Sartre and Camus: A Historic Confrontation [Hardcover]

Jean-Paul Sartre (Editor), Adrian Van Den Hoven (Editor), David A. Sprintzen (Editor), Albert Camus (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2004

In 1952, Jean-Paul Sartre engaged Albert Camus in a celebrated and bitter public confrontation that had wide-ranging cultural significance. This book contains the first English translation of the five texts constituting this famous philosophical quarrel. Personally animated, passionately argued, polemically focused, this confrontation was as much a personal encounter as it was a theoretical debate. Alternating between stylistic brilliance and stinging sarcasm, each draws upon their years of past involvement as former friends both to make their criticisms more pointed and their theoretical critique more challenging. At the same time, their views serve as lightning rods for the wider cultural forces of which they are partial expressions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...be drawn into the issues raised by these two great thinkers...their debate is still with us..." -- SirReadaLot.org

"...exemplary collection...includes pertinent documents and essays by American scholars giving the background and context of the fallout." -- The Nation, April 5, 2004

"Even for someone familiar with the dispute...the dossier of materials assembled will prove a revelation." -- Bookforum, Spring 2004

About the Author

Adrian van den Hoven is Full Professor of French Studies at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He is the executive editor of SARTRE STUDIES INTERNATIONAL, co-editor (with Ronald Aronson) of SARTRE LIVE, and translator of Jean-Paul Sartre and Benny Levy. HOPE NOW: THE 1980 INTERVIEWS, and of Jean-Paul Sartre, TRUTH AND EXISTENCE.

David A. Sprintzen is Professor of Philosophy at C.W. Post College and Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development at Long Island University. He is the author of THE DRAMA OF THOUGHT: AN ENQUIRY INTO THE PLACE OF PHILOSOPHY IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE, and CAMUS: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION. Sprintzen founded the Long Island Progressive Coalition and served as its chair for the first twenty years, currently serving as its secretary; he is also the founder and executive director of the Research and Eduction Project of Long Island. He has for many years been actively engaged in community organizing and political affairs and has written numerous theoretical and practical articles on philosophy and current events.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 275 pages
• Publisher: Humanity Books (March 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159102157X
• ISBN-13: 978-1591021575
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,132,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Novelist, playwright, and biographer Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) is widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. His major works include "No Exit," "Nausea," "The Wall," "The Age of Reason," "Critique of Dialectical Reason," "Being and Nothingness," and "Roads to Freedom," an allegory of man's search for commitment, and not, as the man at the off-licence says, an everyday story of French country folk.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is there a third way?, December 7, 2004

By 

jerry kendall (brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sartre and Camus: A Historic Confrontation (Hardcover)

Not only does this book contain the original articles that comprise one of the great intellectual debates of the last century, it also has very helpful contextual commentary by the editors.

One can substitute terrorism for Stalinism and the debate is, if you will forgive the cliche, as current as the headlines. But it most certainly is not at all like the sound bite debates of Cross Fire. Great breath and depth in the arguments of the participants - anguished arguments about the relationships between means and ends, justice and freedom; and finally personal responsibility.

Camus corectly sees Stalinism, read terrorism, an an unmitigated evil. Yet, he sought to live as neither victim nor executioner. That caused him no end of grief, especially as he confronted the Algerian situation. Nevertheless his arguments call to mind the views of the Polish and Czech dissidents in the 80s. An anti-politics, a living "as if" one were free. No crusade to eliminate evil from the earth, no war; rather a third way.

Sartre on the other hand saw Stalinism as an understandable, even necessary, response to the injustice inflicted on the wretched of the earth. His understanding of human nature, dare one use that term in discussing Sartre, was such that chioce was required in all circumstances. By this time, in Sartre's thinking, no third way was possible. If the choice is between victim or executioner, he would choose executioner.

Sartre is correct, one must choose. Camus is correct, there is a third way. Enter the debate if you dare. There is no easy exit.