The French existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus were once close companions. Post World War II, their friendship enchanted the public: “Europe had been immolated, but the ashes left by war created the space to imagine a new world. Readers looked to Sartre and Camus to articulate what that new world might look like,” writes Sam Dresser for Aeon. What happened for the two to split so intensely? Watch this engaging animation by Andrew Khosravani for Aeon to understand how a rift over communism and human nature dissolved the intellectual pair’s connection for good.

This is the first episode of “Philosophy Feuds”—Aeon’s original series of short animations which tell the stories of famous falling-outs.