Summary: Being and Nothingness (page 2)

Now that we have begun to gain a deeper understanding of being, let us turn our attention to its opposite: nothingness, as announced in the very title of the book. This exploration may, in turn, reveal new insights about being itself.

Part I: The Problem of Nothingness

We must not, as Descartes does with the soul and the body, separate the two terms of a relationship only to then attempt to unite them ¹. Doing so results in an abstraction—a kind of fiction—and therefore an error, as it isolates what is not meant to exist in isolation ², aligning with Laporte’s famous definition of abstraction.

For instance, it is abstract to distinguish the phenomenon from consciousness, as they are intrinsically linked. What is truly concrete is man in the world, a specific union that Heidegger famously describes as "being-in-the-world." ³.

Let us examine man’s relationship to the world.

We begin with a simple observation: to study man’s relationship to the world means that, in this very moment, I am standing before being in an interrogative attitude—I am asking a question.

And a question, fundamentally, is a form of expectation: I expect an answer from the being I question. However, every question allows for the possibility of a negative answer ⁴.

This reveals that we are surrounded by nothingness. Nothingness is the permanent possibility of non-being, both outside us and within us, and it is this possibility that conditions our ability to question being ⁵. Thus, a new component of reality has emerged before us: non-being ⁶.

Let us now explore the relationship between being and non-being .

It is through man that non-being arises: Non-being always emerges within the bounds of human expectation. For instance, it is because I expect to find 1500 francs that I instead find only 1300 ⁷. Not all questions are directed at a person: If my car breaks down, I question the carburettor or the spark plugs ⁸.

When I expect a revelation of being, I simultaneously prepare for the possibility of non-being. If I question the carburettor, it is because I acknowledge the possibility that there might be nothing in it. Thus, my question inherently includes a prejudicial understanding of non-being. This act of questioning is, in itself, a relationship between being and non-being. ⁹.

It is, therefore, through human existence that nothingness arises in the world. This occurs not only through the act of questioning but also through perception and judgment.

As Sartre reminds us, perception always involves the constitution of a figure against a background ¹⁰. The negation of forms within the background is the necessary condition for the primary figure to appear.

Similarly, the judgment of negation is inherently tied to non-being: For it to be possible to say ‘no’, non-being must be a perpetual presence both within and beyond us. In this way, nothingness haunts being ¹¹.

Sartre observes that being is not merely one structure among others, nor a single moment of the object. Rather, it is the very condition for all structures and all moments ¹².

This is a critical point to understand:

Nothingness haunts being. This implies that being has no need of nothingness to define or conceive of itself. One can examine the notion of being exhaustively without discovering the slightest trace of nothingness within it. However, the reverse is not true: nothingness, which does not possess independent existence, can only derive its being from being. The nothingness of being arises solely within the bounds of being. If being were to disappear entirely, it would not result in the triumph of non-being; instead, it would entail the simultaneous disappearance of nothingness itself. Nothingness exists only as a surface phenomenon of being¹³.

In other words, being is prior to nothingness and serves as its foundation ¹⁴.

Heidegger avoids falling into Hegel's error of granting non-being a kind of existence, even an abstract one. For Heidegger, nothingness is not—it is pure negation.

¹ Part I, chapter I, 1, p. 37
² ibid.
³ ibid., p.38
⁴ ibid., p.39
⁵ ibid.
⁶ ibid., p.40
⁷ I, 2, p.41
⁸ ibid.
⁹ ibid., p.42
¹⁰ ibid., p.44
¹¹ ibid., p.46
¹² I, 3, p.48
¹³ ibid., p.51
¹⁴ ibid., p.50