Jean-Paul Sartre: biography of this existentialist philosopher

This French thinker laid the foundations of much of contemporary thought.

Jean-Paul Sartre is a well-known figure in the field of philosophy and literature, being considered one of the fathers of contemporary existentialism.He is considered one of the fathers of contemporary existentialism. Philosopher, writer and political activist, he considered that the human being is a free being and as such should be responsible for his own destiny, although there may be external conditioning factors.

In addition, Sartre is also known for his political activism, maintaining a complex relationship with communism. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, although he decided to decline the award due to his personal beliefs. To understand his vision of the world it may be useful to understand his life, which is why in this article we will review a short biography of Jean-Paul Sartrewho marked the philosophy of the twentieth century.

Short biography of Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was born on June 21, 1905 in the city of Paris, France, being the son of a Navy officer named Jean Baptiste Sartre and Anne Marie Schweitzer..

However, a few months after his birth, his father died of an illness contracted during his travels. His mother, with the help of Jean-Paul's maternal grandparents, raised him in a stimulating and intellectual environment. His grandfather also introduced him to an interest in the arts.

Academic formation of this philosopher

In 1915, at the age of ten, Sartre entered the Lycée Henri IV in Paris to begin his education.. However, his mother would meet and remarry Joseph Mancy, causing the young Sartre to move to La Rochelle. He would continue his studies at the Lycée in that town until 1920, when he would return to Paris and finish his education at his original high school.

Once he finished his secondary studies, he would enter the École Normale Supérieure de Paris in 1924 for his university studies. During these studies he would meet different people who in the future would become great authors, among whom was the one who would become his main sentimental partner (they would establish throughout his life a controversial open relationship for the time), Simone de Beauvoir. He received his doctorate in philosophy in 1929, being the first of his class (followed by De Beauvoir).

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Sartre's post-doctoral life and early publications.

After his doctorate, he began to work in various institutes as a philosophy teacher, such as the Lycée de Havre. Subsequently, in 1933, he obtained a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Germany and to be trained in the philosophy of different authors such as Edmund Husserl, Edmund Husserl, Edmund and to be formed in the philosophy of different authors such as Edmund Husserl (exploring phenomenology) at the (exploring phenomenology) at the French Institute of Berlin.

After that he would return to France, teaching again in high schools such as the Pasteur. At this stage he would begin to elaborate his notion that existence precedes essence, since we have to be in order to be able to choose. This idea was to be expounded in his first novel, published in 1938 and entitled The Nausea. During 1939 he would begin to write other of his great works, among them Being and Nothingness.

War and Postwar

The arrival of the Second World War would make Sartre to be called up, participating in the war and being captured by the Germans in 1940.He participated in the war and was captured by the Germans in 1940. In 1941 he managed to escape posing as a civilian, and supported and participated in the French resistance.

In 1943 he published his most important and well-known philosophical work, Being and Nothingnessin which he offered his version of existentialist philosophy. This work, largely influenced by the existentialism of Heidegger (considered at that time a great authority in this philosophical current) and other authors such as Husserl or Kierkegaard, would lead him to achieve great popularity.

Eventually, in 1945 decided to abandon teaching and devote himself fully to literary and philosophical creation as a writer.. Together with his partner Simone de Beauvoir and other authors such as Raymond Aron, he founded the journal Les temps modernesof great influence at the time.

His political activism

As we have mentioned above, Sartre is also known for his political activism, maintaining an active participation in this field for a long time. Such activism would be especially active after 1947. With socialist ideas, the author was critical of the Cold War and the actions of both the North American and Soviet blocs.

Despite the existence of divergences, he has a rapprochement towards communist ideas, traveling on numerous occasions to Moscow and being part of different associations, he would also support the Cuban revolution and the Chinese cultural revolution.

In 1964 the name of Sartre was proposed to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.. However, the author decided to reject the award as he considered that the link between author and reader did not need intermediaries.

He also took an active part in the May '68 revolt and openly condemned the Vietnam War. openly condemned the Vietnam War and the war crimes committed in it, collaborating in the formation of the Vietnam War Tribunal.He also took an active part in the May '68 revolt and openly condemned the Vietnam War and the war crimes committed in it, collaborating in the formation of the Stockholm International Tribunal.

During this period, the author continued to publish several works. He created with Maurice Clavel in 1973 the agency "Liberation", which would later become a newspaper of which he would be the director.

Last years and death

However, with the passing of the years, Sartre's health began to decline, losing his sight and having to retire little by little from literary creation.

In May 1980, Jean-Paul Sartre was admitted to the Broussais hospital in Paris, due to a pulmonary edema and a hypertensive crisis.. On April 15, 1980, this edema was complicated by a cardiac crisis that would end up causing his death, at nine o'clock in the evening, in the company of Simone De Beauvoir and his adopted daughter Arlette El Kaim.

The legacy of this author is broad, bringing the focus of philosophy closer to the problems between the relationship between the self and society. Likewise his ideas have influenced disciplines such as psychology, psychologycontributing to the thought and creation of the humanist current.