Being and Nothingness Series

live syllabus

Updated bi-weekly with assigned reading

Present Text: Being and nothingness- A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology - Jean-Paul Sartre

1st Edition, Translated and with an introduction by hazel e. barnes

First meeting first weekend of February 2023: Translators Preface and Introduction we will read pages- viii-xxii (15 pages)

Second meeting February 18th and 19th: Translators Introduction we will read pages- xxii-xliii (21 pages)

Third meeting March 4th and 5th: Sartre's Introduction, The Pursuit of Being: xlv-lix (15 pages)

Fourth meeting we are reading the rest of Sartre's Introduction V. The Ontological Proof and the first pages of Chapter 1, The Origin of Negation- p.lx-p.9 March 18th and 19th

Fifth meeting: The Origin of Negation p.9-24 April 1st and April 2nd

Sixth meeting- The Origin of Negation p.24-39 Sunday 10am PST April 16th and Saturday 10am GMT April 22nd.

Seventh meeting- The Origin of Negation and Part Two Being-for-Itself, Chapter One Immediate Structures of the For Itself, Presence to self, p.40-57 Saturday 10am GMT April 29th, and Sunday 10am PST April 30th.

Eighth meeting- Part Two Being-for-Itself, Chapter One Immediate Structures of the For-Itself, II. The Facticity of the For-Itself — IV. The For-Itself and the Being of Possibilities, p.57-73 Saturday 10am GMT May 13th, and Sunday 10am PST May 14th.

Ninth meeting- Part Two Being-for-Itself, the remaining bit of Chapter One- Immediate Structures of the For-Itself and some of Chapter Two- Temporality, p.74-89 Saturday 10am GMT May 27th, and Sunday 10am PST May 28th.

Tenth meeting- Part Two Being-for-Itself, Chapter Two- Temporality, p.89-104 Saturday 10am GMT June 10th, and Sunday 10am PST June 11th.

Summer Schedule- Meet once per month June, July, and August. Each meeting this summer will open space for dialogues covering reading we have read already and anything else that comes up. This will also give everyone an opportunity to catch up on the reading. Read to page 104 by August 12th.

Eleventh Meeting- Catch up on reading, plan to discuss temporality, Saturday July 15th at 10am GDT, and Sunday July 16th at 10am PST.

Twelfth Meeting- Saturday August 19th, 2023, at 10am GMT and Sunday August 20th at 10am PST. Read through p.104 (You can still attend the meeting even if you have not caught all the way up with us.)

Thirteenth Meeting- Saturday September 2nd 10am GMT and Sunday September 3rd 10am PST. Read p.104-119, Temporality.

Fourteenth Meeting- Chapter 2: Temporality. Section 2- The Ontology of Temporality. A. Static Temporality, p.106- p. 118 Saturday 9/16 at 10am GMT and Sunday 9/17 at 10am PST

Fifteenth Meeting- Chapter 2: Temporality. Section 2- The Ontology of Temporality. B. The Dynamic of Temporality (8 pages) Saturday 10/07 at 10am GMT and Sunday 10/8 at 10am PST

Sixteenth Meeting, Saturday 10am GMT October 21st, 2023, and Sunday 10am PST October 22nd, 2023. Being and Nothingness: III. Original Temporality and Psychic Temporality: Reflection (10 pages) Read until the paragraph that begins with “Here we must distinguish between pure reflection and impure or constituent reflection, for it is impure reflection which constitutes the succession of psychic facts or psyche.”

Seventeenth Meeting, Saturday 10am GMT November 4th, 2023, and Sunday 10am PST November 5th, 2023. Being and Nothingness: III. Original Temporality and Psychic Temporality: Reflection (8pages) Read until the paragraph that begins with “But psychic processes imply also the action from a distance of prior forms on posterior forms.”

Eighteenth Meeting, Saturday 10am GMT November 18th, 2023, and Sunday 10am PST November 19th, 2023. Being and Nothingness: III. Original Temporality and Psychic Temporality: Reflection read (6 1/4 pages) from the paragraph that begins with “But psychic processes imply also the action from a distance of prior forms on posterior forms” through Chapter 3: Transcendence, Section I. Knowledge as a type of relation between the for itself and the in itself: stop at the paragraph that begins with "The thing, before all comparison, before all construction, is that which a present to consciousness as not being consciousness."

Nineteenth meeting, Saturday 10am GMT December 2nd, 2023, and Sunday 10am PST December 3, 2023. Read Chapter 3: Transcendence, Section I. Knowledge as a type of relation between the for itself and the in itself: read from paragraph that begins with "The thing, before all comparison, before all construction, is that which a present to consciousness as not being consciousness." Through section II Determination as Negation (6 pages)

Twentieth meeting, Saturday 10am GMT December 16th, 2023, and Sunday 10am PST December 17th, 2023. Read Chapter 3: Transcendence, Section II Determination as Negation through section III. Quality and Quantity, Potentiality, Instrumentality. (6 pages)

Twenty-first meeting, Saturday 10am GMT January 13th, 2024, and Sunday January 14th, 2024. Read Chapter 3: Section III: Quality and Quantity, Potentiality, Instrumentality through the paragraph that ends with “The complementary negation which the for-itself is as its own possibility is then a negation presence; that is, the for-itself is as a non-thetic self-consciousness and as a thetic consciousness of being -beyond-being.” (7 pages)

Twenty-second meeting, Saturday 10am GMT January 27th, 2024, and Sunday 10am PST January 28th, 2024. Read Chapter 3: Section III: Quality and Quantity, Potentiality, Instrumentality Starting with the paragraph that begins with, “Being-beyond-being is bound to present this, not by any kind of external relation but by a precise bond of complementarity which stands in exact correlation with the relation of the for-itself to its future.” Through the paragraph that ends with, “It is a being-for which is degraded , laminated by exteriority, a being-for whose transcendent ideality can be conceived only as a correlate of the being-for which the for-itself has to be.” (8 pages)

Twenty-third meeting, Saturday 10am GMT February 10th, 2024 and Sunday 10am PST February 11th, 2024. Read Chapter 3: Section III: Quality and Quantity, Potentiality, Instrumentality starting with the paragraph that being with, “The thing so far as it both rests in the quiet beatitude of indifference and yet points beyond it to tasks to be performed which make known to it what it has to be, is an instrument or utensil.” Through section IV. The Time of The World, Section A. The Past, ending with the sentence, “It is through the past that I belong to universal temporality; it is through the present and the future that I escape from it.” (8 pages)

Twenty-fourth meeting, Saturday 10am GMT February 24, 2024, Sunday 10am PST February 25,2024. Read Section IV. The Time of The World, Section B. The Present through the end of Part 2. (10 pages)

Twenty- Fifth meeting, Saturday 10am GMT March 16th, 2024 and Sunday 10am PST March 17th, 2024. Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others, Section I. The Problem and Section II. The Reef of Solipsism.

Twenty-Sixth meeting, Saturday 10am GMT March 30th, 2024 and EASTER Sunday 10am PST March 31st, 2024. Continue to review…no new reading assigned. Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others, Section I. The Problem and Section II. The Reef of Solipsism.

Twenty-Seventh meeting, Saturday 10am GMT April 13th, 2024 and Sunday 10am PST April 14th, 2024. Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others, Section III. Husserl, Hegel, Heidegger. Through the paragraph that ends with “How then could we establish a universal concept subsuming under the name of self-consciousness, my consciousness for myself and (of) myself and of my knowledge of the Other. But this is not all.” (10 pages)

Twenty-eighth meeting, Saturday 10am GMT April 27th, 2024 and Sunday 10am PST April 28th, 2024. Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others, Section III. Husserl, Hegel, Heidegger. Paragraph that ends with “How then could we establish a universal concept subsuming under the name of self-consciousness, my consciousness for myself and (of) myself and of my knowledge of the Other. But this is not all.” Through IV. The Look. (9 pages). 

Twenty-ninth meeting, Saturday 10am GMT May 11, 2024 and Sunday 10am PST May 12th, 2024. Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others IV. The Look- read until the paragraph that ends with “It is shame or pride which makes me live, not know the situation of being looked at.” (10 pages).

Thirtieth meeting, Saturday 10am GMT May 25th, 2024 and Sunday 10am PST May 26th, 2024. Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others IV. The Look- read until the paragraph that ends with “…does it not become a false shame?.” (15 pages).

Summer Schedule 2024- Meeting once per month:

June 29th GMT 10am-11am , June 30th PST 10am-11am, Read- Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others IV. The Look- Start at paragraph that begins with “In this way therefore the situation in and through its surpassing for the other is fixed and organized into a form, in the sense the Gestaltists use the term”…. until paragraph that ends with, “. . .an Other-as-object who is already implicitly and really contained.” ( we are rereading a few pages prior to where we read to last time).

July 27th GMT 10am-11am, July 28th 10am-11am PST, Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others IV. The Look- Start at paragraph that begins with “Furthermore by fixing my possibilities the Other reveals to me the impossibility of my being an object except for another freedom.”…. until paragraph that ends with, “For the appearance of a man as an object in the field of my experience is not what inform me that there are men. My is, on the contrary, that which makes them possible.” ( we are rereading a few pages prior to where we read to last time).

August 17 GMT 10am-11am, August 18th PST 10am-11am, Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others IV. The Look- Start at paragraph that begins with “For the appearance of a man as an object in the field of my experience is not what inform me that there are men. My is, on the contrary, that which makes them possible.” Read until paragraph that ends with, “Other becomes now what I limit in my very projection toward not-being-the-Other.”

September 28th GMT 10am-11am, September 29th PST 10am-11am, Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others IV. The Look- Start at paragraph that begins with “Other becomes now what I limit in my very projection toward not-being-the-Other.” Read until Chapter 2 The Body.

October 20th PST 10am-11am and October 26th GMT at 10am-11am, Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others IV. The Look- Start at paragraph that begins with “Other becomes now what I limit in my very projection toward not-being-the-Other.” Read until Chapter 2 The Body. (rescheduled due to sicknesses)

November 24th, 2024 at 10am-11am, Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others IV. The Look- Start at paragraph that begins with “Other becomes now what I limit in my very projection toward not-being-the-Other.” Read until Chapter 2 The Body. (used this time to check in with everyone)

December 14 GMT at 10am-11am and December 15th PST 10am-11am, Part 3 Being-for-Others, Chapter 1, The Existence of Others IV. The Look- Start at paragraph that begins with “Other becomes now what I limit in my very projection toward not-being-the-Other.” Read until Chapter 2 The Body. (getting back into the text)