Jean-Paul Sartre - a famous writer, the greatest philosopher of his time, an active public figure

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

Jean-Paul Sartre was born in 1905, June 21, in Paris. His father was a naval officer who died when the boy was only one year old. He was raised by his mother, grandparents. Sartre was a writer, philosopher, playwright and essayist. In 1929 he graduated from high school and devoted himself to travel for the next ten years, teaching philosophy in French lyceums.

His work and achievements

Jean-Paul Sartre published his first novel Nausea in 1938. Then came his book "The Wall" with short stories. During World War II, the writer was an active participant in hostilities. He spent almost a year in a POW camp. Then he became a member of the resistance. While under occupation, in 1943 he wrote his most famous work, Being and Nothing. His plays Behind the Locked Door and The Flies enjoyed great popularity.

Sartre Jean-Paul, thanks to his extraordinary mind, becameleader of the existentialist movement and was one of the most talked about and celebrated authors in post-war France. He was one of the founders of the New Times magazine. In the 1950s, Sartre began to collaborate with the French Communist Party. And in the 70s he took up the post of editor of a newspaper banned at that time and took an active part in demonstrations.

Among the later works are "The Recluses of Altona", "Criticism of Dialectical Reason", "Words", "Trojanka", "Stalin's Ghost", "The family has its black sheep". Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in 1964. However, the writer refused it.

Philosophy

At the beginning of his philosophical journey, Jean-Paul Sartre rejects idealism and materialism. He takes them for varieties of reductionism, which reduces the personality to some kind of bodily combinations. According to the philosopher, in this case, the autonomy of a person, his freedom, the meaning of his being is lost. Sartre despised psychoanalysis, which was fashionable in the 1920s, considering it a restriction of human freedom. He describes his views and understanding of freedom in The Holy Wife.

Freedom, according to Sartre, is a central concept in philosophy. It appears as something absolute, forever given to man. This concept includes, first of all, freedom of choice, which no one can take away from a person. This position is most fully described in the book “Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism is humanism.”

Meaning for the whole worldgives human activity. Each item is proof of individual human value. Giving it one meaning or another, a person forms himself as an individual.

General recognition

Jean-Paul Sartre died in 1980. The official funeral did not take place, which the writer himself asked for before his death. The well-known writer, the greatest philosopher of his time, an active public figure most of all valued sincerity in people. And I wanted to feel it even after death. The funeral procession slowly moved through Paris, through all the favorite and dear places to Sartre. During this time, about 50 thousand people joined the procession. This speaks quite eloquently of social recognition and love.