"Being and Nothingness" by Jean-Paul Sartre

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at elements of freedom and choice in the world through Jean-Paul Sartre's "Being and Nothingness." In particular it examines his writings on freedom which appear in "Being and Doing: Freedom," Chapter One, part four. The writer focuses on the impact of the industrial age on modern philosophical thought. The paper examines the basic tenets of Sartre's philosophy and provides an understanding as to how this fit in to the meaning and function of life in the post-industrial age.

From the Paper:

"Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in, Being and Nothingness, that the first element of freedom is condition of action and that the fundamental element of free action is one that is a choice of the self in the world and by the same token it is a discovery of the world (Sartre, 461). When examining the foundations of our modern philosophical thought, it is necessary to understand that where religion once provided the sole source of philosophical inquiry, the advent of the industrial age was the moment in time when Man began to take control of the world and society in manners that had never before been witnessed."

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