Jean-Paul Sartre continues to add to the file which he opened with the 1964 publication of his autobiography, The Words. At the time, those who expected that the philosopher-writer would reveal secrets of his adult life were doubtless disappointed by the self-portrait of his childhood. For the philosopher whose task is to "situate" the individual, The Words could at most be the first gesture. Yet in this account of the early years, much of his mature thought is presemt—albeit in an oblique and barely explicit form. By 1964, Sartre's thought had already undergone a significant revision from his early theory of consciousness. The young boy's "fundamental project" of becoming a writer is revealed in The Words as an autobiographizing which incorporates a theory of individual action as conditioned by, but attempting to overcome, social institutions and social class. (p. 142)

Life/Situations—will do more for those seeking to follow [Sartre's] philosophic-literary-political career than the whole series of minimally substantive remarks that have appeared here and there. Above all, these interviews help to complete the more systematic autobiographical account which Sartre himself has offered in The Words….

When making a plea for intellectuals in Between Existentialism and Marxism, he offers an account on his own behalf: the tools necessary for self-knowledge include Marxism, sociology, and psychoanalysis, but the "unique adventure," the "particularity of the individual," "the singular universal"—these characterize the individual in his efforts at communication…. What we learn from the interview entitled "Itinerary of a Thought" is that he does not expect much interest in a sequel to The Words. The concern was to study "how a man becomes someone who writes, who wants to speak of the imaginary." On this basis, he wrote his biographies of Genet and Flaubert. Since The Words fulfills Sartre's program, we should not look for more. And yet Life/Situations resembles a sequel to The Words. By altering the genre to that of the interview, Sartre opens up a new channel: he gives himself license to reveal [various personal characteristics]. (p. 143)

The political essays in [Life/Situations and Between Existentialism and Marxism] are chronicles [of the times]…. All these essays describe symptoms of a contemporary social malaise that remains largely implicit in Western political life. But Sartre's assessments are highly personalized and for the most part ancillary to his more general philosophical and intellectual positions. These essays will be read for their contribution to his thought in general—they stand on their own only as historical documents.

One cannot look to these two volumes for any kind of systematic philosophical statement. The only possible exception is a 1964 piece entitled "Kierkegaard: The Singular Universal."… The appeal to "lived experience" recounts an epistemological "comprehension" which gives meaning to the paradoxical multiplicity of the singularized universal, i.e., the individual. This is one of Sartre's most effective short statements, but like all of the studies under review, its significance depends upon some knowledge of Sartre's thought in general.

Certain readers will find the studies of Mallarmé and Tintoretto intriguing. The latter essay is valuable because it reminds us—lest we forget his earlier piece on Giacometti—that Sartre is also an art critic…. Two other studies show Sartre's reservations about and amusement at current psychoanalytic praxis…. Together all these essays demonstrate the diversity of Sartre's genius. With the addition of Sartre on Theatre …, which includes the author's various interpretations and anecdotes about his own plays, they display the full spectrum of his intellectual concerns. (pp. 144-45)

Sartre is among the philosophers who embody the principle … that philosophy truly lives when it takes its place among the other domains of human knowledge, including literature, political theory, psychology, sociology, art, history, and religion. As Between Existentialism and Marxism and Life/Situations attest, philosophy can still address the full range of basic human concerns in a serious way. Philosophical theory has no home unless it can be practiced and its practice must have meaning not only for those who engage in it but also for those to whom it is addressed. Although Sartre can no longer be followed in each and every tenet, he can be looked to as a symbol of what is significant in philosophical activity.

The essays in Between Existentialism and Marxism and Life/Situations are drawn from the last three volumes of Sartre's series entitled Situations I-X (1947–1976). Spanning almost thirty years, the series marks the enormous role Sartre has played in recent Western thought. All the major issues and developments of our time are there to remind us where we have been and what we as human beings can do tomorrow. [Author's note: Jean-Paul Sartre died on April 15, 1980. The above remarks were written during his lifetime.] (pp. 145-46)