Conversations with Jean-Paul Sartre

Perry Anderson, Quintin Hoare, Ronald Fraser, Simone de Beauvoir

 

5.75 x 8 inches, 116pp. 2006

ISBN : 9781905422012

Rs  395.00 (HB)
$19.95 (HB)
£12.99 (HB)

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Jean-Paul Sartre was undoubtedly one of the greatest and most popular philosophers of the 20th Century. Also a prominent novelist, playwright and biographer, Sartre was, above all, the embodiment of the engage intellectual, active in a variety of political causes, as well as an individual who attempted to live his life in accordance with the philosophy he professed. It was this that gave his lifelong preoccupation with freedom, choice and what he came to refer to as social conditioning, its cutting edge. Sartre's life was in many ways an illustration of his brand of existentialism in action. In these two interviews, the Marxist historian and scholar Perry Anderson takes Sartre on a wide-ranging tour of his philosophy and politics. The skilful and part chronological interrogation of various fundamental Sartrean concepts, and the detailed and complex elucidations of them by the philosopher, make these interviews a must for anyone interested in Sartre's philosophical, political and ethical development. The wide range of topics discussed also includes 'freedom of choice', his uneasy relationship with Freudian concepts, his debates with Marx, and his acute observations on drama, the Cultural Revolution, Stalinism, the May 'Events' and of course, the US war on Vietnam. Their breadth remains a testimony to one man's attempt to make philosophical sense of the tumultuous world around him. 

Perry Anderson is the author of many works including Lineages of the Absolutist State, In the Tracks of Historical Materialism, A Zone of Engagement and The Origins of Postmodernity. He teaches history at UCLA and is an editor of New Left Review.

Quintin Hoare is a prize-winning translator and editor of Gramsci and Sartre, among others. 

Ronald Fraser is author of the classic Blood of Spain.

Simone de Beauvoir(1908-86) was a leadig existentialist and feminist philosopher of the 20th century. Along with Sartre, whom she credits as a moajor philosophical influence, she contributed significantly to the development of existentialism. Her seminal work, The Second Sex, surveys the history of male oppression throughout history. She co-edited the influential left-wing magazine, Les Temps modernes.

 

Conversation Series