Sartre on the Nobel Prize (1964)

He did not say that, it's what one character says in Huis Clos. That's just like saying Tyrion is actually expressing what George Martin thinks.

I guess, he knew why he made one person say that.

Which is probably one of the most misunderstood citations in philosophy. It's the presence of other people that makes one acutely aware of oneself (since you are an object in the conscience of others).

From L'Être et le Néant:

But the Other is the indispensable mediator between myself and me. I am ashamed of myself as I appear to the Other.

Sarte's reasoning is pretty simple: he doesn't want to become a component of an institution. He wants to be able to write as Jean-Paul Sartre, not Jean-Paul Sartre the Nobel Prize winner.

They are both renouncing something in a spectacular way to maintain a personal ideal.

Notch, for better or worse, was an idealistic symbol of anti-establishmentarianism, most famously when he declared that Mojang wouldn't be developing Minecraft for Facebook after oculus sold out to them, even though the financial incentives were obviously greatly enhanced by such an acquisition, which was going to accelerate development of VR as a platform, particularly with Minecraft sitting right in the nexus of Social/Gaming. He stood on principals, rather than align him self conceptually or monetarily with (what he perceived) to be Oculus selling out.

But, there comes a point, when everyone says, "You know what - pay me enough money and you can do anything you want with my greatest creation."

Would Sartre have been willing use his voice, his writing, and his intellectual heft to support various bourgeois position for $2B, knowing that he could have used that money to support the "concrete" freedoms for so many people in so many places? He was tortured by turning down 250,000 crowns (around $2mm in current dollars?)

Of course, the contrary position to this is that what Sartre did not want to sacrifice was his freedom to not be associated with any one political body, so that his writing would in no way be restrained by anything other than his intellect; and Notch, in selling Mojang to Microsoft, gave up none of his independence, and in no way became associated with Microsoft (indeed, he immediately left the company upon acquisition). Watch Notch did was the intellectual equivalent of Sartre selling the copyrights of one his books to someone wanting to buy them, nothing more.

Sartre, for writing with such unnecessary length.

Why should he have done that? He explains in details his reasons, and for somebody in his position. They sound perfectly valid, and he goes out of his way to say that his refusal is in no way a indictment of the Nobel committee. Other people have refused prestigious awards in the past, without being taxed of arrogance.

His refusal wasn't about humility but about retaining his freedom by not having to carry the weight of the Nobel Academy around.

Being bestowed a prestigious honour changes the man and the perception other people have of him. He didn't want that and he -like Feynman- would have preferred that the Nobel Academy had asked him if he wanted the prize at all before making any announcement.