Me, Myself and I. Sartre and Husserl on Elusiveness of the Self

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« Me, Myself and I. Sartre and Husserl on Elusiveness of the Self », Continental Philosophy Review, 2013, vol. 46 (1), p. 99-113

Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre

Abstract: In his early essay on transcendence of the ego, Sartre attempted to follow Husserl’s Logical Investigations and to draw the consequences of his phenomenological criticism of subjectivity. Both authors have emphasized the elusiveness of the self as a result of intentionality of consciousness. However, his analysis of ego led Sartre quite far from Husserl’s philosophical project, insofar as it established the basis of the conception of moral consciousness (and maybe the moral conception of consciousness) that he displayed later in Being and Nothingness. This article stresses the importance of such a turn in Sartre’s philosophy, which reorients him from a strict description of consciousness toward a moral assessment of the structure of the self. It takes an important part in my research since it analyses the extent and the limits of the descriptive method of phenomenology.