Jean-Paul Sartre, defining existentialism and nothingness

A consummate philosopher of freedom, Sartre explored the primacy of individual existence and the lack of objective values

The image of the existentialist as a cafe-dwelling, chain-smoking, beret-wearing intellectual type comes largely from Sartre (Getty)

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) is the philosopher whose work – certainly in the English-speaking world – came largely to define the existentialist movement in the 20th century.

The image of the existentialist as a cafe-dwelling, chain-smoking, beret-wearing intellectual type comes largely from Sartre. And the themes he explored in his writings – particularly the primacy of individual existence, human freedom and the lack of objective values – are precisely those of existentialism.

Sartre was born into a comfortable, middle-class existence. However, his childhood was far from happy. He was brought up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Karl Schweitzer – a strict and domineering man – his father having died when he was just a year old. He was an unattractive child, short in stature and the victim of an eye condition that made it appear as if his gaze were permanently askance. He had few childhood friends, and spent most of his early life reading and writing in his grandfather’s library. There was also a strange dynamic between Sartre and his mother; until his grandfather eventually put an end to it, she pampered him, dressed him in ornate clothing and let his hair grow long.