Being and Nothingness

Jean-Paul Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" is the fundamental text of Existentialism. His examination of ontology constantly reviews previous existential philosophy by building on, and refuting, the work of prior philosophers.Sartre begins with a framework on nothingness and negations. Nothingness does not have being but is supported by being. It comes into existence through the for-itself and allows consciousness to exist. Negations are acts which contain negativity as part of their structure (ex: absence.) He then progresses to an examination of Bad Faith. This is essentially a false consciousness which a person pursues to flee from their own freedom.The most theoretically important part of the book regarding ontology is Sartre's explanation of Being-for-itself and Being-for-others. Being-for-itself is an examination of the works of Descartes, Husserl, etc, into the nature of the individuals being and consciousness. "The Other" is a concept from Hegel that Sartre alters to explain others around us. For Sartre "The Other" is in a constant battle to deprive the other person of their freedom without extinguishing their being.The second half of his treatise deals with issues mostly empirical in nature. Sartre has an impeccable knowledge of philosophy and the physical science up to 1943 (philosophy, biology, psychology, pyschics, etc..) He uses the theory of ontology to reexamine empirical issues where he finds scientific fields lacking. In the end Sartre devises a `Existential Psychoanalysis' (Existentialism) to examine psychological phenomenon through an ontological lens.For Sartre humans are thrown into the world, in a situation, but have absolute freedom over choice. They are responsible for their choice. Whether they chose to actively pursue something or passively submit THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE. This responsibility is not meant as an ethical judgment but rather a statement of fact.Sartre almost completely eschews ethical judgments in "Being and Nothingness." His objective throughout the work is to explain the ontological foundation of being. He reserves 2 pages at the end of the book discussing ethics. His advice is to strive for a synthesis of the being-in-itself with the being-for-itself (a true single consciousness between body and mind.) A person can then strive to attain their values (which are subjective in nature.)Note: Sartre assumes his readers have read essentially every existential philosopher since Plato. He gives brief descriptions of each philosopher's theory but I strongly recommend you read their work before "Being and Nothingness." Sartre also uses incredibly obtuse language (which is made worse through translation.) While not as bad as other philosophers his work forces the person to actively read everything he says. Sartre commands an excellent understanding of science but actively rejects some of its most basic premises because science fails to ask the right questions. While some of the science he talks about has long been disproven for the most part his understanding of science remains valid.Note #2: I read the Gramercy edition.I strongly recommend "Being and Nothingness" to anyone interested in ontology with a strong background in philosophy and the psychical sciences.

With a commentary an important work of 20th century.

Very dense, and will require rereading of some paragraphs, but if you're into the subject of modern philosophy it is a worthwhile effort!

Its almost new but there are a few scratches and cover has a few creases, none of the pages are bent so that's good but it didn't come with the plastic wrap on so its probably a return but other than that its in good condition.

This is a replacement copy for me of a well-thumbed classic.

Because my main area of study is the sciences, I try to stay well-rounded by reading about philosophy. I read this one while on the ship last year, and although it is a bit wordy, it offers a very interesting interpretation into existence, free will, and time. I don't pretend to understand everything the way a learned philosopher would, but suffice it to say that it very greatly expanded my perspective on existentialism. For those people who are curious about Sartre, I highly recommend it.

If you were purchasing this book I don’t need to talk about what it is or what its context is you already know. The sellers book that I got is perfect as advertised I’m very happy with getting this printing and I’m very happy with the quality of the book for its age.

I love this book and I would say it's thoroughly rich source of complicated philosophy...also i would like to add that when i was is in college my first philosophy class was the first time i ever thought about things in a completely different way and until i read or heard about jean paul sartre that started my life down a path of enlightenment through reading specifically sartre and nietzsche hegel husserl hume also i found myself being able to work out my reading disorder which was dyslexia it took about two years of reading and learning philosophy but i was able to orient myself towards literacy and it has changed my life so much...