rectmetal's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
This has been the most challenging book I have ever read, but it was worth every headache, every yawn, every definition search, and every re-read passage required to follow his arguments. This is certainly not a book you can read once and understand; this is a book worthy of revisiting and studying carefully. Sartre helps illustrate the ideas of his predecessors while also opening the door for the works of his contemporaries. As a student of philosophy that has already completed his undergrad, I feel that it was a brilliant choice to tackle this behemoth of a book before delving further into those of his peers and the postmodernists that came after him.
jackwwang's review against another edition
3.0
a long, dense, highly abstract text on the nature of being and consciousness. interesting but hard to follow at times
clayton_sanborn's review against another edition
5.0
In the immortal words of that great revolutionary, Bobby Strong: "Freedom is scary"
kckl44's review against another edition
4.0
"There is no longer any other side of life, and death is a human phenomenon; it is the final phenomenon of life and is still life. As such, it influences the entire life by a reverse flow. Life is limited by life."
By far, the toughest read of my life. First section was dense with abstract (and absurd) terminologies but it gets more digestible along the way. They don't call this the bible of existentialism for nothing.
By far, the toughest read of my life. First section was dense with abstract (and absurd) terminologies but it gets more digestible along the way. They don't call this the bible of existentialism for nothing.
zshadow126's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
Les philosophes français sont-ils le pire type de personne, mais tragiquement cet essai était incroyablement formateur lorsque j'en étudiais, donc que puis-je dire, moi j'adore vraiment les phénomènes ontologiques.
earlapvaldez's review against another edition
5.0
I would have to say that this is one of the most complete philosophical works in contemporary times,with Sartre breezing through, with much depth, the important themes that he puts forward as building blocks towards his main thesis: that existence is over and above any essence. The merit of this work is not only the fact that he "distilled" Heidegger and turned some things around to prove his point, but he was able to make himself more understood by using words, writing styles, and common narratives.
A definite must-read for an existentialist scholar, also a necessity for the curious philosophy reader or student.
A definite must-read for an existentialist scholar, also a necessity for the curious philosophy reader or student.
blueyorkie's review against another edition
4.0
What is essential in the context of the phenomenology of being? Being & Existing, the memorable and subtle space separating being from non-being, the possibility of non-existence constitutes a distinct phenomenon from death. These are some of the countless questions that Sartre addresses uniquely in "Being and Nothingness", in an intellectual exercise that sometimes touches on the absurdity of the denials of the apparent evidence. According to Sartre, the subject-object relationship inevitably passes through the conception of the self and the self's consciousness so that knowledge can assume compelling cognition perspectives. The object is perceptible if the consciousness of the being situates and references itself outside the item, and, in turn, it exists independently of the being. "Before any comparison, before any construction, the thing is what is present in the conscience as not being the conscience" (SARTRE, 1997). When objects exist, they imply an order of things independent of being and knowledge itself. Likewise, the Sartrian exists before self-awareness, and when he refuses, he assumes a negative characteristic that only realizes it as a non-substantial structure. Being is before thinking because it (pre) exists for self-awareness. Although for Sartre, consciousness constitutes the original absolute, insubstantial and external to all reality, it exists when being and self-awareness meet in thought and prove an ability to integrate and perceive the existence of being. The Sartrian problem of being part of and not being for the other's knowledge is the same phenomenological problem. And between being and non-being, there is nothing, the non-existence that shapes death, as a negation of the existing and self-conscious being. This fact refers to another order of questions: the value of conscience as a normative reference for perceiving reality and convergence with a world defined according to previously elaborated categories. It will end up assuming conventions and prejudices from proof to proof. In other words, madness and death would, to be so, be equal concerning the ontological question of being and nothingness. The fundamental thing is to mention that through this superior work, it will be possible to raise numerous questions of existential content that will take us further in the knowledge of ourselves and others. And isn't this the primary role of Philosophy?