for-itself or consciousness. In other words, the for-itself “others” both
itself (since it is not self-identical and this othering relationship is
the source of its subjectivity and its freedom) and the in-itself via what
we can call an “internal” or constitutive negation. This is the negation
exhibited by the famous paradox fromBeing and Nothingnessanticipated
above, namely, that human reality “is what it is not and is not what it is”
(BN 58 ). Human reality insofar as it is consciousness in internal negation
with both itself and the in-itself, simply “is” Nothingness. And where
Heidegger, in a much parodied remark, claims that “Das Nichts nichtet”
(“Nothing nothings”), so Sartre, without referring to that phrase, can
say the Nothingness nihilates, though I do not recall him ever making
that claim. The point of Sartre’s metaphysical position is that the source
of the negativites (the lacks) that we encounter throughout the world
must be its own negativity. Sartre, unlike Heidegger, finds that negative
source in consciousness itself, in its “othering” function, which is ingre-
dient in intentionality (consciousness is always consciousof an other;in
other words, consciousness “others”) and thereby grounds our freedom.
In another major thesis ofBNanticipated in theWar Diaries, though
only by implication, “Human reality is free because it is not a self but
a presence-to-self ” (BN 440 ), or, we might say, “an other to itself.”
Again, the for-itself isnonself-coincidental.
This metaphysics of nothingness, freedom, temporality, situation
and practical truthfulness distills into “authenticity” and what will later
condense into “commitment.” But the concepts, expressions and major
themes of the masterwork are strikingly present, even in less than half
of the notebooks in which they were worked out. Before turning toBeing
and Nothingness, let us pause to consider a theater piece, conceived and
produced in captivity, for the imaginative expression of his philosophical
insights will henceforth occur primarily in the theater and, to a much
lesser extent, in film scenarios, though we shall discover them generously
at work in his several existential biographical “novels” as well.
Bariona, or The Son of ThunderIf we discount childhood “plays” and subsequent works that seem never
to have survived as well as brief exercises composed while living in the
“artists” barracks, it is ironic that Sartre’s first extant piece for theater
was the full-dress performance of a Christmas play that he wrote and
172 The war years, 1939–1944