A SAD CHILDHOOD
Jean Paul Sartre was born on June 21, 1905, in Paris, France. His father Jean Baptiste, was an officer in the Navy; he died when Sartre was only fifteen months old. Young Sartre would grow up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Karl Schweitzer, professor of German at the Sorbonne. Shortly after his father's death he became sick with enteritis (inflammation of the small intestines). Eventually he recovered and his mother, Anne-Marie, decided to go and live with her parents at Meudon, taking along little Jean with her. The year was 1907.
His grandfather, Karl Schweitzer, was a strict man with forbearing personality. His mother and he shared a room in the Schweitzer residence. To escape from Schweitzer's oppressive personality, his mother showered her son with attention. She treated him like a toy or a doll. She dressed her son in frilly clothing, let his hair grow long. She called him "Poulou". He was grown up as a Catholic by his mother and grandmother. His grandfather poked fun at the religion, being a Protestant himself. At the age of four, he suffered from leukemia in his right eye. Because of this illness, he became half-blind and wall-eyed in his later years. Sartre as a boy, wandered in the Luxembourg Gardens of Paris in search of playmates, but he would not have much luck as he was small in stature and cross-eyed.
As Jean Paul grew, he saw his grandfather having numerous affairs, including one with his former student. Curiously, he also would copy his grandfather and have empty relationships throughout his life.
At a very early age, he started reading. Quite a few of the memorable moments of his childhood years would take place going through the books in his grandfather's huge library. His first attempt at schooling was a disaster. On the first day, his grandfather was very much disappointed with his progress, and withdrew him on the second day. He was taught by private tutor for some time. At the age of nine, he attended a public school and later on a private school. God had ceased to be a meaningful object of faith for him. In his own words, "Failing to take root in my heart, He vegetated in me for a while, then he died".
HERITAGE OF WRITING
His paternal grandfather was Dr. Eymard Sartre, noted country doctor in the Doirdogne region of France. Eymard was a writer of several medical tenets, and published his first work in his early twenties. His mother was the first cousin of Albert Schweitzer, the German missionary. And her father Karl "Charles" Schweitzer as a famous writer, who had published several texts on philosophy, religion and languages. Karl was the co-author of a series of texts on English, German, and French. Jean-Paul Sartre might have been destined to write under the influence of his maternal and paternal grandfathers.
THE CONFIDENT `SARTRE - FAULT'
One day, his grandfather took him to a local barber and had the boy's long hair trimmed. On seeing her son, Anne-Marie rushed to her room and cried because after cutting the hair, she thought he looked ugly. He was destined to be short and awkward. Even his grandparents referred to his physique as a "Sartre" fault. He became a target for abuse among the children. He began to show signs of an angry personality. His only comfort was his self-confidence, because he knew he was smarter than other children. His willingness to avoid the truth was established at a young age. He continued to lie or omit facts throughout his life.
At the age of eight, he received some puppets from his mother. These gifts inspired him to write scripts and stage shows. At school, Sartre faced no problems making friends.
THE SON & THE STEP-FATHER
After the remarriage of his mother to Joseph Mancy, the family went to La Rochelle, in 1917. The marriage of his mother to Joseph Mancy was the culmination of a long-time attraction. Mancy had met his mother even before she met Jean Baptiste Sartre. Mancy wanted to marry Anne Marie. But he couldn't marry her because he was considered "lower class" by her family. In the intervening years, he earned an engineering degree from the Ecole Polytechnic. He made himself capable of providing for Jean Paul and his mother.
Sartre quickly rebelled and always found himself in trouble. He fought with fellow students. His parents displayed concern and tried not to imagine where his belligerent nature would eventually lead him. Once, he stole money from his mother's room, then lied about doing so. His behavior started to become a troublesome issue for his step-father and by 1920, Joseph Mancy realized that he would never be able to control the young boy. As a result, young Sartre was sent to Paris to the Lycee Henri IV school.
There he took to writing, and it was accepted by most of his acquaintances that he would end up a writer. In June of 1920, he passed the first part of the Baccalaureate. Two years later, he passed the second.
The tension between Jean Paul and the dominate patriarchs in his family lasted for his entire life. He rebelled against his grandfather and stepfather at every opportunity, although Joseph Mancy always tried his best to be a good father to him.
THE FIRST SIMONE
Before Jean Paul met his life long companion Simone de Beauvoir, he met Simone Camille Sans. He instantly fell in love with her. She was 22 and belonged to a respectable family. He called her "Toulouse". By the end of 1925, both declared their love to each other. Her adventurous nature was one of the factors that attracted him to Simone.
By 1928, their relationship was on the verge of ending. Instead Simone Camille preferred to become the mistress of Charles Dullin, a well-known French stage actor. French students population drifted towards political action during the year 1927. Sartre's classmates, including his best friend, Paul Yves Nizan, joined Left-learning political organizations. Sartre himself was not willing to be slotted into the title of a Socialist or Communist.
He preferred to remain independent and self-absorbed. But he wrote anti-military columns in the student newspaper. He was shortly called before the ENS disciplinary council. He joined 82 other students in signing a petition against military training in November 1928.
NITRE & SARZAN
At Lycee Henri IV, he met Paul Yves Nizan, one of the most important figures in his life. Only Simone de Beauvoir had a greater effect upon Sartre than Nizan. Reunited with Nizan in 1920, the two quickly became best friends. Other students called them "Nitre and Sarzan" in recognition of their unusually close relationship. When the two friends became estranged from March through October of 1923, he suffered a near collapse emotionally, he had come to rely upon Nizan. He vowed never to care as much for any other person again.
A NORMALIEN
During the first year at Ecole Normale Superieure school, he was one of only five students of philosophy. "Normaliens" as the ENS students were known, tended to study theology, psychology, and the classics. During 1920's philosophy was viewed as a topic without application. Sartre did enjoy the study of psychology. He studied and criticized Freud throughout his writings. While at ENS, reading hundreds of works gave him a vast amount of information from which he constructed his papers as a student. Unfortunately, he was still as disorganized intellectually as he had been at the Lycee Henri IV.
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR : A LIFE-LONG COMPANION
He resisted what he called "bourgeois marriage". While he was a student, he met Simone de Beauvoir. He formed a relationship with her that remained a settled partnership in life. This close relationship endured for more than a half of a century, until his death. They never did marry saying that they had no need for the bourgeois formalities of marriage. Simone de Beauvoir and he were deeply in love, though in the most unconventional way of relationships. They addressed each other formerly as colleagues, more than romantic lovers.
FAILURE & SUCCESS
At La Rochelle, he wrote a thesis in 1927. But he had to taste the bitter taste of failure. Without getting disappointed, he worked hard and after two years he not only passed the exam but earned first rank in it. He stood first and Simone stood second. Before meeting Simone, he was unofficially engaged with a grocer's daughter; an arrangement which was instantly recognized as null and void, the moment he fell in love with Simone. At La Rochelle and at the Sorbonne, he met several distinguished writers Raymond Aaron, Maurice Merleau Ponty, Simone Weil, Emmanuel Mounier, Jean Hippolyte and Claude Levi Strauss.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
At the start of World War II, he conscripted into the military once again. He served in the meteorological service, launching weather balloons. He was captured on 21 June 1940. While in prison he neglected himself, washing rarely, failing to shave, and developing a reputation for being rather foul. He spent much of his time in writing. These thoughts were later on published as `Being and Nothingness", After escaping, he went to Paris in March 1941. In June 1943, his anti-Nazi play The Flies opened at a Paris theatre.
The play was closed after 40 performances, but not without leaving a heart-touching impression among the artistic community of Paris. He spread his idea through his editorship of the magazine, Les Temps Modernes; on the base of this publication, the Charlie Chaplin film Modern Times was picturized, which is considered a masterpiece.
A PRISONER
In 1931, his paternal grandfather Eymard Sartre died. From 1931 to 1945, he taught in the lycees (colleges) of Le Harve, Leon, and finally, Paris. His career was interrupted twice, once by a year of study in Berlin and the second time when he was drafted to serve in Second World War.
For 18 months, he served with the French military. After his discharge from the military, he took a position at a school in in Le Harve, in northwest France. As Simone was teaching at Marseilles, located in south, they frequently met between the two cities, usually in Paris.
He went to Berlin in 1933 to study the lectures of Edmund Husserl. After one year, he returned to teach with new enthusiasm.
In 1938, when Hitler took over the Sudetenland, he was confused between his personal Pacifism and his anti-Nazi feelings. He was conscripted into the army to fight Hitler. He served as an orderly. On June 21, 1940, when the German Army invaded France, he was taken captive. He was kept as a war prisoner for nine months. In March 1941, he escaped from the prison camp, in April the same year, he started the `Socialism and Liberty Resistance Group.' During his years of teaching in Le Harve, he published La Nause'e, his first claim to fame. This novel was written in the form of a diary. It was published in 1938. This novel narrates the feeling of revulsion. He revealed himself as a master of outstanding talent
TURNED TO SOCIALISM
He defended individual freedom and human dignity. In 1946, he turned to the concept of social responsibility. He showed a great concern for the poor. While teaching, he had refused to wear a tie, so he could come closer to the lower class. Freedom itself became a tool for human struggle in his brochure L' existentialisme est un humanism < existentialism and humanism >.During 1946 to 1952 he began to bring his ethical message to the world by novels and plays.
After World War II, he took an active interest in French Political movement.He became an outspoken admirer of the Soviet Union. In 1954 he visited many countries.He went to Africa, Scandinavia, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. In 1956, when Soviet army entered in Budapest, his hopes for Communism were sadly demolished. He condemned the action of Soviet intervention. Over the years this critical attitude opened the way to form of "Sartrian Socialism". He expressed his views under the title Critique de la raison < the problem of method >.
A GOLDEN MIND
He felt at home mostly in cafes and restaurants. There he could get enough space for conversion of thoughts. He smoked heavily and like Kafka, he never felt more free when he was creating an imaginary space. After a paradisal infancy centered on the belief that he was beautiful, he tried to neglect his body. He consistently ignored all the messages which his body sent out. It was to reassure his mind that it had nothing to fear from sibling rivalry with his maltreated body.
To develop his productivity he made reckless use of stimulants, to relax. When his smoke-stained teeth began to decay, he refused to waste time on seeing a dentist. He took immeasurable pride in his intellect "I, have got a golden brain". He was always certain of his own value to society as a philosopher and writer. He never avoided an opportunity to demonstrate his superior mind.
BEFORE EXIT
In the last years, his attention went into the writing of a four volumes consisting of total 2130 pages; it was a total biography of Gustave Flaubert, the famous French novelist. He did this work from 1960 to 1971; between which, in 1969, his mother expired. During 1971, he moved away from his desk and did very little writing. Under the motto that "commitment is an act, not a word," he often went into the streets to participate in demonstrations in the sale of left-wing literature and the revolutionary activities. In 1972, the third volume of Flaubert was published and with this publication, his enormous productivity came herewith to a close. He was still alert and active. He kept himself busy in interviews and in the writing of scripts for the motion pictures. He also worked on a book of ethics.
EXISTENTIALIST EXITS
During the 1970's, his body began to rebel against the onslaught of his tobacco abuse. In the last years, he smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. Moreover, he drank heavily, and used amphetamines while writing. He could not give up his bad habits and never tried to give them up.
In his last days, Sartre became blind and his health deteriorated. On 15 April 1980, he died of a lung tumor. Simone de Beauvior attempted to spend the night next to his body, but hospital employees refused her to do so, though she had loved him since the day had first met.
His popularity might have diminished by the end of his life. But his very impressive funeral was attended by more than 25,000 people. His death brought forth the kind of emotional displays normally reserved for great political leaders. His ashes were buried at the Montparnasse cemetery.
French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre was an exponent of Existentialism, an advocate of human freedom and dignity, novelist, playwright, journalist, and a political thinker. He had absolute concern for human freedom. He had a firm conviction and belief that "Literature is committed, artistic creation is a moral activity." In his early years, he displayed an interest in Marxist Communism, but eventually, in his later years, turned to Socialism.
His work includes his discussions of trying to answer psychological questions by the method of phenomenology and the context of anthology.
As a philosopher and a writer, he was quite aware of what his duty was towards society. He stood as an inviolable example and undertook great efforts and pains to define and enforce his exemplitude in fiction, drama, political activity and teaching. His great skills as well as his astute insight and originality as a writer, won him accolades which were more than any other contemporary philosopher of his time.
JUNE 21, 1905 Jean-Paul Sartre was born in Paris, France. His father Jean-Baptiste was a navy officer. His mother was Anne-Marie.
1907 His father died. He grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Karl Schweitzer.
1909 He suffered from a cold and influenza, causing leucoma in his right eye due to which he lost his right eye in his later years.
1911 The Schweitzers moved to Paris.
1913 His grandfather Dr. Eymard Sartre died.
1915 He joined the Lycee Henri IV school in Paris.
1917 He attended grammar school in Paris for two years. His mother remarried to Joseph Mancy. He went to stay with his mother in La Rochelle.
1919 - 1922 He attended the Louis-le-Grand School in Paris.
1924 He began study at Ecole Normale Superieure. There, he developed his friendship with Simone de Beauvoir.
1926 He finished dissertation. Later it was published as `The Imagination'.
1927 He failed in his graduation examination in 1928. He collaborated on translation of Karl Jaspers' General Psychopathology.
1929 He met Simone de Beauvoir. They both took the aggregation. He ranked first and she ranked second.
He had graduated in philosophy, with first class in 1929. He began military service as meteorologist in Tours.
1931 He joined as a teacher of philosophy at grammar school in Le Harve. There he served for three years.
1932 He obtained a scholarship from the Institute de Francais, allowing to travel to Berlin. There he studied the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.
1933 He had delivered the lectures on Hegel until 1939.
1934 He returned from Berlin to teaching post at Le Harve. He wrote 'Transcendence of the Ego'.
1935 His grandfather Karl "Charles" Schweitzer died. In the fall of the year, he developed relationship with Simonede Beauvoir and Olga Kosakiwewicz.
1936 He taught philosophy at grammar school in Laon. He worked on `The Imagination : a psychological critique'. It was a successful publication. He remained at Le Harve as a Professor.
1937 He took post at the Lycee Pasteur in Paris. There he served until 1939. His article named "The Transcendence of the Ego : an existentialist theory of consciousness" was published in the journal Recherches Philosophiques
1938 He wrote his first novel `Nausea' and also `Intimacy and other Stories', a collection of short stories. Hitler took over the Sudetenland.
1939 He wrote `Sketch for a Theory of Emotions'. During World War II, he served himself for military service as an orderly.
1940 He received `Roman Populiste Prize' for Le Mur. The Germans invaded France on 21st June. He became German prisoner of war in June. He remained as a prisoner for nine months. He also worked on The Psychology of Imagination.
1941 He was repatriated to France. He resumed teaching at the Lycee Pasteur. He started the Socialism and Liberty resistance group.
1942 He joined as a professor at the Concordat school in Paris. During these two years, he was active in the Resistance Movement.
1943 He wrote an essay on phenomenological ontology `Being and Nothing ness' and `The Flies'.
He met Albert Camus, an eminent philosopher on 2nd June.
1944 His first play `No Exit' was premiered in May. He escaped from Paris with Simone de Beauvoir.
In July, Simone and he escaped from Paris. They started a publication called `Modern Times'.
1945 He gave up teaching to live as a freelance writer in the Quartier- Saint-Germain-des-Pres. He delivered the seminar on `Existentialism is a Humanism.' His book `The Age of Reason' was published. He began a lecture tour of USA.
He became an outspoken admirer of the Soviet Union, but did not become a member of the Communist Party.
His step father, Joseph Mancy died on 21st January.He won `French Legion d' honneur', but he refused the honor.
1947 His Publications on :
(1) No Exit
(2) The Chips are down
(3) The Respectable Prostitute
(4) The Roars to freedom
(5) Situations I; Baudelaire
(6) Intentionality : A fundamental idea of Husserl's Phenomenology.
His play `No Exit' won the `New York Drama Critics Award' for best foreign play of the season.
1948 His works were placed in the `Index Librorum Prohibitorum'. He discussed publicly on philosophy and his works.
1949 He wrote `Roads to Freedom III : Troubled Sleep'.
1950 He delivered a speech in Franfurt. He traveled to Africa and Italy.
He received `French Grand Novel Prize' for `La Naus‚e' because it reflects existentialism.
1951 His book on `The Devil and the Good Lord' was published.
1952 He took part at the communistic debate `People's Congress for Peace' in Vienna. He argued with his former friend and future philosophical and political contemporary Albert Camus.
1954-1955 He visited the Soviet Union in the mid of the year 1954.
He went on a trip to China. He was elected as a President of the Franco-Soviet Association in December, 1954.
1956 He protested publicly against the Soviet actions in Hungary. He went to Cuba.
He published `search for a Method' and `The Condemned of Altona'.
1958 He worked on script for film of Freud's life throughout the year.
1960 He published `Critique of Dialectical Reasons Vol.I, including Questions of Method', and `Sartre on Cuba'.
He was awarded by the `Omenga Prize' (Italy) for his writings.
JULY 19, 1961 A bomb exploded near his apartment, 24 Rue Bonaparte.
1962 He adopted Arlette Elkaim, a gifted musician.Another bomb attack prompted him to move, on January 7.He visited Russia three times during the year. He was also elected as vice-president of the Congre's de la Communante' Europe'enne des Ecrivains (Comes). He steadfastly remained a supporter of Marxist ideals.He emphasized on cultural freedom for `Co-existence' at Moscow in "World Peace Organization".
1963 He was received by Krushchev in Soviet Georgia. He made regular visits to the USSR in later years.
1964 He became the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, but he refused to accept it.
1965 He was again elected as a vice-president of COMES. He was invited to deliver a lecture on Kant and others.
1966 He published Situations VII
1969 His mother Anne-Marie died. In May, he supported a Communist candidate for French presidentship.
1969 His mother Anne-Marie died. In May, he supported a Communist candidate for French presidentship.
1970 He accepted the nominal editorship for several Leftist publications.
1971 Publication of The Family Idiot.
1972 Publications of Situations VIII and Situations IX and The Family Idiot Vol. III.
Following the thought `every man is a political animal', he started to edit a paper called Liberation
1976 A film, based on his life, was made in Paris. He was given a doctorate degree from the Hebrew University. At that time, he claimed he was no longer a Marxist.
He received an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Situations Vol. X was published.
APRIL 15, 1980 He died at 9 p.m. in a Paris Hospital while in a coma. He was 75 years old.
Sartre's written works may be classified in three categories :
(1) Creative Literature and criticism
(2) Philosophical thinking
(3) Political and Social thinking
In creative literature, he has written novels, plays, Texts and essays, biography and critique.
His Remarkable Works
L' imagination, 1936 .
La Transcendence de L'eggs : Esquisse d'une description phenomenologique, 1936.
.
La Nausee, 1938 .-Le Mur, 1939 .
L'etre et le neant : Essai d'ontologie phenomenologique, 1943 .
Les Mouches, 1943 .
Huis-Clos, 1944 .
L'Age de raison, 1945 .
L'Existentialisme est un humanisme, 1946 .
Morts sans sepulture, 1946 .
La Putain respectueuse, 1946 .
Re'flexions sur la question juive, 1943 .
Les Mains Sales, 1949 .
La Diable et le bon dieu, 1951 .
Nekrassov, 1955.
Baudelair, 1946.
Ten Volumes of Situations <1947 to 1976 >.
La Mort dans l'ame, 1949 .
Critique de la raison dialectique, 1960 .
Les Se'questre's d'Altona, 1959 .
Saint Genet, Biography, 1952.
The Family Idiot, Critique, 1982.
Nause’e is a story of a man who, upon arduous searching finds the terrible truth that life has no meaning that it’s simply nauseating, excess, like vomit or excreta.
NAUSE’E – THE NOVEL
The novel Nause’e or Nausea is an experimental work with no real hero, only a main character, Roquentin, who spends his life trying to understand existence and essence. It was written in 1938, during his teaching years. The title of this novel La Nause’e – Nausea was suggested by in Le Harve. After the publication of this novel, Sartre became one of the eminent figures in France. This novel was written in the form of a diary. The character Roquentin, sitting in a trolley car and staring out of the window, is suddenly unable to place items in context – at least the context humans understand. It is set in familiar environs; the buildings outside seem to be moving instead of the trolley. All movements, all objects, are relative to Roquentin. As he ponders at the illusion, he rests his hand on the seat, but realizes he cannot feel the ‘seat’ or nothing, which he is familiar with. The seat is no longer a seat because he cannot clearly associate the word ‘seat’ with its function. Is Roquentin hallucinating ? Is he suffering a mental collapse ? Or has he experienced a major breakthrough ?
This novel narrates the feeling of revulsion that a certain Roquentin undergoes when confronted with the world of matter – not merely the world of other people but the very awareness of his own body. According to some critics, La Nause’e must be viewed as a pathological case, a form of neurotic escape. Most probably it must be appreciated also as a most original, fiercely individualistic, antisocial piece of work, containing in its pages many of the philosophical themes that Sartre later developed. In this novel, Sartre narrates the extremity of existence, sensitivity of mind and realization of universal
irrelevancies. This novel has its manifestations upon the genuine creative spirit of Sartre. According to Voltair Kaufmann, the novel is Sartre’s exploration of his own philosophical journey. With the publication of this novel, Sartre’s position was further cemented as one of the leading French thinkers of those times.
THE AGE OF REASON – a novel
Sartre also wrote a second novel on The Age of Reason, in 1945. This novel was written in the backdrop of World War II. The novel was written in three volumes. The second volume called The Reprieve, and the third was called Iron in the Soul. These three parts were published between 1945-47. Sartre had also started work on the fourth volume – The Last Chance, but was never completed. This novel explores human freedom, communism, affection and duty, discipline of party and meaninglessness of the war. After publication of the third volume of the novel, Sartre changed his mind concerning the usefulness of the novel as a medium of communication and returned to writing plays.
Sartre has also written five short stories under the title of Le Mur – Lloyd Alexander Intimacy and other Stories.
PLAYS
For a playwright, Sartre would say, "What a writer must attempt, is to show man as he is. Nowhere is man more man than when he is in action and this is exactly what drama portrays. He had already written in this medium during the war, and now one play followed another."
The following plays have been written by Sartre.
Les Mouches, in 1943 - The Flies. The Flies was translated into English in the year 1958.
Huis Clos in 1944 - No Exit.
La Putain respectue use (1946) - The Respectful Prostitute
Les Mains Sales (Paris 1948)
Crime Passionel – Kitty Black (London, 1949)
Le diable et le bon dieu (Paris, 1951) Lucifer and the Lord
Kean ou desord re et ge’nie (Paris, 1954) ‘Kean’ – Kitty Black
Nekrassov (Paris, 1956)
L’es S’equestres d’ Altona (Paris, 1960) The condemned of the Altona (New York, 1961)
Loser Wins (London, 1960).
Les mots (Paris, 1964) - The Words – an autobiography
In the plays Sartre emphasized upon the raw hostility of man towards man, seemed to be predominantly pessimistic yet, according to Sartre’s own confession, their content does not exclude the possibility of a morality of salvation.
HIS OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Baudelair : Sartre wrote on Baudelair in 1946. In this book, he narrates a vaguely ethical study and biography of the French writer and poet Jean Genet entitled Saint Genet, comedien Et Martyr (1952).
The life of Baudelair and Sartre were very similar. Both their mothers remarried. Of course, Sartre’s childhood was comparatively secured and happy, so has some resemblance of life.
In Baudelair’s biography, Sartre gave importance to Baudelair’s childhood incidents. In this way Sartre has an approach similar to that of Freud.
St. Genet : In 1952 Sartre published this book and the translation of this book received a good response. It was appreciated by the Chicago News, Boston Globe, Atlantic, News Week etc.
In his biography, Sartre’s supremacy of the art of writing as a critic comes forth. London Times called it an Unquestioned Masterpiece. In this book, Sartre explained the limitations of psychoanalysis and Marxism to understand human being.
BOOKS ON PSYCHOLOGY
Sartre took over the phenomenological method, which proposes careful, unprejudiced description rather than deduction, from the German philosopher Edmund Husseri. He used it with great skill in three successive publications : L’Imagination (1936, Imagination : A Psychological Critique 1962), Esquisse d’une theorie des emotions (1939, sketch for a Theory of Emotions 1962), and L’Imaginaire Psychologic phenomenologique de L’imagination (1940, The Psychology of Imagination, 1950). But it was above all in L’ Etre et leneant (1943, Being and Nothingness 1956) that Sartre revealed outstanding talent. Sartre places human consciousness or nothingness (ean), in opposition to being or (etre). Consciousness is not a state of matter and by the same token escapes all determinism. The message, with all the implications it contains, is a hopeful one; yet there is the incessant reminder that human endeavor is and remains useless and this is what makes the book tragic.
SARTRE’S DICTIONARY
Given below is the glossary of Sartre’s Dictionary for Beginners.
Abandonment : The consequence of individualism, a metaphysical isolation according to which each individual must ultimately fall back upon his or her own resources.
Absurdity : The fact that nothing can rationalize existence. Nothing in or beyond being can explain a sentient (aware) of a being’s presence.
Alienation : A state of divided selfhood in which one is distanced from one’s true being and confronts the self as an alien being.
Anguish : The sensation of groundlessness experienced when the freedom to act reveals itself to consciousness.
Bad Faith : Self-deception, the paradox of lying to the self, usually in an attempt to escape the responsibility of being an individual.
Being for itself : Sartre’s terms for sentient existence, namely human existence, a form of consciousness that entertains itself as a possibility rather than as a terminal fact. The recognition that a being can change itself.
Being for Others : The act of existing as an object external to other beings. We all exist in a state of being for others at various moments.
Being in Itself : Reality prior to human intervention, what is without mankind.
Being-in-Itself for Itself : An impossible form of being attributed to God. A completely realized existence while at the same time a void waiting to be filled…complete freedom.
Being-in-the-Midst : A form of bad faith in which one chooses the self merely as an inert presence, as a thing. In other words, the treatment of the self is without the ability to change freely.
Being-in-the-World : Choosing the self as a sentient, real being as manifested by thoughts, actions, and meaning. This is the existential existence recognizing that at least in humans existence does precede essence. Being-in-the-World is a contrast to Being-in-the-Midst.
Collective : It means any organized set of human relationship, however temporary the relationship may be. According to Sartre any collective exists only for brief instants. "We" is not the natural state of humans, who think in terms of individuality.
Concept : A general idea that represents a "class" of objects with common traits. (Object-oriented thinking, in programming terms). Any descendent object inherits traits of previous members therefore a concept applying to previous members applies to the new object.
Ego : Used by Sartre to describe self-acknowledgment. This is not the Freudian ego, but rather a consciousness of self in the world.
Essence : Trait or set of characteristics that an object has in common with other related objects. It is the essence of an object that allows humans to describe that object in terms of understood concepts.
Existentialism : A philosophy based upon the notion existence precedes essence in humanity. The philosophy depends upon a rejection of "human nature" as predicting behaviors without any regard for choices.
Facticity : Those features of reality that cannot be transformed. Many things are not controlled by anyone in particular, especially in nature and science. Sartre recognized these external factors, to which sentient beings can only respond.
Freedom : An act of freedom is any act for which the necessary and sufficient conditions of that action did not exist in the events preceding the action. A free act is one resulting from a choice based upon genuine alternatives. Sartre always held there was at least two choices at all moments like life and death.
Fused Group : A collective formed by a spontaneous common social goal or aspiration. Unfortunately, most fused groups are merely mobs.Necessary Being :A being that cannot not exist : a paradox. A being whose non-existence would entail a logical self-contradiction. For example, you could not be aware of your own non-existence after death.
Original Project : The fundamental choice of being that each sentient being makes is every action performed.
Radical Conversion : The responsibility and possibility that each being has in each moment of life. At any moment a sentient being can reject his or her original project and select another course in life.
Reflected Consciousness : Thoughts about thoughts. Sartre found thinking about how and why we think quite interesting. The moment one ponders other thoughts, he or she is acting as a philosopher.
Series : A collective organized by artificial means.
Totalization : Sartre’s theory that every historical moment is a product of and contains traces of all the moments leading up to it.
Transcendence : The mental act of projecting a consciousness beyond itself, referring to and establishing new relations with entities that are external to the self.
Unreflected Consciousness : Thoughts of external objects and concepts, without any consideration as to the nature of the thoughts. This form of consciousness is the "practical" mode of thought used at most times by sentient beings, as compared to reflected consciousness.
For the being of an existent is exactly what it appears.
I am, I exist, I think, therefore I am, I am because I think, why do I think ? I don't want to think any more, I am because I think that I don't want to be.
A body without a conscience cannot be anything else without the help of an other object.For example, a rock cannot be anything else than a rock, but if a human comes along,that human can use it as a weapon.
The conscience is separate of the body, and can "detach itself", upon the death of the body.
Man has a human nature, this human nature, which is the concept of the human, is found in all men, which means that each man is a particular example of a universal concept.
We can never choose evil. We always choose the good, and nothing can be good for us without being good at all.
Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism. It is also what is called subjectivity.
Therefore, I am responsible for myself and for everyone else. I am creating a certain image of man of my own choosing. In choosing myself, I choose man.
It is very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disappears along with him.
Man is defined by what he can know.
Truth is the being-as-it-is of a being for an absolute subject.
Truth is subjective.
Either man is wholly determined or else man is wholly free.
Man is wholly free. Since we are free we are responsible for our actions.
Everything has been figured out, except how to live
Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
Perhaps the essential role of the ego is to mask from consciousness its very spontaneity.
Things are divorced from their names. I am in the midst of things, nameless things. Alone, without worlds, defenseless, they surround me, are beneath me, behind me, above me.
The roots of the chestnut tree were sunk in the ground just under my bench, I couldn't remember it was a root anymore. The words had vanished and with them the significance of things, their methods of use, and the feeble points of reference which men have traced on their surface. Never until these last few days, had I understood the meaning of `existence'.
And then, all of sudden, there it was, clear as day : existence had suddenly unveiled itself. It had lost the harmless look of an abstract category : It was the very paste of things. the diversity of things, their individuality, was only an appearance, a veneer. This veneer had melted, leaving soft, monstrous masses all in disorder - naked, in a frightful, obscene nakedness.
The word "absurdity" is coming to life under my pen, a little while ago in the garden, I couldn't find it, but neither was I looking for it, I didn't need it : I thought without words, on things, with things... In fact, all that I could grasp beyond that returns to this fundamental absurdity. Absurdity : another word. I struggle against words, down there I touched the things.
All human actions are equivalent..and..all are on principle doomed to failure.
I am responsible for everything...except for my very responsibility, for I am not the foundation of my being. Therefore everything takes place as if I were compelled to be responsible. I am abandoned in the world. in the sense that I find myself suddenly alone and without help, engaged in a world for which I bear the whole responsibility without being able, whatever I do, to tear myself away from this responsibility for an instant.
Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away... To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.
Man is a useless passion.
To choose this is to affirm at the same time the value of what we choose, because we can never choose evil. We always choose the good, and nothing can be good for us without being good for all.
Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.
At the root of humanity, I see only sadness and boredom.
Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them.
Hell is other people.
One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one's death.
If literature isn't everything, it's worth a single hour of someone's trouble.
Every age has its own poetry, in every age the circumstances of history chooses a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.
Philosophy appears to some people as a milieu : there thoughts are born and die, there systems are built, and there, in turn, they collapse. Others take Philosophy for a specific attitude which we can freely adopt at will. Still others see it as a determined segment of culture. In our view Philosophy does not exist.
Existentialism is nothing less than an attempt to draw all the consequences of a coherent atheistic position.
Every man is a political animal.
The essential consequence of our earlier remarks is that man being condemned to be free carries the weight of the whole world on his shoulders, he is responsible for the world and for himself as a way of being.
Even if one does not want to be responsible, he cannot be without the responsible for his actions.
I am responsible for my very desire of fleeing responsibilities. To make myself passive in the world, to refuse to act upon things and upon others is still to choose myself, and suicide is one mode among others of being-in-the-world.
Man use the source of all good and all evil and judges himself in the name of the good and evil he creates. Therefore a priori neither good nor evil.
Every system of values rests on exploitation and oppression, every system of values effectively negates exploitation and oppression. every system of values effectively negates exploitation and oppression. every system of values in so far as it is based on a social practice, contributes directly or indirectly to establishing devices and apparatuses which,when time comes it will allow this particular oppression and exploitation to be negated.
Those who are confronting apartheid should know they are not alone.
God is a desire for completeness and self-sufficiency for man.
By death the for-itself is changed forever into an in itself in that it has slipped entirely into the past.
With death, consciousness ceases to be, leaving only a corpse.
A simple formula would be to say that life taught me La force des chooses - the power of circumstances.
I have replaced my earlier notion of consciousness(although I still use the word a lot), with what I call Le Vecu - lived experience. I will try to describe in a moment what I mean with this term, which is neither the preconscious, nor the unconscious, nor consciousness, but the terrain in which the individual is perpetually overflowed by himself and his riches and consciousness plays the trick of determining itself by forgetfulness.
But the most striking feature of the man, it seems to me, was the metaphysical anguish which he endured so openly and modestly. Not a single day passed without him being tempted to kill himself. But this suspended death gave him a kind of charming and destructing irony his native intelligence, which was all the art of finding and establishing in his daily life, and even in his perception, a lethal duet to which he submitted all the objects of this world.
What a writer must attempt is to show man he is.
Freedom is only the freedom to say no.
There is no ultimate meaning or purpose inherent in human life, in this sense life is absurd. We are `for lorn,' `abandoned' in the world to look after ourselves completely.
The only foundation for values is human freedom.
Human life is an "unhappy consciousness, a `useless passion'.
Man is free and being conscious of this fact, can bring on pain, or anguish, and typically we try to avoid the consciousness of our own freedom.
Existence is prior to essence. Man is nothing at birth and throughout his life he is no more than the sum of his past commitments. To believe in anything outside his own will is to be guilty of `bad Faith'. Existentialist despair and anguish is the acknowledgement that man is condemned to freedom. There is no God, so man must rely upon his own fallible will and moral insight. He cannot escape choosing.
Its being is never given. since it is always separated from itself by the nothingness of otherness, the pour-soi (for-itself) is always in abeyance, because its being is perpetual deferring.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
This absolute end, this imperative which is transcendent yet acquiensced in, which freedom itself adopts as its own, is what we call a value.
Man has to be considered as the being thorough which the Good comes into the world.
The Good is universal. Therefore the morals of the world are universal.
