Jean-Paul Sartre

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Revision as of 13:22, 10 September 2012

Jean-Paul Sartre (Paris, June 6 1905 - 1980) was a French philosopher who was one of the leading thinkers of the philosophy of existentialism. In 1924 at the age of nineteen he started studying philosophy in Paris. Sartres major work is called L'Etre et le neant (Being and Nothingness).

Existentialism

The existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre is an account of the way that we humans exist, in contrast to the ways in which such things as chairs and tables exist. It aims to elaborate the central structures of our lives, around which all the things that we do are built (Webber 2009). This view emphasises the 'subjectivity' of human beings, the only beings in the world to possess 'will and consciousness' and insists that human beings are 'fre' te choose the 'nature' of their existence and to give it meaning to fill the 'existential void' (Cloke, Philo & Sadler, 1999). Sartre said: ‘man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself’ (Cloke, Philo & Sadler, 1999).

Sartre intented his philosophy not as something only to be studied in libraries. That is why he wrote about it in the press, because he believed that it could answer questions of what we are and what we all face (Webber, 2009).

References

Cloke, P., Philo, Ch. & Sadler, D. (1991) Approaching Human Geography. Chapman, London, p. 76

Webber, J. (2009) The existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Routledge, London

Naess, A. (1968) Four modern philosophers, The university of Chicago Press, Chicago

--AnneStrien 15:21, 10 September 2012 (CEST)