Christine Daigle is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Women's Studies at Brock University, Ontario. She is the President of NASS (North American Sartre Society), author of Le nihilisme est-il un humanisme: Étude sur Nietzsche et Sartre (2005) and editor of Existentialist Thinkers and Ethics (2006) and co-editor with Jacob Golomb of Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of Influence (2009).

As the founding figure of existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre was a key figure in twentieth-century literature and philosophy, whose writings changed the course of critical thought. Christine Daigle sets Sartre's thought in context, and considers a number of key ideas in detail, charting their impact and continuing influence.

Why Sartre? Key Ideas 1. Consciousness 2. Being 3. Freedom 4. Authenticity 5. Interpersonal relations 6. The human condition 7. Committed literature 8. Politics After Sartre. Further Reading