Yet having then resolved to abstain from bread and wine, he found himself tempted by a carafe of wine one day at lunch:

    But, precisely, if Nothingness is introduced into the world through man, anguish at Nothingness is simply  anguish at freedom, or if you prefer, freedom's anguish at itself. If, for example, I experienced a slight anguish yesterday before the wine which I could but should not drink, it's because the "I shouldn't" was already in the past ... and nothing could prevent me from drinking. It was before that particular nothing I was so anguished; that nothingness of my past's means of acting on my present... . [N]othing allows me to foresee what I shall do and, even if I were able to foresee it, nothing could prevent me from doing it. So anguish is indeed the experience of Nothingness, hence it isn't a psychological phenomenon. It's an existential structure of human reality, it's simply freedom becoming conscious of itself as being its own nothingness.

Sartre's notebooks are full of such meditations. Taken together, they reveal a mind that does not so much practice philosophy as exude it; anything and everything, the whole range of his experience, was immediately taken up and digested by reflection. The smallest detail of his or his colleagues' behavior, the most trivial news report: for Sartre they were "understood" only when translated out of their native element and subjected to systematic philosophical probing.

New Criterion

Sartre's philosophical pyrotechnics, even about his failure to resist some wine, was part of his seductive charm - his celebrity helped too of course:

... it becomes clear that there is an indissoluble linkage between intellect and sexuality. Sartre outdoes Casanova or Don Juan in the number and variety of seductions he notches onto his belt suggesting that the intellectual energy that produced Being and Nothingness, The Critique of Dialectical Reason, Saint Genet, the plays and the novels, are in some inexplicable way the outgrowth of the erotic power that he wielded throughout his life - even into his final days when he was blind, unable to walk without aid and dying of pulmonary edema. Throughout his life, he felt the compulsion to seduce, and then colonize women. It was more for the sake of ego than sensual pleasure, as he himself admitted. John Huston described him as "a little barrel of a man and as ugly as a human being can be. His face was bloated and pitted, his teeth were yellowed and he was wall-eyed." None of which seemed to diminish his allure.

swans.com

Back in the US:

Jenna Schaal-O'Connor, a 20-year-old sophomore who is majoring in cognitive science and linguistics, said philosophy had other perks. She said she found many male philosophy majors interesting and sensitive.

"That whole deep existential torment," she said. "It's good for getting girlfriends."

It's interesting that even so fertile a thinker as Sartre needed the example of German phenomenology to feel that this legitimated the philosophical treatment of everyday objects. He too was a victim of fashion, and he neglected his native tradition, e.g. Diderot's discussion of his dressing gown to draw general conclusions about what we'd now call consumerism:

One by one, the familiar but well-worn furnishings of the study were replaced.  In the end, Diderot found himself seated uncomfortably in the stylish formality of his new surroundings, regretting the work of this "imperious scarlet robe [that] forced everything else to conform with its own elegant tone."

 Today consumer researchers call such striving for conformity the "Diderot effect." And, while Diderot effects can be constraining (some people foresee the problem and refuse the initial upgrading), in a world of growing income the pressures to enter and follow the cycle are overwhelming."

Paul Wehr

[From my earlier diary]

The NYT article gives other reasons for the recent surge in popularity of philosophy in the US; e.g. it provides useful skills for more economically rewarding studies:

Barry Loewer, the department chairman, said that Rutgers started building its philosophy program in the late 1980s, when the field was branching into new research areas like cognitive science and becoming more interdisciplinary. He said that many students have double-majored in philosophy and, say, psychology or economics, in recent years, and go on to become doctors, lawyers, writers, investment bankers and even commodities traders.

As the approach has changed, philosophy has attracted students with little interest in contemplating the classical texts, or what is known as armchair philosophy. Some, like Ms. Onejeme, the pre-med-student-turned-philosopher, who is double majoring in political science, see it as a pre-law track because it emphasizes the verbal and logic skills  prized by law schools -- something the Rutgers department encourages by pointing out that their majors score high on the LSAT.

New York Times

I feel that they are perhaps missing the point of philosophy. However, in these times of "precarité", if can't be sure of a career, some decide that one might as well study what one likes:

Frances Egan, a Rutgers philosophy professor who advises undergraduates, said that as it has become harder for students to predict what specialties might be in demand in an uncertain economy, some may be more apt to choose their major based simply on what they find interesting. "Philosophy is a lot of fun," said Professor Egan, who graduated with a philosophy degree in the tough economic times of the 1970s. "A lot of students are in it because they find it intellectually rewarding."

ibid.

Despite any personal failings, Sartre used his critical skills in a fierce attack capitalism and its violence:

Aronson: This leads us to the unresolved dimension of the Sartre-Camus conflict, the aspect of it that is still very much with us today and needs addressing. The other half of the story is Sartre's equally compelling insight into systemic violence. Sartre understood deeply the violences built into capitalism and colonialism, which he found no less appalling than Camus found revolutionary violence. He illuminated, as no one else has, the everyday structured violence of oppressive social relations, the violence that comes to be depersonalized and experienced as "the way things are."

Logos Journal

[From a post in an earlier blog of mine]

The criticism of the too often accepted "ways things are" is a central concern of Eurotrib, cf. the discussion of Frank Schnittger's "big ideas" diary.

Also guys, if you do it with a bit of "existential angst", it has other possible benefits.