Talk:Jean-Paul Sartre

Anarchism

The current lede says that Sartre "aligned himself at various times with ... anarchism" but I think that's a misreading of the quotes referenced in the article text.

After May 1968 you said to me: "If one rereads all my books, one will realize that I have not changed profoundly, and that I have always remained an anarchist."

That is very true. And it will be evident in the television broadcasts I am preparing. Still, I have changed in the sense that I was an anarchist without knowing it when I wrote La Nausée: I did not realize that what I was writing there could have an anarchist interpretation; I saw only the relation with the metaphysical idea of “nausea,” the metaphysical idea of existence. Then, by way of philosophy, I discovered the anarchist being in me. But when I discovered it I did not call it that, because today’s anarchy no longer has anything to do with the anarchy of 1890.

Actually, you never identified yourself with the so-called anarchist movement!

Never. On the contrary, I was very far from it. But I have never accepted any power over me, and I have always thought that anarchy, which is to say a society without powers, must be brought about.
— NY Review of Books in 1975, also [1] linked in a prior talk page discussion

In recent interviews, you seem to have accepted the term "libertarian socialism."

It is an anarchist term, and I keep it because I like to recall the somewhat anarchist origins of my thought.

You once said to me: "I have always been an anarchist," and you declared to Contat: "Through philosophy I have discovered the anarchist in me."

That is a bit hasty; but I have always been in agreement with the anarchists. ...
— The Interview, Schilpp's 1981 The Philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre, p. 21

In [film director] Astruc’s opinion, Sartre was essentially an anarchist. Sartre admits (and says in the film), "We were, if you like anarchists, but it was a special kind of anarchy". What kind of anarchy it was, he did not say, at least not in this documentary.
— Ferrua's 2005 review of Sartre par lui-même in RA Forum (unreliable source)

It's clear that he didn't identify as an anarchist so I don't think his affiliation with anarchism is a defining characteristic for his biography's categories. At best, these interview comments are meant as provocations about the similiaries between his writing and anarchist philosophy, but we should be more careful about using those comments as proof of his personal political affiliations when the full quotes do not bear them out. czar 04:22, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I think this makes sense for categories, on account of WP:CATDEF. But the originating question was whether Sartre should be in WP:@, which is a very different question. That's not a wikiproject of anarchists but a wikiproject of topics related to anarchism. -- asilvering (talk) 06:19, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
@Czar @Asilvering I agree with the removal of it as I said in WP:@ but I agree if it's not the same question. If it's 'all things related to anarchism' then I believe we could include most Marxists, or at least a broad number of them. Marx influenced anarchism and was in link with many anarchists in terms of conflict and definitely influenced them, Engels too, Lenin killed many anarchists after using himself anarchist terminology knowingly in some of his books, etc etc. Like I understand that point but if so we could really be big under those terms, and Sadi Carnot also because he was killed by an anarchist, and Edison also because he made a movie on the execution of Czolgoz, etc (although the movie could be in it for sure imo at least)... :( Aristoxène (talk) 00:07, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
I think it's more like 'all things definitely related' to anarchism no ? In that sense Goron the policeman who wrote about the Clichy affair and Duval or the police officer who wrote about the Haymarket Square affair are in the project because it's 'kinda big' in their biography compared to like Marx where ok he is related to anarchism but he is related to so much stuff that I mean it's not one of the main things about him. Aristoxène (talk) 00:10, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
I think if anarchism is a major topic of a person's biography or a major component of a person's notability, they should be in the wikiproject. So if it's very common for Sartre to be discussed in the context of anarchism, or for his ideas to be compared to anarchism, or whatever, then yes, we'd want to both discuss it in his biography and have him tagged for the wikiproject. (Likewise, a policeman who is mostly notable for his actions related to a historical event in anarchism should be in the wikiproject, in my opinion.) The question then is whether he's actually being regularly discussed in that context. On this I have no strong opinion without doing further research. I know him for anti-colonial politics and not anarchism, but the extended quotes that czar pulled out above suggest to me that a fully fleshed-out section on his politics would indeed discuss their relationship to anarchism at at least some length, so I think it's probably right to have him tagged for this project. -- asilvering (talk) 00:32, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
I meant for this thread to address whether Sartre was an anarchist but agreed that any further discussion on whether Sartre is included in WP:@ scope would be best for that talk page. czar 05:01, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
+1 / He is not considered as an anarchist in France by both the DIMA and the Maitron I must say, none of them mention him at all for the period ; one could assume that if they were anarchist they would be noted in the encyclopedical dictionaries of the anarchist movement ? Aristoxène (talk) 07:19, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
I mean, that Never. On the contrary, I was very far from it. is pretty explicit. -- asilvering (talk) 20:21, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
I think part of the issue here is that, especially in mid-century France, there was quite of conceptual overlap among leftist political movements. Sartre was a Marxist and a rather hard-edged one at that. But, as many Marxists and Anarchists have pointed out historically (and still do to this day) Marxism and Anarchism seek largely the same goal and mostly disagree about the specifics of achieving it. As Sartre's writing was generally not at that tactical level it is somewhat unsurprising that his writing is seen as useful both to Marxists and to Anarchists. A good reflection would be to look at the generally anarchist-aligned philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Please remember that Deleuze is the person who said that a left wing government had never existed because leftism had nothing to do with governmentality. He also wrote an essay about Sartre called He Was My Teacher which was highly hagiographical. And, pivoting back around to the general compossibility of Marxist and Anarchist thought within the context of the French Academy, the incomplete book that Deleuze was working on at the time of his death was called "The Grandeur of Marx". And so I think we should be somewhat cautious to say about Sartre "he was an Anarchist" while also recognizing that it's highly true that his perspectives were valuable to Anarchism. Simonm223 (talk) 16:01, 27 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]
@Czar and Asilvering: Just come across this thread. While this may not be a defining characteristic for categorisation, I'm not sure I agree with entirely removing the article from the anarchism WikiProject. There's quite a few scholarly works that interrogate the relationship between Sartre's philosophy and anarchism, and even label him as an anarchist, for example:
  • Heter, T. Storm (2020). "Sartre and anarchism". In Eshleman, Matthew C.; Mui, Constance L. (eds.). The Sartrean Mind. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315100500-40.
  • Jun, Nathan J. (2013). "Rethinking the anarchist canon: history, philosophy, and interpretation". Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies. 2013 (1): 82–116. ISSN 1923-5615. JSTOR jj.2354036.8.
  • Remley, William L. (2018). Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anarchist Philosophy. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781350126695.
  • Wahl, Shane (2018). "Anarchism and Existentialism". In Jun, Nathan J. (ed.). Brill’s Companion to Anarchism and Philosophy. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004356894_021.
At the very least, I think there's more to this subject than "he was/wasn't an anarchist".--Grnrchst (talk) 15:35, 27 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]
I meant for this discussion to be more about the category than the project affiliation, so if there is consensus to restore the latter, all good. czar 16:07, 27 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]
allikas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Jean-Paul_Sartre