idiot de la famille (The Family Idiot), 1971–1972 - on Gustave Flaubert
- Cahiers pour une morale (Notebooks for Ethics), 1983, 1947-48 notes on ethics
- Les Carnets de la drôle de guerre: Novembre 1939 - Mars 1940 (War Diaries: Notebooks from a Phony War 1939-1940), 1984, notebooks from Sartre's time in the Phony War of 1939-1940
See also
