Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (French: Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre; June 21, 1905 - April 15, 1980), French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He is one of the key figures in existential and phenomenological philosophy, and one of the leading figures in French philosophy and Marxist philosophy in the 20th century. His thoughts and theories have also influenced sociology, critical theory, postcolonial theory, and literary research. Despite attempts to refuse, he was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize for Literature. He always declined official honors, stating that "a writer should not allow himself to become an institution". Sartre is also known for his open relationship with Simone de Beauvoir, a prominent feminist, existential philosopher, and author. Together, the two challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations they had grown up with, which they considered bourgeois ways of living and thinking. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity (mauvaise foi, literally "malice") and the "real" way of being became a major theme of Sartre's early work, a theme reflected in his major philosophical work, Being and Nothingness (French: L'Être et le Néant, 1943). Sartre introduced his philosophical thoughts in his work "Existentialism is a Humanism". (French: L'existentialisme est un humanisme, 1946).