Sartre - Arthur C. Danto

Popular summaries of Existentialism and Sartre's ideas have ensured a wide currency for such words as 'absurdity', 'nothingness', 'engagement', 'shame' and 'anguish'.

But for Sartre each of these words embodies a precise philosophical concept which he applies and explores further in his fiction and plays. Synthesised in Being and Nothingness and Critique of Dialectical Reason, these concepts comprise a fully articulated philosophical system which, as Arthur C. Danto argues, in its vision and scope, logical responsibility and human relevance, takes it place among the greatest of philosophical achievements. 

This book offers a synoptic and sympathetic reconstruction of the Sartrean system, and in particular Sartre's analysis of the nature of language, consciousness, knowledge, self and values.