Sartre, Jean-Paul

(1905-80)

   The leading philosopher of existentialism and in some ways the leading atheist of the twentieth century, Sartre did at least recognise that his atheism was just as much of a philosophical position as another's theism. In his earlier writings Sartre interacted with Husserl and Heidegger, and wrote on consciousness (which he thought demanded a tacit self-consciousness) and freedom (which he thought meant freedom not just from God but from independent moral values). These themes come together in his insistence that human consciousness, or being for itself (ˆetre-pour-soi ), must not become an object, or being in itself (ˆetre-en-soi ), as this would entail a loss of freedom. In his later writings Sartre tried to marry his existentialist insights with Marxism, with the result that he lost his earlier emphasis on freedom. Sartre developed these ideas in philosophical monographs such as his magnum opus, L'ˆetre et le n´eant (Being and Nothingness), in plays such as Huis Clos (No Exit), biographies such as those of Flaubert and Genet, his autobiography, and novels such as La Naus´ee (Nausea). Sartre was offered the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964, but declined. He, together with his companion Simone de Beauvoir, exercised a great influence over intellectual culture in France and Europe more generally.

   See atheism; existentialism; Heidegger, Martin

   Further reading: Cohen-Solal 1988; Howells 1992; Sartre 1948, 1957, 1958 and 1963