Publisher's Synopsis
INTRODUCTION Jean Paul Sartre is one of the leading figures of existentialism. More than anyone, he has broadened the range of existentialism through his literary works. He was not a speculative thinker but a man who was committed to his philosophy. He was a philosopher of freedom and throughout his life he remained an active advocate of free and responsible commitment of the person. His concept of value has revolutionized the whole traditional value thinking. He has written influential works in a variety of areas like philosophy, literature, biography, autobiography and the theory of history. Sartre's philosophical culture appears to have been formed almost entirely within the traditions of continental rationalism that is the line of thinkers that leads from Descartes to Kant and then from Hegel to the 20th century phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegger. Generally he seems not to regard empiricism or positivism and certainly not materialismas serious philosophical alternatives. Sartre's version of existentialism could be seen to be rooted in the thoughts of Husserl, Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Marx. Husserl's emphasis on essential form in phenomenological analysis, Kierkegaard's insistence on individual freedom; Heidegger's emphasis on facticity, freedom the relationship between essence and existence and Marx's passion for action to change the world paved the way for Sartre's existentialism crammed with the problem of man and also his active role in forging his own destiny.
