It was to correct common misconceptions about his thought that JeanPaul Sartre the most dominent European intellectual of the postWorld War II decades accepted an invitation to speak on October 29 1945 at the Club Maintenant in Paris. The unstated objective of his lecture Existentialism Is a Humanism was to expound his philosophy as a form of existentialism a term much bandied about at the time. Sartre asserted that existentialism was essentially a doctrine for philosophers though ironically he was about to make it accessible to a general audience. The published text of his lecture quickly became one of the bibles of existentialism and made Sartre an international celebrity. The idea of freedom occupies the center of Sartres doctrine. Man born into an empty godless universe is nothing to begin with. He creates his essencehis self his beingthrough the choices he freely makes existence precedes essence. Were it not for the contingency of his death he would never end. Choosing to be this or that is to affirm the value of what we choose. In choosing therefore we commit not only ourselves but all of mankind. This book presents a new English translation of Sartres 1945 lecture and his analysis of Camuss The Stranger along with a discussion of these works by acclaimed Sartre biographer Annie CohenSolal. This edition is a translation of the 1996 French edition which includes Arlette ElkaimSartres introduction and a QampampA with Sartre about his lecture.show more