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Marxism and Subjectivity

Transcript of Sartre’s 1961 Lecture at the Istituto Gramsci in Rome, previously unpublished in English. A sustained philosophical riposte to Lukács’s History and Class Consciousness and argument for a concept of subjectivity as process, vividly illustrated in concrete situations.

War Diary

Selections from Sartre’s first notebook of the Phony War, previously untranslated. Elegant elaborations on an array of themes—philosophy, history, politics, personal life—compose a dazzling self-portrait of the thinker within the frame of his times.

The Path to Rooted Freedom

“Struck yesterday, as I leafed anew through Gide’s journal, by its religious aspect. It is primarily a Protestant self-examination, and then a book of meditation and prayer. Nothing in common with Montaigne’s essays, the Goncourts’ diary or Renard’s journal. The basic thing is the struggle against sin. And . . .” read more

'Socialism in One Country'

“I shall concentrate on a single, contemporary example: the emergence in the ussr of the ideological monstrosity of ‘socialism in one country’. A critical investigation will show: 1. that the slogan was a product of conflicts within the leadership; 2. that beyond these conflicts, the slogan represented . . .” read more

Answers to Queries from Simone de Beauvoir

“Well, Sartre, I want to probe your views on the woman question. Mainly because you have never expressed yourself on the subject, and this in fact is the first thing I want to ask you about. How is it that you have talked about all the oppressed groups—workers, . . .” read more

Itinerary of a Thought

“How do you envisage the relationship between your early philosophical writings, above all L’Etre et Le Néant, and your present theoretical work, from the Critique de la Raison Dialectique onwards? In the Critique, the typical concepts of L’Etre et Le Néant have disappeared, and a completely new vocabulary . . .” read more

Genocide

“The word ‘genocide’ has not been in existence for very long: it was coined by the jurist Lemkin between the two world wars. The thing is as old as mankind and so far no society has existed whose structure has prevented it from committing this crime. In any . . .” read more

Imperialist Morality

“Interview with Jean Paul Sartre on the War Crimes Tribunal” read more

Condition of the Novel (France)

“Since I have not written a novel for 16 years, my interest in this discussion, though lively, has been dispassionate; it is this which encourages me to try to give a detached impression of what has happened. As you know, when a meeting of this kind is a . . .” read more

Tribute to Camus

“only six months ago, only yesterday, one asked: “What will he do?” Provisionally torn by contradictions which must be respected, he had chosen silence. But he was one of those rare beings for whom one may well wait, because they choose slowly and remain faithful to their . . .” read more