Being and Nothingness

Dr. Sarah Richmond is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at London’s Global University. Richmond’s translation of Being and Nothingness was published in 2018 and is highly regarded. Richmond has also completed scholarship on Melanie Klein, Jacques Derrida, Donald Davidson, Richard Wollheim, and others. She completed her Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the University of Oxford and a Master of Arts from the University of Warwick. In 1992, Richmond earned the title of Doctor of Philosophy from Wadham College in Oxford.

Aristotle was a fourth-century philosopher from Macedonia. He arrived in Athens in 367 B.C., where he studied under Plato, who ran an important school called the Academy. Aristotle’s reputation grew during his time there as an important scientific and philosophical thinker. Rising resentment against Macedonians caused Aristotle to flee Athens.

After leaving the Academy, Aristotle traveled around Greece, collecting information from various sources for his political treatise. The philosopher was not selected to succeed Plato at the Academy due to his alien status, so he started his own educational institute called the Lyceum. Aristotle’s influence continues to resonate; his work has created a foundation for contemporary science and philosophy.

Aristotle refined the philosophical theory of essences, which was embraced by many philosophers for hundreds of years. This theory proposes that everything of substance has innate qualities that make them what they are. He attributes these qualities to divine creation. Sartre’s argument in Being and Nothingness addresses this theory of essences directly. Sartre denies the idea that essences come before existence and that humans have an innate purpose for their lives. Instead, essences come after existence and are manifested through authentic living.

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. Descartes is considered by many to be the father of modern philosophy. His philosophical theories provided a foundation for the rise of epistemology in the 17th century. However, he considered himself a scientist and mathematician first. He is known for his design of algebraic formulas for geometric figures. He also emphasized the role of skepticism in the scientific method, paving the way for the Enlightenment movement. Descartes attended the Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Flèche, where he studied physics and mathematics, and later earned degrees in canon and civil law at the University of Poitiers. He published many works, including Discourse on the Method (1637), Principles of Philosophy (1644), and Rules for the Direction of the Mind (1701).

Both Sartre and Descartes operated from the stance that the first awareness is one’s own existence. However, Descartes proposed the theory of cogito, which became a foundational principle for the modern philosophy of consciousness. Descartes is well known for his phrase “cogito, ergo sum,” meaning, “I think, therefore, I am.” Sartre rejected this theory because whether a person can think is not made apparent through phenomenon.

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) was a German philosopher, mathematician, and founder of phenomenology. This philosophical movement seeks to capture how humans create understanding through experience. Husserl studied at the University of Leipzig, the Frederick William University of Berlin, the University of Vienna, and the University of Halle. He obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1883. Husserl taught for many years and was a prolific writer; he published numerous works on math and philosophy, including Logical Investigations, Philosophy of Arithmetic, Experience and Judgment, and On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time.

Sartre’s philosophies in Being and Nothingness are built upon Husserl’s phenomenological approach. Both Husserl and Sartre saw consciousness as consciousness of something else. Sartre was stimulated and fascinated by Husserl’s theories; he saw Husserl’s approach as a way for him to overcome the obstacles he was facing while reconciling realism and idealism. However, Sartre later rejected most of Husserl’s philosophies, especially his transcendental interpretations.

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was a German philosopher who was deeply influential in 20th-century philosophy and contributed to the movement of existentialism. His work Being and Time explores ontology, the philosophical study of being. Heidegger attended the University of Freiburg and studied under Edmund Husserl. There, he took over for Husserl in the study of phenomenology. In 1923, Heidegger obtained the title Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Marburg. During this time, Heidegger left a mark on many influential thinkers, including his student Hannah Arendt, a political scientist and philosopher whose work focused on the experiences and history of the Jewish people and totalitarianism. However, Heidegger’s legacy has been criticized because he supported the Nazi Party.

Sartre read Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time while he was a prisoner of war during World War II. In Being and Time, Heidegger attempted to answer the question of what Being means. Sartre carried this question forward, but Heidegger was critical of Sartre’s philosophical approach on essences and humanism.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German philosopher and central figure of the Enlightenment. Kant is known for his works in epistemology, ethics, and metaphysics. In 1740, Kant attended the University of Königsberg, where he stayed to teach. Kant embraced the rationalism set forth by René Descartes, as well as empiricism, and helped to refine these concepts for the Enlightenment movement. In the Critique of the Power of Judgment, Kant argued that human understanding provides the basis for morality—human reason, an inherent part of human nature, leads to the structure of moral law.

The relationship of Sartre’s work to Kant’s is complicated. Although his writing draws on many of Kant’s ideas, especially in the realm of transcendental idealism, Sartre was extremely critical of Kant. In Being and Nothingness, Sartre vocally critiques Kant but embraces philosophers who were influenced by Kant’s work. Critical research connecting Kant and Sartre is relatively new, but the comparison provides interesting implications for the history of ontology.

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and the father of existentialism. Kierkegaard’s philosophy influenced both existentialism and Protestant theology. Kierkegaard believed that the most important task of humanity is to live authentically. Although his work dealt predominantly with Christian ethics, his theories had a resonating effect for existentialists, including atheist scholars like Nietzsche and Sartre. Kierkegaard published important religious and philosophical texts such as Fear and Trembling and Either/Or, his most recognizable work.

Kierkegaard argued that authenticity was born from adherence to being one’s own self. He viewed this authenticity as a form of passionate seeking and study of the self through earnestness. Sartre reproduced and reshaped Kierkegaard’s work in his work Being and Nothingness. Unlike Kierkegaard, Sartre saw life as meaningless but believed that meaning could be found through living an authentic life.