Reviews

Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology by Jean-Paul Sartre

kanjimanji's review

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2.0

Hard to read. For example, stuff like

"Furthermore in itself the For-itself is not being, for it makes itself be explicitly for-itself as not being being."

may better fit for a university class that teaches probabilistic logic to math students who are not afraid to dip a toe into the realm of philosophy.

Although most of the book is set in a strictly abstract and formulaic mode, Jean-Paulk does throw some practical examples that resonate well with the prior work of the likes of Descartes and some of Sartre's contemporaries, like Freud.

rocanread's review against another edition

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challenging

3.5

sleuthed's review

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Yet another philosophy book I tried and failed to grasp. Skimmed through most of it. Occasionally I felt like there were interesting things being said but in a fairly impenetrable way. Whatever happened to a good ol' manifesto?

sainazish's review

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4.0

Read it for my sessional. For me it was a page-turner.

reachlee's review against another edition

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4.0

Much like No Exit, Being and Nothingness is an essential part of the existentialist diet.

get into it.

bibulousphile's review against another edition

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Wow, that stuff is impenetrable! I tried it in French first, which was actually slightly easier.

hann_thea's review against another edition

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3.5

Wirklich schwer und ich bin mir unsicher, ob ich das verstanden habe. Noch unsicherer bin ich mir, wie ich das unterrichten soll... Ich versuche es!

normshaw61's review

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2.0

I wanted some deeper stuff on Existenialism. I find Sartre pretty pompous. I'll try Camus next and see if he is more my style.

paigemcloughlin's review against another edition

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5.0

I probably don't understand Sartre but I walk away from this book with new and interesting misunderstandings of his philosophy every time I read it. Being and nothingness like the nothings negation bringing forth the imaginary in the wake of its nonbeing or lack in being. My misunderstandings of Sartre get more interesting every time I misinterpret him. Good stuff I spend a lot of time on the "look" and other minds which reciprocally make objects out of eaches other which adds a dynamic of knowledge, desire, indifference, repulsion, instrumentality, power, and hopefully love and freedom. What y'all call politics and ethics based on his radical freedom opened up by the for-itself's space creating negation constantly opening avenues for freedom. I may never figure out Sartre but I get new thoughts every time I pick this book up.

kykeon's review against another edition

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4.0

Yeh ok a lot of that was for me bonkers but diving in and ploughing full ahead skimming what I could what landed in my brain and made sense, which was a small percentage, made it worth it. If life was longer you could spend years thinking about what he meant, going over it paragraph by paragraph, not sure I’ll bother…