Manuel, R. E. The New World of Henri Saint-Simon.Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1956.
Sanhedrin
The supreme council and high court of ancient Israel.
Located in Jerusalem, this governing council handled
religious issues for the entire Jewish world, collected
taxes to support the Israeli state, and served as a civil
court. It consisted of 71 members, dominated by the
Jewish priestly class but included lawyers (Scribes)
and Pharisees. Presided over by a high priest, the San-
hedrin enjoyed considerable governing authority even
under Roman rule. It pronounced the death sentence
on Jesus Christ but was not authorized to carry out
executions. An example of representative government
in religion and politics, this Jewish council was
destroyed when the Roman Empire annihilated
Jerusalem in A.D. 70, but some of its functions were
continued by the dispersed Jews in Jamnia and
Tiberias. Although the majority of Sanhedrin members
condemned Christ and persecuted the early CHRISTIANS,
the Bible records several councilmen supporting Jesus
and the Apostles (Gamaliel, Acts 5; Joseph of Arimath-
aea, Matthew 27; Nicodemus, John, 3).
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1905–1980) French existen-
tialist and Marxist philosopher
Expressing his political thought in novels, plays, and
essays as well as books of philosophy (Being and Noth-
ingness; Critique of Dialectical Reason), Sartre presents a
view of human life as meaningless, without objective
(divine) order, and requiring the individual to take
responsibility for one’s existence. This EXISTENTIALIST
perspective regards God, the church, transcendent reli-
gious faith, LAW, and organized social movements as
cowardly escapes from individual FREEDOM(and making
one’s own reality). The separate person, for Sartre, must
make his or her own reality, purpose, and morality. Iron-
ically, this leads to a kind of INDIVIDUALISTICnihilism,
allowing any person to avoid responsibility if it con-
forms to some moral or religious system. So, for Sartre’s
“free” individual to be “authentic,” he or she may love
someone one day and abandon the loved one the next.
He combines this existentialist self with COMMUNISM
by arguing that one can overcome this ALIENATIONand
meaninglessness by participating in revolutionary
political activity, including VIOLENCE. Such RADICAL
political ACTIVISMis not carried on for the benefit of
the poor and oppressed but for one’s own fulfillment.
Historically, Sartre represents that cultural and intellec-
tual alienation and sense of futility common in LEFTIST
European academics in the 20th century. He projects
his own insignificance onto all humanity and society.
A favorite among CRITICAL-THEORY MARXIST, Sartre, nev-
ertheless, quarreled with other communists and POST-
MODERNthinkers.Further Readings
Aronson, B. Jean-Paul Sartre: Philosophy in the World.London:
NLB, 1980.
Jameson, F. Sartre after Sartre.New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univer-
sity Press, 1985.Savonarola, Girolamo (1452–1498) Italian
political and religious reformer
As a CATHOLICmonk of the Dominican order, Savo-
narola attacked the immoral society of Florence and270 Sanhedrin
French author and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.(LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS)