Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology. His work has influenced sociology, critical theorypost-colonial theoryand literary studiesand continues to do so. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution.
Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeoisin both lifestyles and thought.
The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity mauvaise foiliterally, ' bad faith ' and an " authentic " way of " being " became the dominant theme of Sartre's early work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work Being and Nothingness L'Être et le Néant Anne-Marie moved back to her parents' house in Meudonwhere she raised Sartre with help from her father Charles Schweitzer, a teacher of German who taught Sartre mathematics and introduced him to classical literature at a very early age.
From his first years in the École normaleSartre was one of its fiercest pranksters. Many newspapers, including Le Petit Parisienannounced the event on kända nihilister jean paul sartre May. Thousands, including journalists and curious spectators, showed up, unaware that what they were witnessing was a stunt involving a Lindbergh look-alike.
In at the École normale, he met Simone de Beauvoirwho studied at the Sorbonne and later went on to become a noted philosopher, writer, and feminist. The two became inseparable and lifelong companions, initiating a romantic relationship, [23] though they were not monogamous.
He took it a second time and virtually tied for first place with Beauvoir, although Sartre was eventually awarded first place, with Beauvoir second. InSartre read Voyage au bout de la nuit by Louis-Ferdinand Célinea book that had a remarkable influence on him.
In —34, he succeeded Raymond Aron at the Institut français d'Allemagne in Berlin where he studied Edmund Husserl 's phenomenological philosophy. Aron had already advised him in to read Emmanuel Levinas 's Théorie de l'intuition dans la phénoménologie de Husserl The Theory of Intuition in Husserl's Phenomenology.
The neo-Hegelian revival led by Alexandre Kojève and Jean Hyppolite in the s inspired a whole generation of French thinkers, including Sartre, to discover Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. In Sartre was drafted into the French army, where he served as a meteorologist.
It was during this period of confinement that Sartre read Martin Heidegger 's Sein und Zeitlater to become a major influence on his own essay on phenomenological ontology. Because of poor health he claimed that his poor eyesight and exotropia affected his balance Sartre was released in April According to other sources, he escaped after a medical visit to the ophthalmologist.
In October he was given a position, previously held by a Jewish teacher who had been forbidden to teach by Vichy lawat Lycée Condorcet in Paris. In spring ofSartre suggested with "cheerful ferocity" at a meeting that the Socialisme et Liberté assassinate prominent war collaborators like Marcel Déatbut de Beauvoir noted his idea was rejected as "none of us felt qualified to make bombs or hurl grenades".
However, both Gide and Malraux were undecided, and this may have been the cause of Sartre's disappointment and discouragement. Socialisme et liberté soon dissolved and Sartre decided to write instead of being involved in active resistance.
He then wrote Being and NothingnessThe Fliesand No Exitnone of which were censored by the Germans, and also contributed to both legal and illegal literary magazines. In his essay "Paris under the Occupation ", Sartre wrote that the "correct" behaviour of the Germans had entrapped too many Parisians into complicity with the occupation, accepting what was unnatural as natural:.
The Germans did not stride, revolver in hand, through the streets.