Being and Nothingness

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.