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Being and Nothingness

by Jean-Paul Sartre, Hazel Estella Barnes (translator), Mary Warnock (contributor), Richard Eyre (contributor)

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 10,513 ratings · 215 reviews

Being and Nothingness is without doubt one of the most significant philosophical books of the twentieth century. The central work by one of the century's most influential thinkers, it altered the course of western philosophy. Its revolutionary approach challenged all previous assumptions about the individual's relationship with the world.

Known as 'the Bible of existential...more

Paperback, 688 pages

Published August 28th 2003 by Routledge (first published 1943)

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Apr 29, 2008 Tyler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Every Thinker

Shelves: philosophy

By far the most cold-serious work I've ever read, this opus exerts a strange power that forces you to keep reading, despite the dense subject matter and clunky English translation.

The subject is reality itself, and man's place in it. Here you have a rigorous and complete scouring of the subject, resulting in a proof of human freedom so thorough you'll never fool with hard determinism again. I have never seen the specific points shown in this book refuted by any other thinker or system.

Every asp...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Isla McKetta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Verbose yet profound, I went through a myriad of emotions while reading this book. To find out how Sartre made me reconsider everything from my friendships to my relationship with truth, read a full-length essay on my blog.

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Apr 02, 2012 Phillip rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites-among-favorites, french-language, literature, interpret-using-b-n, phenomenology, philosophy, psychology, sartre, religion, world-as-will-and-representation, my-visionaries

I picked up this book in the summer of 1985. Over the next three years I read and reread it seven times. Once I realized it was going to be a multiple reading event I started varying my approach with each pass by dividing the book up into chunks and reading them in different orders. During my sixth run-through I did it backwards. I started with the last page of the book and read each page until I got to the title page. After that, I really had the content down and during the seventh I was able t...more

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Sep 20, 2007 Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: teens

dear reader,

character limit!

REVIEW:

where do you even begin?
first of all: the common subtitle "a phenomenological essay on ontology" is incorrectly translated from the french, and should read "an essay on phenomenological ontology."
undoubtedly one of the most significant books of the 20th century, and of modern history itself.
significant ideas:
1. being-in-itself: matter, existence, the world, the chair, the table, the tree. undifferentiated in itself, without essence, naked, stark, overwhelming,...more dear reader,

character limit!

REVIEW:

where do you even begin?
first of all: the common subtitle "a phenomenological essay on ontology" is incorrectly translated from the french, and should read "an essay on phenomenological ontology."
undoubtedly one of the most significant books of the 20th century, and of modern history itself.
significant ideas:
1. being-in-itself: matter, existence, the world, the chair, the table, the tree. undifferentiated in itself, without essence, naked, stark, overwhelming, forcing itself into every crevice. without consciousness.
2. being-for-itself: conscious. human existence. gives essence to the world, to being-in-itself. also without essence, but allowed to define its own essense. lots more. wants to be god, can't.
3. bad faith: a lack of authenticity, the most central, perhaps only, existential "moral." being what one is not. famous example: the waiter: playing at being a waiter: too friendly, too quick, too eager: all traits he would not have were he to truly be himself. for sartre, action is the only measure of value or worth, and so only opinions or feelings that are acted upon are valid. so if one thinks, "well, i was going to fight for my fellow man's rights, but i didn't have the money" and still holds themself in high regard for at least having a good intent, they are acting in bad faith. no exit is all about this, esp. garcin: he holds himself to be a hero, even though his heroic intentions were thwarted and he was executed. he (and common morality) think that since he had the right intentions, he is still heroic, yet sartre says that he instead is acting in bad faith and is actually a coward. yeah bad faith is really central for sartre, and is a very noble standard of living. one does not make a moral choice in one's head, but with one's actions.
4. the other: fascinating concept, largely if not entirely borrowed from husserl (see: logische Uuntersuchunge and die krisis der europaischen wissenschaften...). subjectivity is central to sartrean existentialism (and almost all other forms). it is our experience of the world. i am the subject, all else is object to me. yet there are other consciousnesses, who are also subjects, and to them, *gasp*, i am the object. the look of the other attempts to objectify my (and to the other, does), while the look of the subject attempts to objectify the other. this creates, in a word, tension. this is another great example of how what begins as a phenomenological discover bleeds into already obvious conclusions elsewhere: psychology, sociology, romance, even theology (wanting to be ultimate subject). we try to import others into our subjective value system, and are terrified (well, 99.9% of people are just in denial (bad faith)) that others are importing us into their subjective value system.

yep. that's it i guess. sartre went on to write the critique of dialectical reason, which reconciles (very poorly, actually, it fails) the ontological system developed here with marxism.

more importantly, sartre, as promised at the end of being and nothingness, went on to attempt to develop an ethical system, or at least explore the ethical implications of the system developed here. the result of this is perhaps one of the most underrated works of philosophy: two notebooks in which he tries to work out a system of ethics. he never finished - it's been argued, for obvious reasons, that an ethics of his existentialism is impossible - and these notebooks weren't published until after his death.

VERDICT:

you're reading a review of "being and nothingness." seriously.(less)

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May 06, 2013 Lucian McMahon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I greatly enjoyed his re-interpretation/augmentation/subversion/whatever you want to call it of Heidegger's existential analytic, particularly his extension of the analysis to the body and to sexuality, but his sometimes flowery and rather disorganized writing style detracted from the clarity of his arguments. Nonetheless, eye-opening in many respects. As with Being and Time, Being and Nothingness is another book I'm immeasurably grateful to have tackled in a college classroom setting, as I'm su...more

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Apr 01, 2009 Kelly Maybedog Hawkins rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: what-philosophy, what-non-fiction

I want to make clear that my rating only expresses my enjoyment of the book and not my respect for the impact it had on Western Thought.

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Aug 08, 2008 Charmless rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: someone who has extra time to read.

Recommended to Charmless by: Some chain-smoking Euro-wannabe

Shelves: classics

You have to deal with existentialism at some point and this book essentially gives you one of the best starts on the subject. Some people think that you'll feel like killing yourself after reading Sartre but honestly, this book had the opposite effect on me. I took it more as if Sartre was telling me that human life still has value even if there's no point in having a life.

Read it and you'll see what I mean. It takes a while to plow through it but it's worth the wait. Even before fully reading...more

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Apr 28, 2013 John P rated it 4 of 5 stars

This read started out badly. First, I didn't know at all what to expect of B&N and thought right away, oh boy, here we go again with made-up psychobabble from some wannabe philosopher. For example, I have read Hoffer and, while a bright guy, he simply offers his opinions regarding life and politics after careful observation of people and the world. These are the kinds of opinions one might hear at a dinner party or other informal gathering - interesting, but essentially meaningless. In a sim...more This read started out badly. First, I didn't know at all what to expect of B&N and thought right away, oh boy, here we go again with made-up psychobabble from some wannabe philosopher. For example, I have read Hoffer and, while a bright guy, he simply offers his opinions regarding life and politics after careful observation of people and the world. These are the kinds of opinions one might hear at a dinner party or other informal gathering - interesting, but essentially meaningless. In a similar and less attractive way, Nietzsche comes across as a blowhard who again offers his unsupported opinions in and between undecipherable rants.

I have not read many of the 'standard' philosophers to which Sartre refers, and have what could only be described as a modest background in the classics, at least as regards the philosophy of existence. But as I plowed through the translator's and author's introductions, overcoming the strong desire to abandon the work altogether, I slowly realized that Sartre was attempting something quite monumental - to describe the very nature and origin of consciousness. What does it mean to be "self"-conscious? Who exactly are we talking to when we talk to ourselves? And who is doing the talking? Now, this task stretches, and some would say exceeds, the ability of language to adequately describe as becomes evident right away. Take for example the following as Sartre describes one kind of 'being':

"The presence of the for-itself to being 'as totality' comes from the fact that the for-itself has to be - in the mode of being what it is not and of not being what it is - its own totality as a detotalized totality."

Or, if you prefer, as he discusses transcendence:

"This is what we already anticipated when we defined consciousness as 'a being such that in its being, its being is in question in so far as this being implies a being other than itself.'"

Huh? And this language issue has to be further exacerbated through translation from the original French.

However, despite the 'language problem' it became apparent to me that Sartre is absolutely consistent throughout the work. And this drew me forward.

His is a compelling theory and while I am not qualified to judge it in its totality and implications, it certainly has the ring of truth. His descriptions of temporality and of relations to others seem to me to be right on the mark. The concepts of anguish and freedom, to name two more, are radical, thought-provoking, and vast in scope.

All in all, I enjoyed the book and could only wish to be fluent enough in French to read the original.

(less)

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Jan 09, 2013 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I’ve taken time on ideologically heavy books before, spending sometimes an hour on a single page to make sure I really understood, but I took 5 months on this 800 page beaut. I read Being And Nothingness in conjunction with an incredibly enlightening and comprehensible book of course notes by Paul Vincent Spade from Indiana University on the subject of Sartre and B&N. See http://pvspade.com/Sartre/pdf/sartre1.... What they say about B&N is true. It was VERY difficult. Sartre uses ideas a...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Dan's Obsessions marked it as to-read

Shelves: get-a-proper-review-to-decide

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
On my TBR/ research more list
The subject is reality itself, and man's place in it. Here you have a rigorous and complete scouring of the subject, resulting in a proof of human freedom so thorough you'll never fool with hard determinism again. I have never seen the specific points shown in this book refuted by any other thinker or system.

Every aspect of what it means to possess human consciousness is traced in all its implica...more

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Aug 02, 2012 sofarsoShawn rated it 5 of 5 stars

donc, avec tout le respect que je tu dois, j'ai corrigé cette mal critique ici: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

LMAO, yes a very VERY SERIOUS review indeed, now where do you even begin...the beginning! First, your translation is wrong, of course it's a phenomenological essay on ontology when translated properly, there's no such thing as the phenomenological ontology, ie being is itself a metaphysical first philosophy question so the awkward fraction of your translation makes no sense exc...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Nathan Perry rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Being and Nothingness" is the principle existential text of philosophy written by Jean-Paul Sartre'. It seems to serve more as a phenomenological extension of Martin Heidegger's text on Ontology (Being and Time) rather than the common belief that it is a profound misunderstanding of Heidegger's idea's. Which ever the case may be, Sartre' produced a text which landed the philosophical lineage of existentialism on the academic map; complete with a strange train of logic, for which might not be gr...more "Being and Nothingness" is the principle existential text of philosophy written by Jean-Paul Sartre'. It seems to serve more as a phenomenological extension of Martin Heidegger's text on Ontology (Being and Time) rather than the common belief that it is a profound misunderstanding of Heidegger's idea's. Which ever the case may be, Sartre' produced a text which landed the philosophical lineage of existentialism on the academic map; complete with a strange train of logic, for which might not be grasped at all, if Heidegger's "Being and Time" is not read first with firm understanding. Of the issues addressed is the historical/intellectual damage inflicted by Cartesian dualism and which Sartre attempts to repair, his arguments against theism and metaphysics, and most importantly, the premise of the "for-itself" upsurge from the "in-itself" aspect of all things in reality; and the 'nothingness' that arrives from the friction of the these two fields, serving for us all the well-spring of human experience and our own human reality (which suggests is an on-going stream of fiction that we all invent and buy into).

I would not recommend this text to anyone unless they had first a) an authentic interest in philosophy and b) if they have had a firm prior understanding of both phenomenology and ontology. I might recommend it to those who fancy the appearance of being intellectual, for if they attempt to read "Being and Nothingness" to support their personal image, they may secretly experience the shame of failing to understand what they are trying to read; an existential kick in the nuts, in itself. If such a person were able to set aside their highly protected esteem, however, they'd likely realize that they are not intellectually insufficient, but that they are just reading a very difficult and strange philosophical text. Being and Nothingness, although not as challenging as Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" and "Being and Time", comes close. My analogy of consensus might maintain that Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" is as easy to comprehend (at least in its majority) as it is to pull a nail from a wooden floor board with one's lips; a nail that may or may not really be there in the first place, and the idea that one experiences it regardless of its actuality and yet chooses to orally yank it free, is possible; it is just that it is not necessarily something that one might desire to accomplish, even if the possibility of succeeding is strong. (less)

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Aug 09, 2011 Ryan Milbrath rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm no philosophy major and have taken just a few philosophy courses. However, I've talked to numerous philosopher majors and professors. At the very mention of Sartre or existentialism there is rather elitist witty reply that serves to cut down this movement in continental philosophy. The often heard reply the "self-help" philosophy or philosophy written for the masses. I'm not quite sure I actually view these as either correct nor slight against Sartre or existentialism. After reading Being an...more

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Apr 27, 2010 Yesterday's Muse Bookstore rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy, existentialism

An important and enjoyable work.

This is the work that includes Sartre's famous cafe example, in which he is conscious of the absence of his friend, with whom he was to meet for coffee. Not only is this a great illustration of what Sartre is attempting to convey in this passage, it is an example that can completely redefine our world perspective. As Sartre points out, nearly all the stimuli we receive from the world are interpreted by the mind in terms of relationships, and often this involves ac...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Marius rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Iadul este... Introducerea la Ființa și Neantul :)

Adică am studiat 3 cărți doar pentru a înțelege Introducerea. Restul până la pagina 850 este relativ comprehensibil. Și extraordinar!

Foarte de ajutor mi-a fost cursul profesorului Paul Vincent Spade http://pvspade.com/Sartre/sartre.html Mi-a explicat toate conceptele și ideile de la Descartes până la Husserl, de la raționalism și idealism până la fenomenologie.

O carte ca asta citesc o dată la 5 ani.

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Jun 01, 2011 John Safrasnki rated it 5 of 5 stars

From contemporary philosophical styling’s are the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Robert Pirsig, each of whom have had a direct influence on the concept of guilt and self perception. I was flabbergasted to find the following quote from Sartre: “I have no need for good souls: an accomplice is what I wanted”, which is as direct a reflection can accomplish in relation to how I have lived with my self imposed acts of bad faith.
I live with the misdeeds acted out during my existence, and Sartre provid...more

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Mar 24, 2007 Mathias rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Only for the committed

Shelves: existentialism

The only time I ever passed out in my life was during the reading of this book. I actually felt and heard my brain pop and awoke on the floor next to the couch.

This is an extremely difficult text. I recall spending an entire week on just one paragraph. I still do not fully understand this work but will eventually have to revisit it to complete something I am writing on Free Will.

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Jun 13, 2012 Jamie rated it 4 of 5 stars

A dense and heavy ("literally, har har") book that suffers from being a bit too academic for its own good. Existentialism is an incredibly personal philosophy, and moving it into an overly-intellectual environment dilutes its impact quite a bit.

Sartre often thought of himself as an author first and a philosopher second (see: Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre), and it becomes quite obvious in this book: lengthy discussions of Being-In-Itself and Being-For-Itself do little to make the reader feel "bett...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

"By far the most cold-serious work I've ever read, this opus exerts a strange power that forces you to keep reading, despite the dense subject matter and clunky English translation.

The subject is reality itself, and man's place in it. Here you have a rigorous and complete scouring of the subject, resulting in a proof of human freedom so thorough you'll never fool with hard determinism again. I have never seen the specific points shown in this book refuted by any other thinker or system.

Every as...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Harry added it

I can't rank this as I haven't finished it and I don't intend to.

I will say it's either a terrible translation or that Sartre is obtuse on purpose. I tend to think it's the latter. What can hardly be disputed is that Sartre is long-winded and repetitive.

I enjoyed parts of this book because on some level it feels like I do have free will and it feels like I relate to the world of my own free will (whether it is real or not is irrelevant), and it's true that you can think of ways to philosophise a...more

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Dec 21, 2007 toshie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Do you like to read words? This book has alot.
Maybe Sartre and I have a connection beyond the limits of consciousness. I think so.
This took me a very long time to digest.
i love you.
But don't take my word for it!

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Jun 16, 2012 Steffen rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you're heading down the phenomenology path in philosophy this is a good place to start. It's much more readable and easy to understand than Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. That being said, his ideas are not nearly as well formed. You'll be dealing with many arguments and descriptions that ultimately suffer from the same problems philosophy has been dealing with since Plato (i.e. mind/body, etc).

You'll want to graduate to Merleau-Ponty's “Phenomenology of Perception” after reading this... shit ge...more

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Jul 26, 2007 Krissy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: the brave

I was 11 the first time I read Sartre. The theory of existentialism in his words made me wiser and more afraid. I am still terrified but would rather be that than oblivious.

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Dec 07, 2012 Reza speed rated it 5 of 5 stars

هستی و نیستی از یک پیش گفتار و چهار بخش شکل گرفته‌است.پیش گفتار با عنوان در جست و جوی هستی . عنوان بخش نخست کتاب سارتر مسالهٔ نیستی است. سارتر در این بخش به طوز عمده در صدد روشن کردن معنای هستی و نیز نیستی برآمد.این بخش از دو فصل تشکیل شده‌است.سارتر در فصل نخست با عنوان سرچشمهٔ نفی کار خود را تدوین پدیدارشناسی نیستی دانست و در فصل دوم با عنوان باور نادرست به این کشف فلسفی خود پرداخت. عنوان بخش دوم کتاب برای خود بودناست و در توضیح وضعیت هستنده‌ای خاص یعنی انسان که آگاه می‌شود و به چیزها معنا می‌د...more

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Jun 04, 2011 Trever rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love that I read this! I have wanted to read Being and Nothingness for years, but I didn't have the time until now (yes, it was a choice--sorry bad joke). Of course Sartre is incredibly arrogant, at times blatantly misogynistic and homophobic, and too often privileges the mind over the body, but I actually liked many of his less inflammatory ideas. I can't wait to explore feminist revisions of some of his theories, because I can see how ideas of bad faith, freedom, and existential psychology c...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Robert Riley rated it 1 of 5 stars

Well, really, Being and Nothingness is a literary tract disguised as philosophy. The many metaphors he uses to illustrate his points are not philosophical in nature, but imagistic and suggestive. There is a certain wholeness to the book, but it reminds me more of Ulysses than Heidegger. The one real philosophical idea is that of Bad Faith, which is just his super super ego working overtime. Although an important landmark for 20th century literature, it is an unpleasant book to read, and the pain...more

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Apr 02, 2009 Erik Graff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Sartre fans

Recommended to Erik by: Ann B. Ulanov

Shelves: philosophy

I didn't much like this important book although one of my best friends in seminary, Pierre Farron, took it very seriously. Perhaps I simply didn't know enough to read it, not having read Heidegger yet (whom I also don't much like, even now since having read a good deal of him), not having read much Sartre either beyond some of his stories, plays and essays. In any case, his lack of system, of clear order, made him seem rather mushy to me. His plethora of examples gave me the impression that he w...more

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Jul 02, 2012 ahmed kano rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

أنصح ألا يقرأه أحد إلا إذا ان متفرغا له و قرأ كثيرا فى الفلسفة كى يفهمه جيدا

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Jun 01, 2012 Tj rated it 3 of 5 stars

Some very interesting insights, but quite hard to read like Critique of Pure Reason this book is quite dense and Sartre's style makes it worse. He's quite rambly and goes on and on for pages and pages, but this is not very different from other philosophers I have read. THe good thing is, at the end of his rant he sums up quite nicely what he said before, so it helps you keep track when (not a question of IF) you get lost.

Still, I'd recommend this book, to at least glimpse through, for its insig...more

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Oct 19, 2012 álvaro marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Tomándomelo con muuuuucha calma...
Lo empecé en verano 2007

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About Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre, normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre, was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. He was a leading figure in 20th century French philosophy.

He declined the award of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has ex...more

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“I exist, that is all, and I find it nauseating.” — 42 people liked it

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