Jean-Paul Sartre, 1980

Abstract

The philosophical problem of the last months of Jean-Paul Sartre's life is still a topic of interest for specialists in the works of this Parisian thinker. Some critics, taking as their starting point the article L'Espoir maintenant, which was published just a few days before his death, have spoken of a final stage in Sartreana thought that would suppose a break with the philosophy that had postulated throughout so many years. However, it is also possible to read this article as being perfectly coherent with the suppositions that had long characterised Sartre's philosophy. This article sets out to juxtapose these two readings, and argues that, in absence of any reasoned suggestion by the author himself that his represented the beginning of a new stage in his thought, mere philosophical conjectures are not enough to permit us to speak of a radical change in the thinking of Jean-Paul Sartre.