The pursuit of being in the life and thought of Jean-Paul Sartre.

Abstract

This paper has examined the relationship between the life and the thought of Jean-Paul Sartre. The central themes of Sartre's personal existence are shown to revolve around a struggle for self-definition and self-formation, rooted in the empathic failures of significant others during his formative years. It is argued that Sartre's experience of this struggle is mirrored and symbolized by the dialectic of being and nothingness which constitutes the central preoccupation of his philosophy.