Reading Being and Nothingness

Jan. 27, 2023

I started reading Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre out of interest, but was soon met with the seemingly impermeable wall that is Being and Nothingness. So, when I do not want to focus on the things I should be focusing on, we will read Being and Nothingness here. A paragraph at a time; a sentence at a time, or even a word at a time. It will all be done here. I'm excited to get started.

Introduction

In Search of Being

I. The Idea of the Phenomenon

    "The existent no longer has an 'outside'," pg.1.11.

    "An appearance refers to the total series of appearances, not to some hidden reality that siphons off all the existent's being for itself. And the appearance, for its part, is not an unstable manifestation of that series." pg.2.11-12. Once we get rid of the idea that our appearance is the face for the "inside," then the appearance becomes full positivity. Sartre's main goals in these first few paragraphs are to get rid of a duality placed on the appearance and being of man, because there is no duality, and the phenomenon is that the being is indicative of itself.

"Appearance does not hide essence but reveals it: it is the essence." pg.3.12.

II. The phenomenon of being and the being of the phenomenon