THE LIFE OF AN EXISTENTIALIST:
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
1905-1980
Tragedy has struck! For the very own founder of the trending philosophy, existentialism, has passed away. It is a tremendous loss to the philosophy community and the nation. Jean-Paul Sartre has passed away due to an edema of the lung due to years of smoking on April 15 1980.
Jean-Paul Sartre was born an only-child in 1905 in
Paris, France. His father passed away at the age
of two, which heavily impacted his view on life. His
mother raised him, along with the help with her
, who introduced Sartre to classical literature at
a very young age. Sartre found a passion for
philosophy and attended prestigious Ecole
Normale Supérieure, where, from 1924 to 1929 he
came into contact with Raymond Aron, Simone de
Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and other notables.
During the Second World War, Sartre wrote his existentialist magnum opus Being and Nothingness. Sartre travelled to the USSR, Cuba, and was involved in promoting Marxist ideas. He was a high profile figure in the Peace Movement. In 1964, he turned down the Nobel prize for literature. He was actively involved in the May 1968 uprising. His study of Flaubert, L'Idiot de la Famille, was published in 1971. In 1977, he claimed no longer to be a Marxist, but his political activity continued until his death in 1980.
May he rest in peace.