Being and Nothingness

Until the late 19th century, most philosophers accepted the idea of essences set forth by Aristotle. Essences are the inherent properties that make something what it is; for example, the ink of a pen is a part of its essence. Without ink, a student doing his homework may only be holding a useless stick. This means that humans also have an essence, a predetermined purpose set forth by God that defines them as a species. Aristotle proposed that all creatures and things acted in accordance with their essence; the meaning of life was viewed as discovering and adhering to this essence.

In the 19th century, Nietzsche introduced the world to nihilism, the theory that life is meaningless, while Kierkegaard—the father of existentialism—emphasized the role of individuality, particularly within the realm of Christianity. Jean-Paul Sartre was profoundly influenced by philosophers like Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, and he developed his own theories about essences that shifted the way many philosophers thought about the meaning of life. Sartre saw a fundamental difference between humans and other creatures, proposing an approach to the human condition that embraced both the meaninglessness of life and the role of individuality in approaching this problem of existence.

Sartre’s Being and Nothingness is considered a foundational text for existentialism; however, the term “existentialism” was used retroactively and never appears in Sartre’s text. His later work—Existentialism and Human Emotion (1957)—addresses existentialism directly. In this text, Sartre claimed that existentialism could be summed up as follows: “Existence comes before essence.” Sartre argued humans were not born with a predetermined purpose. Instead, they developed their essences through their actions and choices.

Although some might see Sartre’s theories as a denial of the existence of God, existentialism is not synonymous with atheism. In fact, Kierkegaard’s foundational philosophy of existentialism was rooted in a search for a more genuine understanding of Christianity. Existentialism states that humans were not created with a purpose in mind. However, many existentialists—including Nietzsche and Sartre—were atheists.

Sartre wrote Being and Nothingness while in a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. His existentialist philosophy and the explosion of existentialist thinkers following this work have been attributed to the atrocities witnessed during the war. The brutality of concentration camps, overt racism, starvation, and violence offers an easy transition to disillusionment and a belief in a purposeless existence. Sartre’s theory of existentialism emerged at the same time as absurdism, an idea that describes the process of searching for answers in an answerless world. Absurdism proposes that life itself is a meaningless string of events and that consciousness too is without meaning. After witnessing mass genocide and senseless violence, Sartre’s theories match the disillusionment of the post-World War II era.

The heart of existentialism is its attempt to understand the human condition without making sense of what it suggests is a senseless existence. While other philosophical schools attempt to apply all-encompassing systems to the human condition, existentialism argues that adhering to universal truths inhibits the ability of the individual to live an authentic life. Existentialism suggests that there is no such thing as justice, fairness, or an outside force that may give life meaning. These ideas are connected to a false concept of purpose. Sartre suggested that humans were condemned by their freedom, chained to a life that presents them with myriad choices and no true meaning behind them. He determined that the only answer was to live authentically. This means that humans should accept the reality of their unfettered freedom amid absurdity. When humans confront their own mortality and create their own meaning and purpose independent of universal systems, they create their essence and live authentically.

This was a radical idea, and many were condemnatory of Sartre’s philosophy. Sartre was highly influenced by Martin Heidegger, and the title of Being and Nothingness pays homage to Heidegger’s Being and Time. Sartre’s attention to the philosophical concept of nothingness is reflective of Heidegger’s work. However, Heidegger did not reciprocate Sartre’s respect. Being and Nothingness was highly criticized, especially by Sartre’s fellow French philosophers.

Critiques of Sartre’s work were varied; some claimed it lacked morality while others suggested that it was nihilistic and anti-humanist. However, this dissent was not unusual in existentialism, which is better defined as a philosophical movement than a defined set of doctrines. The disagreement among existentialist philosophers indicates a larger structure that relies on the call-and-response relationship of philosophical thought. Philosophers have always been reactive, each taking previous ideas and responding with new ones.