Being and Nothingness
1943 · Jean-Paul Sartre
Core ideas
- Existence precedes essence: we define ourselves through our choices.
- Human freedom is radical and inescapable.
- 'Bad faith' is the self-deception of denying our own freedom.
- Being seen by others reveals and objectifies the self.
Summary
Sartre distinguishes two modes of being: the being of objects, which simply are what they are, and the being of consciousness, which is always beyond itself, questioning and negating. Because consciousness is this 'nothingness,' human beings are not fixed things but radically free — condemned, in his phrase, to be free.
Much of the work analyzes how we flee this freedom through 'bad faith,' pretending we are determined by our roles, our pasts, or others' expectations. Sartre also examines how the gaze of other people objectifies us, generating conflict at the heart of human relations. Freedom is unavoidable, and with it the full weight of responsibility for who we become.