Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist, novelist and critic.

Early life and thought

Sartre was born in Paris to parents Jean-Baptiste Sartre, an officer of the French Navy, and Anne-Marie Schweitzer, cousin of Albert Schweitzer. When he was 15 months old, his father died of a fever and Anne-Marie raised him with help from her father, Charles Schweitzer, who taught Sartre mathematics and introduced him to classical literature at an early age.

Related Topics:
Paris - Officer - French Navy - Albert Schweitzer - Fever - Mathematics - Classical literature

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As a teenager in the 1920s, Sartre became attracted to philosophy upon reading Henri Bergson's Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. He studied in Paris at the elite École Normale Supérieure, an institution of higher education which has served as the alma mater for multiple prominent French thinkers and intellectuals. In 1929 at the École Normale, he met fellow student Simone de Beauvoir, later to become a noted thinker, writer, and feminist. The two, it is documented, became inseparable and lifelong companions, initiating a romantic relationship, though one that was not monogamous.

Related Topics:
Philosophy - Henri Bergson - École Normale Supérieure - Institution of higher education - Alma mater - 1929 - Simone de Beauvoir - Feminist - Monogamous

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Together, Sartre and Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyle and thought. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually-destructive conformity (mauvaise foi, literally, "bad faith") and an "authentic" state of "being" became the dominant theme of Sartre's work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work L'Etre et le Néant (Being and Nothingness) (1944).

Related Topics:
Cultural - Social - Bourgeois - Lifestyle - Thought - Conformity - Bad faith - Authentic - Being and Nothingness - 1944

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Sartre's most well-known introduction to his philosophy is his work Existentialism is a Humanism (1946). In this work, he defends existentialism against its detractors, which ultimately results in a somewhat incomplete description of his ideas. The work has been considered a popular, if over-simplifying, point of entry for those seeking to learn more about Sartre's ideas but lacking the background in philosophy necessary to fully absorb his longer work Being and Nothingness.

Related Topics:
Existentialism is a Humanism - 1946 - Existentialism - Detractor

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He graduated from the École Normale Supérieure in 1929 with a doctorate in philosophy and served as a conscript in the French Army from 1929 to 1931.

Related Topics:
1929 - Doctorate - Philosophy - Conscript - French Army - 1931

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It is reported that in 1935 Sartre tried the psychedelic drug mescaline, but had a bad reaction, and suffered from troublesome hallucinatory effects for a year afterwards.

Related Topics:
Psychedelic drug - Mescaline - Reaction - Hallucinatory effects

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