Thomas R. Flynn Knihy

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Regarded as the father of existentialist philosophy, he was also a political critic, moralist, playwright, novelist, and author of biographies and short stories. Thomas R. Flynn provides the first book-length account of Sartre as a philosopher of the imaginary, mapping the intellectual development of his ideas throughout his life, and building a narrative that is not only philosophical but also attentive to the political and literary dimensions of his work. Exploring Sartre's existentialism, politics, ethics, and ontology, this book illuminates the defining ideas of Sartre's oeuvre: the literary and the philosophical, the imaginary and the conceptual, his descriptive phenomenology and his phenomenological concept of intentionality, and his conjunction of ethics and politics with an 'egoless' consciousness. It will appeal to all who are interested in Sartre's philosophy and its relation to his life.

One of the leading philosophical movements of the twentieth century, existentialism has had more impact on literature and the arts than any other school of thought. Focusing on the leading figures of existentialism, including Sartre, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, and Camus, Thomas Flynn offers a concise account of existentialism, explaining the key themes of individuality, free will, and personal responsibility, which marked the movement as a way of life, not just a way of thinking. Flynn sets the philosophy of existentialism in context, from the early phenomenologists, to its rise in the 40's and 50's, and the connections with National Socialism, Communism, and Feminism. He identifies the original definition of "existentialism," which tends to be obscured by misappropriation, and highlights how the philosophy is still relevant in our world today.

Jean-Paul Sartre wird weithin immer noch als Frankreichs bekanntester Philosoph betrachtet. Für viele ist aber sein Denken durch das der nachfolgenden Philosophen abgelöst worden. Bekannte Sartre-ForscherInnen zeigen in diesem Band, dass das philosophische, literarische und politische Erbe, welches Sartre hinterlassen hat, noch keineswegs aufgebraucht ist, dass sich Sartres Werk vielmehr gerade immer in einer Nicht-Identität mit sich selbst befindet. Vor diesem Hintergrund diskutieren die Beiträge dieses Bandes Sartres Beziehungen zu Bergson, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Lacan und Fanon neu, und zugleich stellen sie weiterführende Untersuchungen zu Sartres Reflexionen über Gewalt, über das Verhältnis von Freiheit und Determinismus (z. B. anhand der Hirnforschung), über Psychoanalyse und das Genre der Biografie sowie über den Marxismus und das Politische an. Dieser Band stellt eine grundlegende Neubewertung eines der zentralen Philosophen im 20. Jahrhundert dar und bringt den kritischen Wert und die anhaltende Bedeutung von Sartres Werk für unsere Gegenwart zum Vorschein.