Jean Paul Sartre
Like Camus, Sartre is one of my existential heroes who actually lived his life as he taught life should be lived, which is rare amongst philosophers. Most talk the talk, but few walk the walk.
Like Camus, I’ve read most of his plays and essays, though I haven’t tackled Being and Nothingness yet, his answer to Heidegger’s Being and Time. While I teach No Exit every year, I need to teach The Flies some day because this is really his best work. I could do it alongside the Orestia by Aristophanes and really have some fun.
Anyway, the ending of The Flies is one of those great endings that make you silently shout hell yea! In that play, Sartre gives us the answer to universal guilt and spiritual angst. No one wants to hear it, but he gives us the solution. I’d like to think that I live my life this way, but I’d be lying. I don’t have those kind of guts. But I admire them.