Is man truly free? Do we feel alienated to a world without meaning? Jean-Paul Sartre questioned and challenged these ideas. Jean-Paul Sartre was born in June 21, 1905 in Paris, France and died on April 15, 1980 at the age of 74 although making a huge impact in 20th century philosophy. He was well known for being an existentialist because of some of his works and concepts. He was in a very open relationship with Simone de Beuvoir who was a prominent feminist and the writer of The Second Sex. They challenged both the social assumption and the conformity in 20th century society. Jean-Paul Sartre theories and concepts were heavily influenced by a number of philosophers especially Kierkegaard. Sartre changed and shaped important parts of modern philosophy adding more to existentialism in which others could expand on. Sartre was more well known as a philosopher but has dealt with playwriting, he was a novelist, a political activist, a literary critic, and a biographer. He was one of the most famous existentialist and a leading figure for marxism. He also influenced sociology, critical theory literary studies, and post colonial theory. He had many famous works such as Being and Nothingness and Existentialism and Humanism explaining his many concepts and theories about society and the meaning of a being. In Being and Nothingness and a very famous ontology explaining the different forms of “being” such as the conscious being (being-for-itself) and the unconscious being (being-in-itself). Conscious being was a conscious of its own consciousness but insufficient in a way. An unconscious being is something that cannot change and ignorant of its own self. For Sartre this is what defined a man even though it is still unknown to man because the being for-itself could possibly derive from nothing. Nothingness is how Sartre would describe what the essence of being for-itself would be. These concepts were elaborated more in his books about “being” and “nothingness”. Existentialism and Humanism in summary is about the existence of man and our perceptions of certain topics. He explained his opinion of the philosophical essence in which existence and actuality should be seen as more of importance then the essence. Sartre also explained his opinion on freedom of man. “Man is condemned to be free. Condemned because he has not created himself — and is nevertheless free. Because having once hurled into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” Sartre believed that man’s freedom was a curse, he believed that there was no such thing as freedom once created and born into the world. “Man’s existence takes priority over whatever he might otherwise be.” Those were his concepts of man and his opinion of humanism and existentialism. With his partner Simone de Beauvoir he discussed another topic, social assumptions. He used the term “Bad Faith” meaning that most people were provided false values from social forces thus leaving them with a lack of free will and without innate ideas. He believed that someone’s “authenticity” was hard to be determined when the conformity in a society would be heavily influencing that someone. Sartre …show more content…
Well known for his many works and theories and his insight on society. He believed that man couldn’t possibly create innate idea’s due to the conformity of the society a person was born into. “Bad faith” is how he described people who were heavily pressured by social norms. He didn’t believe that man had true freedom because the day man was born he is in charge of himself. He was one of the biggest contributors to modern philosophy and rightfully deserves his fame for what he has done. If Sartre was studied more I believe people would become more humble and understand others in a different way. I’m sure that some people can take his idea’s to a different stand-point but that all depends on them. They are in charge of their life and have to question themselves, what would they be fighting for? No one could truly fight for freedom if we beings couldn’t possibly be free. People can study Sartre just to analyze or argue his working and his idea’s, some could study to know more about him. I implore anybody to contradict Sartre, it’s another way of creating newer theories that can be thought about and talked