Philosopher · Contemporary
Jean-Paul Sartre
1905–1980 · Atheistic existentialism
Lapsed from a nominal Catholic childhood by twelve; the century's most famous atheist.
Sartre held that for man “existence precedes essence”: there is no human nature and no God to conceive one, so each person is “condemned to be free,” creates his values by choice, and flees that freedom in “bad faith.” Being and Nothingness analyzed consciousness as nothingness and the other as a threat (“hell is other people”); later he tried to marry existentialism to Marxism.
Why he matters: Humani Generis (1950, § 6) names existentialism among the errors of the day; Gabriel Marcel, Maritain and Copleston answered him; and Veritatis Splendor's rejection of a freedom that creates values (§§ 32–35) and of the “creative” conscience (§§ 54–56) has his position in view.
Where to be careful
Atheism, the denial of human nature and the natural law, freedom as self-creation, and the conscience that makes rather than finds the good are each rejected (CCC 2123–2126; Veritatis Splendor 32–35, 54–64; Fides et Ratio 46); his Marxist politics fall under Divini Redemptoris.
Reading
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Existentialism Is a HumanismJean-Paul Sartre · The short lecture that states the whole position.
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Being and NothingnessJean-Paul Sartre · Bad faith, the look, freedom.
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The Philosophy of ExistentialismGabriel Marcel · Includes his essay on Sartre's conception of freedom; the Catholic existentialist replies.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.