June 21, 1905

Karl Jaspers was careful to distinguish his own, prior, use of the term existentialism, from that of the French leftists. Jean- Paul Sartre  (June 21, 1905 to April 15, 1980) may well have been the main figure he wished to disassociate himself from. Sartre's history in the French resistance during the war has been over-estimated.

From his New York Times obit we quote:

Although he was once closely allied with the Communist Party, Mr. Sartre was for the last 15 or so years an independent revolutionary who spoke more in the accents of Maoism than of Soviet Communism. As an intellectual and a public figure--a man the police disliked to arrest--he used his prestige to defend the rights of ultraleftist groups to express themselves, and in 1973 he became titular editor of Liberation, a radical Paris daily. In addition he lent his name to manifestos and open letters in favor of repressed groups in Greece, Chile and Spain. He was a rebel with a thousand causes, a modern Don Quixote.

Sartre's ideas at any phase of his intellectual career are fairly described as "whining." Still, I find it perhaps a dreadful calumny -- the story -- that he named a cat, "Nothing." Just because something is repeated on the web is no evidence of accuracy.