Jean-Paul Sartre and Loving Sadomasochistically

Abstract

This study of loving existentially culminates with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophies. Beauvoir and Sartre were two of the leading atheistic existential thinkers and were involved in a very public and long-standing loving relationship. They met as young philosophy students in 1929. Sartre won first prize in the agrégation, France’s highly competitive teachers’ exam, after failing the first time. Beauvoir drew second place in what was a controversial and heated decision process.¹ They fell in love with, inspired, and challenged each other for the rest of their lives. They became highly admired teachers, writing about their new philosophies in smoky Paris cafés. In 1964, Sartre was awarded (but refused) the Nobel Prize for his autobiographical narrative The Words, while Beauvoir won France’s top literary award, the Prix Goncourt for her 1954 novel The Mandarins.