Sartre championed political engagement while Heidegger rebuffed it.

Evidence

After Heidegger had got the conversation off to a bad start by venting his feelings about this minor awkwardness, it was Sartre’s turn to mount his hobby horse. He was burning to talk about the question of political engagement: the duty he felt writers and thinkers had to become involved with the politics of their time. This was, to say the least, an embarrassing topic for Heidegger, and not one he wanted to hear Sartre’s views about. Sartre later told his secretary Jean Cau that, when he first brought it up, Heidegger looked at him ‘with infinite pity’. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 659

Categorization

• XREF: Clarifies the deepest philosophical rift between the two: Sartre’s political engagement versus Heidegger’s retreat, a contrast central to later assessments of both. — connects to: Sartre’s political conversion was a Kehre like Heidegger’s but toward engagement. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 807; The war permanently ruptured Sartre’s philosophical kinship with Heidegger — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 662; Sartre’s late thought shifted from individual freedom toward political commitment — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 853 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Sartre’s late thought shifted from individual freedom toward political commitment #corroborates (0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 853
• Sartre’s political conversion was a Kehre like Heidegger’s but toward engagement. #expands (0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 807
• The war permanently ruptured Sartre’s philosophical kinship with Heidegger #expands (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 662