A fresh translation of two seminal works of existentialism
"To understand Jean-Paul Sartre is to understand something important
about the present time."--Iris Murdoch
"Sartre matters because so many fundamental points of his analysis of
the human reality are right and true, and because their accuracy and
veracity entail real consequences for our lives as individuals and in
social groups."--Benedict O'Donohoe, Philosophy Now
It was to correct common misconceptions about his thought that Jean-Paul
Sartre, the most dominent European intellectual of the post-World War II
decades, accepted an invitation to speak on October 29, 1945, at the
Club Maintenant in Paris. The unstated objective of his lecture
("Existentialism Is a Humanism") was to expound his philosophy as a form
of "existentialism," a term much bandied about at the time. Sartre
asserted that existentialism was essentially a doctrine for
philosophers, though, ironically, he was about to make it accessible to
a general audience. The published text of his lecture quickly became one
of the bibles of existentialism and made Sartre an international
celebrity.
The idea of freedom occupies the center of Sartre's doctrine. Man, born
into an empty, godless universe, is nothing to begin with. He creates
his essence--his self, his being--through the choices he freely makes
("existence precedes essence"). Were it not for the contingency of his
death, he would never end. Choosing to be this or that is to affirm the
value of what we choose. In choosing, therefore, we commit not only
ourselves but all of mankind. This book presents a new English
translation of Sartre's 1945 lecture and his analysis of Camus's The
Stranger, along with a discussion of these works by acclaimed Sartre
biographer Annie Cohen-Solal. This edition is a translation of the 1996
French edition, which includes Arlette Elkaïm-Sartre's introduction and
a Q&A with Sartre about his lecture.
