Hello,
I am currently taking a basic philosophy class and I just am not understanding Marx & Sartre. 
Could someone suggest where I may find some basic, easy to understand information regarding these two philosophers? Any guidance you could give me would be wonderful.
Thank you
HI! LOVES! all of you, some, nay, ALL of you are indeed VERY talented philosophers!
Me, I know not much comparatively with those indeed more professionally accomplished than me, BUT!
I have one thing they havenāt got-- a posted reply to your request!
Being the scrounger for info that I am to play catch up with those who know more,
I tell you,
as I have recently crash-coursed on the two philosophers myself retaining little except basic impressionsā¦
You may have better luck as you are engaged in a class which requires you to demonstrate your knowledge; youāll know doubt spend more time absorbing relevent knowledge for a practical purpose, indeed the crux of philosophy as a public display, for better or for worse, God bless itā¦
Paul Strathern has a so-and-so āin 90 minutesā series available at Barnes and Noble.
I read āSocrates in 90 minutesā, etc.
And, indeed, āSartre in 90ā¦ā, and āMarxā, āHumeā, āHegelā, and others tooā¦
What I like about Strathern is his boigraphical focus on each philosopher; he always includes a personal side (unfortunately for this I remember more the facts that Sartre had military experience, a steamy open-relationship with a sexy intellectual, and that Marx was apparently faithful to his sweetheart, broke, and well-loved; both thinkers enjoyed drink).
āBeing and Nothingnessā is Sartreās, as well as the claim that āother peopleā are āhellā.
Clearly you have a computer so why donāt you just search the internet if you really want to know for Godās sake?
Thank you for your reply,
I have been looking,madly, all over the internet and havenāt come up with just basic information about their beliefsā¦Iām just having a hard time understanding how they see things. Unfortunately, philosophy doesnāt come easy for me. 
http://www.wikipedia.com should get your started, but a really good resource is the Stanford online encylopedia of philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html). I took a brief look on the entries on Sarte and Marx and they seem pretty esay to follow.
Hi mc6541,
Check out the philosophical texts archive thread here, as well as containing links to fuull texts you will also find links to general resources.
Sartre - french existentialist, in a nutshell he thought that man was born free, had a lifetime commitment to freedom but essentially lived a life without absolute purpose or fate. And he rehashes some of Husserlā¦
Marx - German communist, in a nutshell he thought that man was entirely determined by their position in society determined largely by economic and ideological structures (dialectical materialism) and he predicted the eventual downfall of capitalism and the coming dictatorship of the proletariat whereby the workers will unite, seize control of the means of production and wave a lot of flags. And he rehashes some of Hegelā¦
To be honest I donāt think that either is up to much, though both are essential reading. Start with short texts like the Communist Manifesto (written for a bunch of semi-literate Belgian factory workers, if I remember correctly, so you shouldnāt have too many problems) and Existentialism is a Humanism. I can also highly recommend the biography of Marx written by Francis Wheen, which is highly informative and endlessly funny.
Thank you for the quick summaries. How you just made more sense in 1 min than my philosophy professor who has a doctorate makes me wonder where he got it fromā¦Cracker Jack box maybeā¦Thanks 
Because I spend my life thinking up clever-sounding but ultimately rhetorical succinct responses to questions. Philosophy professors spend their time reading and teaching predominantly apathetic studentsā¦