Borges ’ Refutation of Nominalism in

imone de Beauvoir recalls that when she first made the acquaintance of Jean-Paul Sartre he, then still a young man, proudly and somewhat hubristically declared that when he became older he wanted to be Stendhal and Spinoza (Cérémonie 182, 228). Not satisfied with the dream of being merely a great writer or a great philosopher, Sartre hoped to pursue both academic vocations at the same time. For him, this meant not merely writing both philosophical and literary works but also sometimes combining the two. For instance, in order to illustrate a philosophical point, he at times gave literary character sketches such as that of the waiter or the coquette in L’Être et le néant. Conversely, he incorporated philosophical ideas to good effect into his plays and novels such as his portrayal of existential freedom in Les mouches or his account of intersubjective human relations in Huis clos. In fact, it was by means of these literary genres that his philosophical theories found perhaps their most eloquent expression. Consequently, it is not uncommon for commentators to go to his literary works in search of information to supplement the official philosophical statements of Sartre’s views.