Jean-Paul Sartre was born in 1905, on June 21, in Paris. His father was a naval officer who died when the boy was only one year old. He was brought up by his mother, grandparents. Sartre was a writer, philosopher, playwright and essayist. In 1929 he graduated from school and the next ten years devoted himself to travel, 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 prisoner of war camp. Then he became a member of the resistance. Being in occupation, in 1943 he wrote his most famous work, Being and Nothing. Very popular were his plays “Behind a Locked Door” and “Flies”.
Sartre Jean-Paul, thanks to his extraordinary mind, became the leader of the existentialist movement and was one of the most discussed and famous authors in post-war France. He was one of the founders of the magazine "New Times". In the 50s, Sartre began to collaborate with the Communist Party of France. And in the 70s he took the post of editor of a banned newspaper at that time and took an active part in demonstrations.
Among the later works, one can distinguish “The Hermit of Altona”, “Criticism of the Dialectical Mind”, “Words”, “Trojans”, “Ghost of Stalin”, “The Family Is Not Without a Freak”. For his work, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize 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 a variety of reductionism, which reduces the personality to some kind of bodily combinations. According to the philosopher, in this case, the autonomy of a person is lost, his freedom, the meaning of his being is lost. Sartre despised psychoanalysis 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. ”
The meaning of the whole existing world is given by human activity. Each item is a proof of individual human significance. Giving it one or another meaning, a person forms himself as an individual.
Universal recognition
Jean-Paul Sartre died in 1980. The official funeral did not take place, as the writer himself requested before his death. The famous writer, the greatest philosopher of his time, an active public figure, most of all in people appreciated sincerity. And I wanted to feel it even after death. The funeral procession slowly moved around Paris, to all the places beloved and dear to Sartre. During this time, about 50 thousand people joined the procession. This is quite eloquent about social recognition and love.
