The Secret Smiles of Things: Sartre’s Realism Reconsidered

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Abstract

In this article, I argue against a widespread misconception concerning the nature of things in Sartre’s philosophy. Sartre’s conception of the nature of things concerns the idea that outside of consciousness a single undifferentiated mass of brute being exists which is divided into definitive things by consciousness. I propose a different reading of Sartre’s realism. Such a reading is based primarily on Nausea, Being and Nothingness and Consciousness of Self and Knowledge of Self states that, contra common conception, there is no brute being outside of consciousness, but rather, a vast multitude of different things.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)119–137
Number of pages18
JournalHuman Studies
Volume45
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Aug 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Realism
  • Ontology
  • Phenomenology
  • Being

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