Who were Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir?
Born in 1905 Jean-Paul Sartre came to be probably the most famous and influential twentieth century French philosopher. His name is closely linked with that of the slightly younger Simone de Beauvoir who was born in 1908. Together they make up a unique philosophical couple who jointly developed a form of existentialism which they later married to Marxism, and which has had a tremendous influence on twentieth century radical thought. While Sartre is most famous for his 1943 text, Being and Nothingness, de Beauvoir is best known for her 1949 The Second Sex, a work which set up the philosophical underpinnings of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s. Both Sartre and de Beauvoir believed that philosophers had a duty to be engaged in the political life of their times. For them philosophy was no ivory-tower pursuit but a direct engagement with political and social issues. In order to make an impact they both wrote novels as well as more traditional philosophical works. Of these two are
