Sartre's Metaphysics and Existentialism: From Being and Nothingness to Existentialism Is a Humanism

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), the French philosopher, writer, and political activist, is renowned for shaping existentialism into a coherent philosophical system. His metaphysics, particularly as outlined in 'Being and Nothingness' (1943), underpins his existential views. Sartre rejected Immanuel Kant's dualism between phenomenon and noumenon, arguing that appearances are the only reality. He distinguished between being-in-itself (unconscious, fixed objects) and being-for-itself (conscious, incomplete humans). Humans, lacking a predefined essence, must create themselves through choices, leading to anguish, abandonment, and despair. In his essay 'Existentialism Is a Humanism' (1946), Sartre posits that existence precedes essence and that humans are 'condemned to be free,' bearing responsibility for all humanity. He emphasized authenticity over 'bad faith' (self-deception). Sartre's philosophy was influenced by Martin Heidegger's 'Being and Time' and Edmund Husserl's phenomenology. He declined the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, stating a writer should not become an institution. Sartre died in Paris in 1980.