JeanPaul_Sartre_JeanPaul_Sartre_Basic_Writing
JeanPaul_Sartre_JeanPaul_Sartre_Basic_Writing JeanPaul_Sartre_JeanPaul_Sartre_Basic_Writing
Sartre in the world19modern science of the seventeenth century. Although Sartre rejected Descartes’substantial distinction between mind and matter, he inherited his profound concernwith human subjectivity. See René Descartes, Discourse on Method and theMeditations (Harmondsworth, 1974), Stephen Priest, Theories of the Mind (London,1991) and Anthony Kenny, Descartes: A Study of His Philosophy (New York,1968).5 The critical theorist Herbert Marcuse synthesises Freudianism and Marxism inEros and Civilisation (Boston, 1955). In One Dimensional Man (Boston, 1964)and Negations (Harmondsworth, 1968), he argues that the capitalist systemdefuses the opposition of those it exploits, by a combination of liberal ‘repressivetolerance’, the construal of everything as a commodity and the ideological productionof consumerist appetite. See Alasdair MacIntyre, Marcuse (London, 1970). Onthe May 1968 événements see Charles Posner (ed.), Reflections on the Revolutionin France: 1968 (Harmondsworth, 1970).6 On de Beauvoir see T. Keefe, Simone de Beauvoir: A Study of Her Writings(London, 1984), M. Evans, Simone de Beauvoir: A Feminist Mandarin (London,1985) and Judith Okely, Simone de Beauvoir: A Re-Reading (London, 1986). Onthe relationship between de Beauvoir and Sartre see Alex Madsen, Hearts andMinds: The Common Journey of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre (NewYork, 1977) and Kate Fullbrook and Edward Fullbrook, Simone de Beauvoir andJean-Paul Sartre: the Remaking of a Twentieth-Century Legend (New York,1994).7 The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the English philosopher GilbertRyle attack the Cartesian idea that psychological concepts take on meaning onlyby reference to inner and private mental states and argue that there have to bethird person criteria for psychological ascriptions. See Gilbert Ryle, The Conceptof Mind (London, 1949), Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations(Oxford, 1952) and Stephen Priest, Theories of the Mind (London, 1991).8 The American modernist novelist John dos Passos deployed the radical techniqueof ‘montage’ in his U.S.A. trilogy (New York, 1930, 1933, 1936). The literaryinventiveness and authentic concern with human reality shown by the Irish novelistJames Joyce (1882–1941) in his Ulysses (Paris, 1922) possibly makes it the mostsignificant work of fiction of the twentieth century.9 Sartre speaks frankly about his life and work in ‘Simone de Beauvoir interviewsSartre’ in Jean-Paul Sartre, Life/Situations: Essays Written and Spoken, trans.Paul Auster and Lydia Davies (New York, 1977) and Simone de Beauvoir, Adieux:A Farewell to Sartre (Harmondsworth and New York, 1985). Two thoroughlyresearched and informative biographies of Sartre are Ronald Hayman, WritingAgainst: A Biography of Sartre (London, 1986) and Annie Cohen-Solal, Sartre: ALife (London, 1987).
2 ExistentialismExistentialism is the movement in nineteenth- and twentieth-centuryphilosophy that addresses fundamental problems of human existence. Theexistentialists are not a self-consciously defined homogeneous school.They include: the Danish protestant theologian and philosopher SørenKierkegaard (1813–55), the iconoclastic German atheist Friedrich Nietzsche(1844–1900), the German fundamental ontologist Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), the French Catholic philosopher, critic and playwright Gabriel Marcel(1889–1973), the German psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883–1969), the French feminist philosopher and novelist Simone de Beauvoir(1908–86), and the French phenomenologist and critic of ‘objective thought’Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908– 61). Existentialist themes are salient in theliterature of Mikhail Lermontov (1814–41), Fydor Dostoyevsky (1821–81),André Malraux (1901–75), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–44), SamuelBeckett (1906–89), Albert Camus (1913–60) and Jean Genet (1910–86),and discernible in more.There is no set of problems addressed by all and only those thinkerslabelled ‘existentialist’. However, most of them are interested in some of:What is it to exist? Does existence have a purpose? Is there an objectivedifference between right and wrong? Are we free? Are we responsible forour actions? What is the right sort of religious, political or sexualcommitment? How should we face death?The term ‘existentialism’ only gained currency after the Second WorldWar, so it is applied retrospectively (but not therefore falsely) to earlier thinkers.Heidegger refused to accept the label. At first Sartre himself was extremelyuncomfortable to be called an existentialist, by the 1970s less so. The wordfeatures in the title of the famous October 1945 lecture Existentialism and
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<strong>Sartre</strong> in the world19modern science of the seventeenth century. Although <strong>Sartre</strong> rejected Descartes’substantial distinction between mind and matter, he inherited his profound concernwith human subjectivity. See René Descartes, Discourse on Method and theMeditations (Harmondsworth, 1974), Stephen Priest, Theories of the Mind (London,1991) and Anthony Kenny, Descartes: A Study of His Philosophy (New York,1968).5 The critical theorist Herbert Marcuse synthesises Freudianism and Marxism inEros and Civilisation (Boston, 1955). In One Dimensional Man (Boston, 1964)and Negations (Harmondsworth, 1968), he argues that the capitalist systemdefuses the opposition of those it exploits, by a combination of liberal ‘repressivetolerance’, the construal of everything as a commodity and the ideological productionof consumerist appetite. See Alasdair MacIntyre, Marcuse (London, 1970). Onthe May 1968 événements see Charles Posner (ed.), Reflections on the Revolutionin France: 1968 (Harmondsworth, 1970).6 On de Beauvoir see T. Keefe, Simone de Beauvoir: A Study of Her <strong>Writing</strong>s(London, 1984), M. Evans, Simone de Beauvoir: A Feminist Mandarin (London,1985) and Judith Okely, Simone de Beauvoir: A Re-Reading (London, 1986). Onthe relationship between de Beauvoir and <strong>Sartre</strong> see Alex Madsen, Hearts andMinds: The Common Journey of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul <strong>Sartre</strong> (NewYork, 1977) and Kate Fullbrook and Edward Fullbrook, Simone de Beauvoir andJean-Paul <strong>Sartre</strong>: the Remaking of a Twentieth-Century Legend (New York,1994).7 The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the English philosopher GilbertRyle attack the Cartesian idea that psychological concepts take on meaning onlyby reference to inner and private mental states and argue that there have to bethird person criteria for psychological ascriptions. See Gilbert Ryle, The Conceptof Mind (London, 1949), Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations(Oxford, 1952) and Stephen Priest, Theories of the Mind (London, 1991).8 The American modernist novelist John dos Passos deployed the radical techniqueof ‘montage’ in his U.S.A. trilogy (New York, 1930, 1933, 1936). The literaryinventiveness and authentic concern with human reality shown by the Irish novelistJames Joyce (1882–1941) in his Ulysses (Paris, 1922) possibly makes it the mostsignificant work of fiction of the twentieth century.9 <strong>Sartre</strong> speaks frankly about his life and work in ‘Simone de Beauvoir interviews<strong>Sartre</strong>’ in Jean-Paul <strong>Sartre</strong>, Life/Situations: Essays Written and Spoken, trans.Paul Auster and Lydia Davies (New York, 1977) and Simone de Beauvoir, Adieux:A Farewell to <strong>Sartre</strong> (Harmondsworth and New York, 1985). Two thoroughlyresearched and informative biographies of <strong>Sartre</strong> are Ronald Hayman, <strong>Writing</strong>Against: A Biography of <strong>Sartre</strong> (London, 1986) and Annie Cohen-Solal, <strong>Sartre</strong>: ALife (London, 1987).