# Sartre delivers the public lecture Existentialism is a Humanism

Date: 1945

## The fact

On 29 October 1945 [Jean-Paul Sartre](/people/jean-paul-sartre) delivered the crowded public lecture later printed as L’existentialisme est un humanisme, a popular statement that existence precedes essence and that the human being is condemned to be free. Critics called it a café slogan. It still taught a public. Beauvoir’s own 1940s work is not this microphone.

## Context

Liberation celebrity made philosophy a hall event. Catholics and Marxists attacked. Polarisation of later fellow-travel is other years. Sharing the Club Maintenant stage does not erase the speaker. Do not treat later school manuals as this 29 October night.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

## Evidence and sources

BnF data at https://data.bnf.fr/en/11923581/jean-paul_sartre/ is the official bibliographic identity of the printed lecture among his works. SEP at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sartre/ independently warns that the lecture is a popularisation, not the 1943 system, and still dates it as a public act.

Official or archival record: BnF data — Jean-Paul Sartre (https://data.bnf.fr/en/11923581/jean-paul_sartre/; Bibliothèque nationale de France).

## Significance

Education path, modest-to-mid weight. High confidence on late-1945 delivery and print neighbourhood.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Sartre gave the 1945 humanism lecture that was then printed. Not established: that it is a complete substitute for the 1943 book. Contribution is recorded as He delivered the Club Maintenant lecture, later printed. The hall and publisher shared the public; he signed the words. The impact note is A vernacular lecture that existence precedes essence is an education-access path of modest-to-mid weight, not the 1943 treatise as a twin. The dated heading stays Sartre delivers the public lecture Existentialism is a Humanism on 1945-10-29, not a later statue, UNESCO listing, or school film. Printers, unnamed clerks, and later editors may appear in the same file without becoming this instrument. Later competitions, monuments, and adaptations are refused as extra lifetime acts of this person on this date.

The contribution type is direct. The attached driver is edu-[digital-learning-access](/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access). The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. The 1945 lecture is not the 1943 treatise. Mixed effects of Sartre delivers the public lecture Existentialism is a Humanism are separate paths.

Shared responsibility is part of Sartre delivers the public lecture Existentialism is a Humanism. Naming Jean-Paul Sartre does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1945-10-29 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

## People

- Jean-Paul Sartre: https://factrail.ai/people/jean-paul-sartre

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://data.bnf.fr/en/11923581/jean-paul_sartre/
- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sartre/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/sartre-humanism-lecture-1945