Sartre and Aron began their 50-year acquaintance with a shared elite French education that included a formative period in Germany just before the rise of Nazism. Each in his inimitable way displayed the contrariness both loved and loathed in intellectuals: Aron fancied Anglo-American liberalism before it became fashionable, while Sartre remained a Communist sympathiser after the fashion had passed.
萨特和阿隆都拥有法国精英教育的背景，其中包括纳粹主义在德国抬头之前的格式化的教育。两人都以同样无法效仿的方式显示了其乖张的个性，这种个性在知识分子圈子里极富争议，人们对之可以说是非爱即恨：阿隆提倡英美式的自由主义，在其成为一种时尚之前；萨特在共产主义浪潮在法国过去之后继续保持着共产主义同情者的身份。