Simply Sartre

by David Detmer

“This is a delightful introduction to the life and ideas of Jean-Paul Sartre. Detmer’s writing is clear, engaging, and fun to read. The book weaves together accurate overviews of Sartre’s main ideas with convincing reasons these ideas are still relevant today. The book ends with useful summaries of 50 of Sartre’s works—a perfect roadmap for anyone who wishes to read Sartre himself. If I had to recommend one book to a friend, colleague, or family member on Jean-Paul Sartre, this would be it.”—Joshua Tepley, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Saint Anselm CollegeBorn in Paris, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was largely raised by his mother and his maternal grandparents after his father died when he was two. He attended the renowned École Normale Supérieure, where he studied psychology, philosophy, ethics, sociology, and physics. In 1929, he met Simone de Beauvoir, who went on to become a celebrated feminist writer and philosopher, with whom he had a lifelong intellectual and romantic relationship. After serving briefly in the French army during World War II and spending nine months as a prisoner of war, Sartre lived under the Occupation in Paris, where in 1943 he wrote his best-known philosophic work, Being and Nothingness, one of the foundational texts of existentialism. Following the war, and for the rest of his life, Sartre was deeply engaged in left-wing, anti-colonialist politics, while producing a prodigious number of plays, novels, philosophical works, and critical essays. With the popularization of existentialism in the 1960s, Sartre became a household name, and his celebrity (or notoriety) was heightened in 1964 when he declined the Nobel Prize in Literature.In Simply Sartre, Professor David Detmer tells the story of Sartre’s life and work, focusing on the contemporary relevance of his ideas—ideas that maintain their power to inspire, entertain, enlighten, and enrage. Uniquely, Prof. Detmer covers all periods of Sartre’s career and his many different kinds of works, providing the general reader with the opportunity to fully appreciate Sartre’s many contributions to intellectual and political thought.For anyone interested in one of the towering figures of the twentieth century or the development of a philosophy that lies at the heart of modern human experience, Simply Sartre is an indispensable biographical work.With Simply Sartre, you an in-depth understanding of Sartre’s life and worksDiscover the contemporary relevance of his ideasUncover the foundational texts of existentialismRead accurate overviews of Sartre’s main ideasGet a roadmap for 50 of Sartre’s worksUnlock the secrets of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century with Simply Sartre. With Professor Detmer’s clear and engaging writing, you will gain an understanding of Sartre’s life and works and discover why his ideas continue to be relevant today. Learn how to live life authentically and embrace the contemporary relevance of Sartre's ideas by reading Simply Sartre.Get your copy of this invaluable guide to Sartre now before the price changes!

162 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2020

Reviews

[dave semrud · Rating 2 out of 5]

So Close

I enjoyed this book. Found it quite edifying until I got to the last chapter where Mr. Detmer seemed to think it an accolade for Master Sartre that he inspired political activism Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. I don't know much about the first other than it seemed to last only one smelly summer and the latter a political fraud. I keep wondering when there going to ' peacefully' protest when the next black baby is caught in a crossfire.

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since reading Nietsche, and have an upcoming book club read on a related topic, I figured I could brush up on Sartre and Existentialism.

Have to say, I enjoy this "Simply XYZ" series so far. Seem to be clear and focused summaries, covering both biographical and contributory content. I think this book focused on just three main themes of Sartre and Existentialism - Responsibility, consciousness, and freedom. So I was a bit disappointed to not get much coverage of the anticipated concepts: Bath Faith, Authenticity and self-deception.


With any dense philosophical topic, it can get a little heady and hard to follow while listening to an audiobook. Unlike reading, where you can slow down to focus on clearly critical terms and passages, an audio book sometimes demands occasional re-winding and re-listening to sections. Sometimes multiple times. And in this case, I think I even just moved on not quite figuring out what was being offered.

One thing that was annoying is the considerable effort covering the criticism of Sartre's concept of Freedom. It was pretty clear to me early on that he is using the term in a narrow, limiting scope compared to a more broad social freedom. Its not a big deal really - while it seems contradictory on the one hand taht we have absolute freedom (of choice), it is constrained by our circumstances. We do not have the freedom to exit or ignore, or step over our situation and circumstances, but rather, given the situation we are in, everyone, their minds/self/consciousness is free to choose to accept it as it is, or to act otherwise - to revolt. To struggle, or choose action. Perhaps, fight, flight, or freeze.
Its nothing more nor less than that. I was troubled how much this droned on over the issue. Sure, its inconvenient that Sartre used a precious world for something so limiting, but the point of critical reading is to understand how the author is using the terms they used, and continue your understanding and critique from there. Don't get hung up on the use of your favorite terms that you disagree with.

I did appreciate the final section - what otherwise might have felt like a bibliography, the suggested reading was a long list of significant works by Sartre and others providing the briefest of summary. This I think helped fill in some of the gaps in his coverage given the limitations for the three focusses of this book.

[Lawrence Lewis · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Hoopla) Very brief five hour audiobook that is really just a bird’s eye view of Sartre. I wrote brief because Being and Nothingness, which details the salient features of human existence, is more than thirty-five hours on audiobook. However, it will make my to-be-read list, because I want to hear everything Sartre has to say about self-image being “based substantially on our sense of how we are seen and judged by others.” Before I digested this book, I recalled from philosophy class that Sartre believed that: our lives have no innate meaning, so we have to create meaning for ourselves.

In addition, the author dropped a number of gems:

: in constructing an ego, I construct a value system and a self-image, and these typically lead to a degree of inertia, as I choose to conform to this self-image

: there is often an element of self-deception, because we refuse to behave or believe anything that is contrary to the self-image

: to be free as an individual is to choose one’s self in the world as it is

: the will to ignore the truth turns into the denial of truth

: consciousness is an activity, a directedness towards objects, through its focusing activity that a massive meaningless plenitude of being is carved up, shaped articulated and thus transformed into a meaningful world - I.e. we create meaning for ourselves

: while one might be outraged by an act of injustice, one does not technically see with any sense organ the injustice itself, therefore justice is solely subjective, something that we project onto the world