Idealism and transparency in Sartre’s ontological proof

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy (forthcoming)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The Introduction to Sartre’s Being and Nothingness (B&N) contains a condensed, cryptic argument – the ‘ontological proof’ – that is meant to establish a position ‘beyond realism and idealism’. Despite its role in establishing the fundamental ontological distinction of B&N – the distinction between being-for-itself and being-in-itself – the ontological proof has received very little scholarly attention. My goal is to fill this lacuna. I begin by clarifying the idealist position Sartre attacks in the Introduction to B&N: Husserl’s idealism as interpreted by Aron Gurwitsch and Roman Ingarden. I then propose a new interpretation of the ontological proof that gives a central role to the transparency of experience. On this interpretation, Sartre argues from the ‘emptiness’ of consciousness – its purely relational nature – to the existence of mind-independent substance (being-in-itself). In assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Sartre’s case against idealism, I put him in critical dialogue with contemporary work in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,592

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Truth and existence: The idealism in Sartre's theory of truth.Kathleen Wider - 1995 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 3 (1):91 – 109.
Sartre, intersubjectivity, and German idealism.Sebastian Gardner - 2005 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 43 (3):325-351.
Memory and subjectivity: Sartre in dialogue with Husserl.Beata Stawarska - 2002 - Sartre Studies International 8 (2):94-111.
Phenomenology and deconstruction.Robert Denoon Cumming - 1991 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You.Curtis Sommerlatte - 2020 - Sartre Studies International 26 (2):63-89.
Sartre on Kant in The Transcendence of the Ego.Liu Zhe - 2007 - Idealistic Studies 37 (1):67-76.
Sartre on Kant in The Transcendence of the Ego.Liu Zhe - 2007 - Idealistic Studies 37 (1):67-76.
Sartre's Literary Phenomenology.Andrew Inkpin - 2017 - Sartre Studies International 23 (1):1-21.
To the Nothingnesses Themselves: Husserl’s Influence on Sartre’s Notion of Nothingness.Simon Gusman - 2018 - Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 49 (1):55-70.
The philosophy of Sartre.Mary Warnock - 1965 - New York,: Barnes & Noble.
Does Idealism Solve the Problem of Consciousness?Ralph Stefan Weir - 2021 - In Joshua R. Farris & Benedikt Paul Göcke (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism. New York, NY: Routledge.

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-02-04

Downloads
27 (#585,141)

6 months
15 (#163,632)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The intrinsic quality of experience.Gilbert Harman - 1990 - Philosophical Perspectives 4:31-52.
The Varieties of Reference.Gareth Evans & John Mcdowell - 1986 - Philosophy 61 (238):534-538.
Mental paint and mental latex.Ned Block - 1996 - Philosophical Issues 7:19-49.
Logical Investigations.Edmund Husserl & J. N. Findlay - 1972 - Journal of Philosophy 69 (13):384-398.
The refutation of idealism.G. E. Moore - 1903 - Mind 12 (48):433-453.

View all 34 references / Add more references