and which, moreover, is not correlative to consciousness because
consciousness can exist without an ego (for example, in extreme efforts
of attention)” (ESviii: 10 ). Already, Sartre is raising an issue to which
philosophers will devote considerable attention later in the century – the
notion of nonegological consciousness.^20
Obviously, what we find in this notebook are insights, sketches of
arguments, hypotheses, aides-memoire, and not detailed defenses such as
will appear in the published essays of the subsequent years. But they do
offer a glimpse at the gestation of Sartre’s position, including its affinity
to the phenomenology, that was to arrive as its natural ally within the
next few months.
The Berlin vacation (September 1933 –July 1934 )
Raymond Aron always seemed to be at Sartre’s service in these early
years. He advised him how to “play the winning game” with the exam-
iners for theagre ́gation, encouraged (and possibly aided) his entrance
into the Meteorological Corps, suggested that he apply to succeed him
for a year of research at La Maison Acade ́mique Franc ̧aise in Berlin, and
held his place for him at Le Havre while Sartre was in Germany.
Philosophically, the most important of these services was introducing
Sartre to Husserlian phenomenology – either in an epiphanic moment
over a cocktail with Sartre and Beauvoir on a summer evening at “Le Bec
de Gaz,”^21 or, less dramatically, by assisting Sartre in applying for the
fellowship that Aron had just completed in Berlin. However it occurred,
Sartre was at the very least primed for the encounter with Husserl, as we
have seen.
Before turning to what Sartre once described as his “vacation in
Berlin,” let us analyze the description of his proposed research project,
(^20) Aron Gurwitsch,Studies in Phenomenology and Psychology(Evanston, IL: Northwestern
21 University Press,^1966 ), ch.^11 , “A Non-egological Conception of Consciousness.”
Beauvoir’s dramatic account has triumphed, even though she and Sartre could not agree on
whether the drink in question was an apricot cocktail (Beauvoir) or a beer (Sartre) (seePrime
162 andFilm 39 ). She describes Sartre’s enthusiastic search for a bookstore open in the
evening to purchase Levinas’sThe Theory of Intuition in Husserl’s Phenomenology(Paris:
Alcan, 1930 ; Vrin, 1963 ). He perused the uncut pages as they walked. Forevidence that this
was scarcely Sartre’s first encounter with phenomenology, see above,Chapter 2 , andnote
5 above.
58 Teaching in the lyce ́e, 1931–1939