Jean Paul Sartre

What I am, as I am, when I am.

by Gestur Hilmarsson

Paper written for a seminar on Self/Identity, taught by Prof. Páll Skúlason at the University of Iceland in March 2012

A paper outlining Sartre's theory of the Self according to his book Transcendence of the Ego, which I then compare to... more A paper outlining Sartre's theory of the Self according to his book Transcendence of the Ego, which I then compare to the theories of Kristján Kristjánsson and finally Paul Ricoeur.

Post-existentialism: The Return of Existentialism?

by Christian Gilliam

Delivered to the 2012 ESRC South East Doctoral Training Centre

Full bibliographical information will be added shortly

This paper seeks to outline the premise of post-existentialism as a political philosophy. Existentialism is no longer... more This paper seeks to outline the premise of post-existentialism as a political philosophy. Existentialism is no longer the appreciated or respected philosophy it was in the mid-twentieth century. Changes and advances in the continental tradition, namely through the poststructuralist turn, have seemingly challenged and undermined the very foundations of existentialism. Similarly, the explosion of neuroscientific research in the last few decades has expropriated existentialism’s (phenomenological) account of consciousness. To talk of consciousness on these terms alone, in an age where our understanding of the nervous system has expanded to such an incredible degree, would seem to boarder on mysticism. Despite these challenges, existentialism still offers significant insights for our understanding of existence and political philosophy. As such, it must not be consigned to the scrapheap: enter post-existentialism.
Post-existentialism is viewed as a natural and logical progression for existentialism to take in view of these challenges, rejuvenating the philosophy and making it more relevant to today’s world. It is, in short, an attempt to force existentialism to take on its major critics- namely poststructuralism and cognitive science- through amalgamating them. Through examining such an amalgamation, post-existentialism will be shown to establish a political philosophy that avoids the pitfalls of the bourgeois humanist subject, while retaining some coherent sense of agency and ethics. It accepts consciousness and the Being of freedom, or Being as freedom and all that that entails (i.e. nothingness, dread, nausea, anguish, absurdity) while placing a greater role on the part of our facticity and discursive forms of power in occluding, or shaping, an understanding of our Being. Further, post-existentialism, in confronting advances in cognitive science on embodied consciousness and the unconscious/ implicit memory, provides a naturalist twist to its deliberations. What we are witnessing here, then, is not a radical departure from the core tenets of existentialism, but rather a radical restructuring of them. With this, post-existentialism will leads us to a new sort of political ethic.

Nauseating Flux: Iris Murdoch on Sartre and Heraclitus

by David Robjant

forthcoming, The European Journal of Philosophy
Article first published online: 17 APR 2012

I observe Iris Murdoch’s distinctive use of the word ‘flux’ in discussion of Sartre’s Nausea and show that her usage... more I observe Iris Murdoch’s distinctive use of the word ‘flux’ in discussion of Sartre’s Nausea and show that her usage is persuasive and revolutionary, first as Sartre exegesis, second as Heraclitus exegesis, and throughout as a contribution to the philosophy of language. Murdoch’s usage of ‘flux’ frames a comparison of Sartre’s Roquentin with other figures who have had similarly flowing experience but without nausea. Roquentin's plight is shown to be ‘a philosopher's plight’ precipitated by a defective theory of descriptive success. I then show how the Heraclitean fragments would support Murdoch’s treatment of flux and on close analysis contradict the established view exemplified in the work of Wittgenstein and Jonathan Barnes. Flux is not a variety of change, and the river image ‘cannot be analysed into non-metaphorical components without a loss of substance’.

Crises de la mémoire

by Yan Hamel

Comte-rendu critique de Susan Rubin Suleiman, Crises of Memory and the Second World War, Cambridge/London, Harvard University Press, 2006, 286 p.

The power struggle of intellectuals at the end of the second world war: a study in the sociology of ideas

by Patrick Baert

In: European Journal of Social Theory 14(4) 2011, pp. 415-435

This article is one of the first sociological explorations of power struggles between intellectuals where matters of... more This article is one of the first sociological explorations of power struggles between intellectuals where matters of life and death are literally at stake. It counters the prevailing tendency within sociology to study intellectuals within confined academic institutions where power struggles are limited to matters of symbolic and institutional recognition. This study explores the conflict between collaborationist and Resistance intellectuals at the end of the Second World War in France, and it focuses in particular on the purge of collaborationist intellectuals which culminated in several high profile trials. This article shows that the arguments and meta-arguments put forward in these trials led to broader intellectual debates outside the courtroom. These debates not only centred on the notion of the writer’s responsibility, but also dealt with anxieties about the disintegrative forces of modern society. Whereas collaborationist intellectuals portrayed their writing as either separate from politics or rescuing a defunct or degenerate nation, Resistance intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre were keen to portray collaborators as outsiders, both socially and sexually, lacking in social integration and subservient to a strong external force. The Resistance intellectuals saw the notion of individual responsibility not as antithetical but as integral to the remaking of the French nation, and this concept would become the cornerstone of the reshaping of the intellectual landscape in the post-war era in France.

Keywords: de Beauvoir, intellectuals, meta-arguments, power struggles, purge, Sartre, trials

The sudden rise of French existentialism: a case-study in the sociology of intellectual life

by Patrick Baert

Published in Theory and Society 2011 40, pp. 619-644.

This article offers a new explanation for the sudden rise in popularity of French existentialism, in particular of... more This article offers a new explanation for the sudden rise in popularity of French existentialism, in particular of Sartre’s version, in the mid-1940s. It develops a multidimensional account which recognises both structural and cultural factors. The explanation differs from, and more fully addresses the complexity of the situation than, the two most prominent existing explanations: namely Anna Boschetti’s Bourdieu-inspired account and Randall Collins’ network-based approach. It is argued that, because of specific socio-political circumstances, the intellectual establishment became tainted and lost legitimacy, with its aesthetic and philosophical views now regarded as outdated if not politically dangerous. This hiatus brought unprecedented publishing opportunities for a new philosophical current, and skilful public performances by the main protagonists helped its ascendancy. Most importantly, existentialist writers colluded with de Gaulle in portraying a cohesive and defiant French nation; and their philosophy, especially in its notion of responsibility, enabled sections of French society to assimilate and make sense of the recent past, whilst drawing a line underneath it so as to move forward.

Key words: Sartre, sociology of philosophy, sociology of ideas, public intellectuals, cultural trauma

Jean-Paul Sartre's positioning in Anti-Semite and Jew

by Patrick Baert

Published in the Journal of Classical Sociology 11 4 2011, pp. 378-397.

This article is one of the first to employ positioning theory to analyse an intellectual product. After introducing... more This article is one of the first to employ positioning theory to analyse an intellectual product. After introducing the theory itself, it explores how Sartre’s book Réflexions sur la question juive enabled him to locate himself within, as well as intervene in, the socio-political and intellectual context at the time.  Using the text, Sartre positioned himself as an authoritative public intellectual; that is, a generalist, drawing on his vast cultural resources to speak out about a wide range of important societal issues with moral conviction. He also positioned himself within the tradition of the Dreyfusard notion of the intellectual - that is, as an intellectual who engages with contemporary social and political issues and who is a defender of progressive Republican notions whilst remaining an independent voice - with the qualification that he expressed disquiet about the French Republican notion of citizenship. Drawing on these insights, the article ends discussing glaring omissions in Sartre’s Réflexions sur la question juive, making sense of them in the light of the socio-political context of the mid-1940s in France. The article shows the fruitfulness of positioning theory for analysing intellectual interventions whether they are in the form of books, essays or articles.

Key words: Sartre, perfomativity, positioning theory, intellectuals, Jews, anti-Semitism

Een Sartriaanse analyse van Providence: Filmesthetische en fenomenologische beschouwingen over verbeelding en waarneming

by Maarten Coëgnarts

O CONCEITO DE NEGRITUDE COMO VIOLENTAÇÃO DA LÍNGUA, MANIFESTO NUM RACISMO ANTI-RACISTA - Um estudo do ensaio "Orphée Noir" de Jean-Paul Sartre.

by Evandro O. Brito

O Conceito de Negritude como violentação da língua, manifesto num racismo anti-racista (Um estudo do ensaio "Orphée Noir" de Jean-Paul Sartre).. IMPRIMATUR - Revista Virtual de Ciências Humanas.. , v.2, p.1 - , 1999.

Na elaboração deste trabalho, utilizei a tradução para a língua portuguesa que J. Guinsburg fez do texto Orphée Noir,... more Na elaboração deste trabalho, utilizei a tradução para a língua portuguesa que J. Guinsburg fez do texto Orphée Noir, escrito por Jean-Paul Sartre em 1948. Tal texto serviu de introdução à Anthologie de La nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache, de Lèopold Sedar Senghor. Embora esse ensaio tenha quase 50 anos, fato que poderia torná-lo anacrônico, a distância cronológica nos mostra que apesar dos exemplos cotidianos utilizados por Sartre não possuírem tanta vivacidade como tinham há cinco décadas, a estrutura do pensamento sartriano continua, em boa parte, dando conta a compreensão da existência humana. A grandeza do pensamento que resplandece e faz resplandecer o texto, está em considerar a existência humana uma tarefa de cada um, e principalmente em reconhecer que em tal tarefa que é comum a todos, está subentendida a responsabilidade de cada homem para com toda a humanidade. Neste sentido, é inteiramente relevante compreender a estrutura, o fundamento e a finalidade desta forma de discurso que ao tratar da tarefa do negro no ocidente, acaba por nela implicar todos os homens. A tarefa do negro é então a tarefa do homem, uma vez que cabe a todos a construção de uma sociedade onde os direitos e privilégios de existir como homem sejam também, direitos e privilégios de cada indivíduo, independente de raça e, poderíamos hoje acrescentar, idade ou gênero. Cabe esclarecer que neste trabalho não trato de explicitar uma compreensão sartriana do conceito de negritude. Ao contrário, tomarei uma postura existencialista-sartriana e apontarei em que condições objetivas e subjetivas o negro toma consciência de sua humanidade, e como essa tomada de consciência pode ser considerada expressão poética, ou seja, criação original na qual o negro seria "meio profeta, meio guerrilheiro, em suma, um poeta na acepção precisa da palavra vates" (SARTRE, J-P. Orfeu Negro p.100)

La vie humaine commence de l’autre côté du désespoir. La lezione di Macbeth ne Les Mouches

by Fabio Battista

published in 'Laboratorio Critico' 2012, 1 (2), pp. 1-9

Récupérable!. Les Mains sales

by Yan Hamel

Using's Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason for Managerial Decision-Making

by Chad Kleist

This article will offer an alternative understanding of managerial decision-making drawing from Sartre's Critique of... more This article will offer an alternative understanding of managerial decision-making drawing from Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason rather than simply Being and Nothingness.  I will begin with a brief explanation of Sartre's account of freedom in Being and Nothingness.  I will then show in the second section how Andrew West uses Sartre's conception of radical freedom from Being and Nothingness for a managerial decision-making model.  In the third section, I will explore a more robust account of freedom from Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason.  I will attempt to show that freedom is not simply a matter of choosing (or not choosing) to perform an action, but entails external constraints--including other people.  Finally, I will provide implications of this account of freedom for managerial decision-making.  I will show that it's unreasonable to place fully responsibility, but better accounts for the way in which we ought to them responsible.

Jean-Paul Sartre en colère

by Yan Hamel

Dans PIERSSENS, Michel et Jean-Jacques LEFRÈRE (dir.). Querelles et invectives. Dixième Colloque des Invalides (décembre 2006), Tusson, Éditions Du Lérot, 2007, p. 95-100.

Ce monstre sureuropéen, l’Amérique du Nord. Jean-Paul Sartre, les États-Unis et la Guerre froide

by Yan Hamel

Dans LAROCHELLE, Marie-Hélène (dir.). Monstres et monstrueux littéraires, Québec, Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2008, p. 71-85.

Les prises de position jazzistiques de Jean-Paul Sartre

by Yan Hamel

Dans  MONTANDON, Frédérique et Aude LOCATELLI (dir.). Réflexions sur la socialité de la musique, Paris, L’Harmattan, coll. « Logiques sociales/musiques et champ social », 2007, p. 185-199.

Le tueur Delarue. La mise à mort des soldats allemands dans La mort dans l’âme de Jean-Paul Sartre

by Yan Hamel

Dans Déborah Lévy-Bertherat et Pierre Schoentjes, J’ai tué. Violence guerrière et fiction, Genève, Droz, 2010, p. 97-109.

Entre tourisme et engagement: autour de L'Amérique au jour le jour

by Yan Hamel

Dans KRISTEVA, Julia (dir.). (Re)découvrir l’œuvre de Simone de Beauvoir du Deuxième sexe à La cérémonie des adieux, Paris, Éditions Le bord de l’eau, 2008, p. 239-247.

Jean-Paul Sartre, entre Richard Wright et Mathieu Delarue

by Yan Hamel

Scènes de la vie (anti) américaine. Autour de La putain respectueuse de Jean-Paul Sartre

by Yan Hamel

Dans Études littéraires, vol XXXIX, no 2, hiver 2008, p. 99-111.

En France, est-ce injurier quelqu’un que de taxer son propos d’antiaméricanisme ? Voilà la question à laquelle... more En France, est-ce injurier quelqu’un que de taxer son propos d’antiaméricanisme ? Voilà la question à laquelle l’auteur de cette communication entend apporter quelques éléments de réponse en passant par une analyse de la pièce de théâtre La putain respectueuse et du tollé que ses premières représentations, en novembre 1946, soulevèrent dans la critique parisienne. L’étude amènera en outre l’auteur à se pencher sur le type particulièrement brutal de relation que, dans sa volonté d’engagement, le théâtre sartrien établit avec son public.

In France, is it an offense to pretend someone’s comments are antiamerican ? This is the question the author of this paper intends to answer. To do so, he analyzes Jean-Paul Sartre’s play La putain respectueuse (The Respectful Prostitute) and the outcry started by its first representations in November 1946. The author also questions the particularly brutal kind of relationship Sartre’s theater, in its will to commitment, establishes with its audience.

Pour un roman francais a l'americaine: Jean-Paul Sartre critique litteraire

by Yan Hamel

Dans Études françaises, vol. 43, 3, 2007, p. 41-54.

Au cours de la période de douze ans durant laquelle il a publié ses nouvelles et ses romans (1937-1949), Jean-Paul... more Au cours de la période de douze ans durant laquelle il a publié ses nouvelles et ses romans (1937-1949), Jean-Paul Sartre a aussi fait paraître une série de critiques littéraires et de manifestes pour l’engagement de la littérature. Dans ces critiques et ces manifestes, l’auteur des Situations accorde une place centrale au genre romanesque : cette partie de son oeuvre a été un espace où, en prenant position par rapport aux autres écrivains, Sartre a implicitement défini sa conception du genre romanesque, ainsi que les ambitions littéraires, philosophiques et politiques qu’il poursuivait par l’entremise de ses propres fictions narratives. L’ensemble des oeuvres auxquelles Sartre s’intéresse dans ses essais sur la littérature se caractérise par une stricte bipartition. D’un côté, des prédécesseurs et des contemporains français tels que Jean Giraudoux, François Mauriac, Paul Nizan, Albert Camus et Maurice Blanchot sont plus ou moins durement éreintés selon les cas. En contrepartie, des oeuvres écrites par ceux que Sartre appelle indifféremment « les Américains », c’est-à-dire, pour l’essentiel, William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck et Richard Wright, suscitent de l’enthousiasme, reçoivent des éloges et sont considérés comme des modèles dont l’écrivain français devrait idéalement parvenir à s’inspirer. Dans cet article, l’auteur dégage la signification de cette bipartition entre oeuvres américaines et françaises et circonscrit la fonction qu’elle remplit dans le système de la critique littéraire sartrienne.

During the twelve years in which he published short stories and novels (1937-1949), Jean-Paul Sartre also wrote articles of literary criticism and manifestos defending commitment in literature. In these articles and manifestos, the author of Situations focused his reflection on the poetics of fiction. In this part of his work, Sartre situated himself among other writers. He also defined implicitly, with his own conception of the novel, the literary, philosophic and political ambitions he was pursuing at this time. The works of fiction analyzed by Sartre in his articles and manifestos are characterized by a strict bipartition. On the one hand, he subjected his French predecessors and contemporaries like Jean Giraudoux, François Mauriac, Paul Nizan, Albert Camus and Maurice Blanchot to pretty harsh scrutiny, while works by novelists that Sartre lumped together [generally referred to] as the “Americans” (William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and Richard Wright) were enthusiastically praised and heralded as the models to inspire French writers. In this article, Sartre’s system of literary criticism is called forth in elucidating the meaning of this bipartition between American and French fiction.