If someone knows only one thing about Sartre it will probably be that Sartre held man to be unconditionally free but lived to change his mind, to believe almost the opposite. There is no doubt that he believed in unconditional freedom, the difficult issue is to what extent he ceased to believe in it. Unquestionably his style and vocabulary did change, demonstrating a much greater respect for the complexity of social relations, acknowledging that the past, transmitted through the forces of convention and propriety, has a vital hold on our consciousness.