ABSTRACT
These are Sartre’s final words to his autobiography, but Sartre was certainly more than just anybody. A key figure of twentieth-century philosophy and literature, this icon of existentialist philosophy presented his contemporaries and the generations that followed with complex writings, rich in new ideas. These were meant to replace the alienating world-view inherited from past centuries of religious discourse and rationalistic philosophizing. Claiming that the human being is fundamentally free and makes himself according to his projects, Sartre proposed a view that centered around the notion of absolute freedom and choice. Empowering to the individual, this view was also highly demanding and required not only private but also public engagement. Sartre himself was a politically committed individual: existentialism is no ivory-tower philosophy; it is a philosophy for actual individuals in the real world.
