No Exit is one of Jean Paul Sartre’s most interesting existentialist short stories. It is a one-act play that was widely praised when it was first performed in 1944, shortly after the Liberation of France. The original title “Huis Clos” refers to a private discussion behind closed doors. It tells the story of three charactersContinue reading “Book Review: No Exit – Jean Paul Sartre”
Category Archives: Sartre
Book Review: Nausea – Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre’s first novel, Nausea, gave a name for existential angst. He considered it as one of his best works. It is a philosophical novel with existentialist vibes, that delves into the pure absurdity of the world with Sartre’s wild imagination and explores the randomness and superfluity of the world. Everything that we takeContinue reading “Book Review: Nausea – Jean Paul Sartre”
The Look and Hell is Other People – Sartre
The Look is a central concept in Sartre’s phenomenology. It is the exploration of the experience of being seen. You are a subject, but if someone gazes into you for a long time, you start becoming hyper aware of yourself as an object in other people’s views. What we think of self-consciousness is actually ourContinue reading “The Look and Hell is Other People – Sartre”
Being and Nothingness – Sartre
Sartre´s masterwork and major philosophical work of his life is Being and Nothingness, which became the core of Existentialism. He speaks of consciousness, bad faith, the existence of “nothingness”, free will and authenticity. The idea that individuals can always choose their own actions, even in situations which appear to enslave them. He begins with theContinue reading “Being and Nothingness – Sartre”
Bad Faith – Sartre
A common trap that people fall into is what Sartre calls Bad Faith, a dominant theme of his work. Bad faith is a way of denying the fundamental nature of our freedom and responsibility, it is a way of making excuses for ourselves. We accept something as true that really isn’t that convincing to us,Continue reading “Bad Faith – Sartre”
Freedom and Responsibility – Sartre
For Sartre human beings live in anguish, or the feeling of total and deep responsibility, not because life is terrible, but because, as he says: “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” We are born without a choice, yet here we are bornContinue reading “Freedom and Responsibility – Sartre”
Existence precedes Essence – Sartre
Sartre is also a leading figure in phenomenology, a branch of philosophy that offered a radical account of the workings of human consciousness. In other words, it is experiencing reality as we experience it with our perceptions, distinguished from the world as it really is. He studied under Edmund Husserl, the world’s leader in thatContinue reading “Existence precedes Essence – Sartre”
Nausea & The Absurdity of the World – Jean Paul Sartre
Sartre’s first novel, Nausea, gave a name for existential angst. He considered it as one of his most precious novels, it portrays Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence and finds it meaningless. He lives alone, has no friends, and usually eavesdrops on other people’s conversations and watches their actions.Continue reading “Nausea & The Absurdity of the World – Jean Paul Sartre”
An Introduction to Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre had a great influence on many areas of modern thought. A writer of prodigious brilliance and originality, Sartre worked in many different genres: as a philosopher, a novelist, and a cultural critic. Sartre is one of the key figures in the philosophy of Existentialism, which emphasises the existence of the individual orContinue reading “An Introduction to Jean Paul Sartre”