Sartre Romantic Rationalist Author:Iris Murdoch "To understand Jean Paul Sartre is to understand something important above the present time. As philosopher, as politician, and as novelist Sartre is profoundly and self-consciously contemporary; he has the style and the age." — These are the opening lines of Iris Murdoch's discussion of Sartre's place in the history of philosop... more »hy, of political thought, and of the novel. A brilliant and self-conscious product of his age, Sartre has created a picture of the human psyche that has made him an idol in some quarters, a scandal in others. Miss Murdoch, tutor in philosophy at Oxford but perhaps more widely known as a novelist, separates the strands of his philosophy, analyzes his novels, and closes with a judgment on his theory of 'la literature engagee'.« less