- Lived:
- 1905–1980 · Paris, almost entirely — with detours to Berlin, a German prison camp, and every political frontline of his century
- Tradition:
- Existentialism; phenomenology turned into a philosophy of radical freedom
- The Big Idea:
- There is no blueprint for being human. You exist first, and only then — by choosing, acting, committing — do you make yourself what you are. Freedom is not a gift; it is a sentence: you are "condemned to be free."
- In their words:
- "Existence precedes essence."
- If you remember one thing:
- Every excuse you have ever given — my genes, my childhood, my circumstances, my nature — Sartre calls a lie you tell yourself to escape the terrifying fact that you are choosing your life right now.