Being and Nothingness: An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology (1943) by Jean-Paul Sartre is a foundational text for the philosophical movement of existentialism. Sartre, a 20th-century writer and philosopher, wrote Being and Nothingness while in a prisoner of war camp during World War II. Being and Nothingness addresses theories of consciousness, nothingness, self-identity, essences, and freedom. Sartre’s work builds upon a legacy of existentialist theories while defining and shaping them into a comprehensive ideology. He challenges accepted philosophical ideas of essences and purpose and argues that people create their own meaning by living authentic lives. The work is his most influential text and has sparked waves of philosophical debate that carry forward today.

This guide uses the 2018 edition by the Washington Square Press, translated by Sarah Richmond.

Summary

French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre penned Being and Nothingness: An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology in 1941 while a prisoner in a Nazi war camp. Sartre had read Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time and was excited by the early existentialist ideas presented there. In Being and Nothingness, named in honor of Heidegger’s work, Sartre outlined the foundational principles of existentialism. He challenged the idea that humans are endowed with an essence at birth and argued that the world is suspended in meaninglessness. Humans are handed an inheritance of struggle: They are faced with trying to make sense of a senseless world, to muddle through life, which offers them an abundance of freedom and no clear roadmap for what actions to take.

Sartre proposes that the only clear choice is to live authentically, to make decisions for oneself based upon one’s own values and ideas independent of accepted tradition and societal moral values. He argues that humans should reject their notions of ethics, theology, and laws that are outlined by, and based upon, external ideas of higher authority and power. Instead, they should acknowledge the absurdity of their existence, design their own morality, and make choices based upon their own free will. Sartre’s opus is considered the first clear outlining of existentialist principles as an entire movement.

Being and Nothingness embraces three important themes that will be explored in this guide: The Importance of Authenticity, The Myth of Essence and Identity, and Ways of Being.

The author uses the Introduction to detail the basic structure of his argument and to refute early conceptualizations of ontology (i.e. the nature of existence). Sartre rejects the notion of essences, a principle of existence that had permeated philosophical inquiry since Ancient Rome. He argues that belief in a “true nature” clouds the judgment about the reality of the human experience. By placing emphasis upon phenomenology, philosophers can better understand what it means to be human and to exist. He argues that philosophers need to set aside their belief systems to look objectively at being. The best way to understand existence is by taking in appearances—by using perception to engage with the world and to analyze being through phenomenon. Any conception of the world that does not embrace meaninglessness tints understanding and separates oneself from an authentic life.

In Part I, Sartre makes a case for being and nothingness. He argues that humans contain both, and that both are essentially the same idea. Nothingness is an essential characteristic of human existence. Being is both born from nothingness and synonymous with it. While humans can recognize negations in the world and in themselves, they can also create negations. Sartre proposes that one of the ways humans do this is through bad faith. “Bad faith” is used to describe what happens when a person lives inauthentically by embracing false ideas about purpose and meaning. Bad faith is lying to oneself, and he argues that this only leads to sadness. Humans can counter bad faith by living with sincerity, but figuring out what authenticity means for each individual can be a tricky endeavor—especially in a life that is ultimately meaningless.

In Part II, Sartre revisits his ideas on negations and discusses being-for-itself, the state of being that contains consciousness. Sartre outlines being, first, by what it is not. He refutes several ideas about ontology, including the idea that reflection on the self is what creates consciousness. Sartre argues that awareness of one’s existence emerges simultaneously with existence itself. In this section, Sartre also examines time and the human linear understanding of temporality. Sartre proposes that time cannot be separated into the distinct parts of past, present, and future. Each is part of a unifying whole of consciousness. In this chapter, Sartre draws a connection between the being-in-itself and the being-for-itself, and rejects the idea that the two are completely disconnected from one another. Instead, consciousness relies on the relationship between the being-for-itself and being-in-itself. One recognizes its own existence through the fact that it is not the other.

Part III centers on the role of the Other in consciousness. Sartre proposes three ontological principles of the Other that show how the Other constitutes self-awareness, or consciousness. Humans know themselves through negation—by the fact that they are not the Other. They also know themselves through observation of a third point with the Other, and they know themselves because the Other perceives them. It is important to note that “know,” in this sense, does not represent actual knowledge. Instead, it represents a form of awareness that is expanded through the relational value of the self and other beings-for-itself. Sartre then considers the body and its part in consciousness. The philosopher suggests that the body is consciousness. This idea carries forward his continuous denial of dualities, including the internal and external self.

In Part IV, Sartre concludes by arguing that all humans have freedom to act. They can make choices about where they want to be and how they want to live their lives. However, he recognizes that this freedom has limitations and that not all human experiences are equal. Sartre also explains that all humans have desire, and those desires are an important part of consciousness that provide insight into both bad faith and authenticity.