Marcuse's critique of Jean Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness is discussed, and a response is offered from the perspective of a critical rereading of Sartre's text.

Topic: State the main points of Marcuse's critique of Sartre, and consider the grounds on which Sartre might defend himself. Could Sartre succeed? Herbert Marcuse's critique of Sartre in Existentialism: Remarks on Jean-Paul Sartre's L'Etre et le Neant is based on the claim that Sartre's method is ontologically impure, in that its account of the nature of consciousness is in fact abstracted from historical factors. This criticism was not specific to Sartre. Marcuse's approach is …

…into self-consciousness. Savage [Md.]: Rowan & Lillefield, 1990. Catelano, J. "Authenticity: A Sartrean Perspective." In the Philosophical Forum 22:2 (1990), 99-119. McCarthy, T. "On the Idea of a Critical Theory and its Relation to Philosophy." In Critical Theory, edited by David C. Hoy and Thomas McCarthy, 7-30. London: Blackwell, 1994. Marcuse, H. "Existentialism: Remarks on Jean-Paul Sartre's L'Etre et Le Neant." In Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 8:3 (1948), 309-336. Sartre, J.P. Being and Nothingness, trans. Hazel E. Barnes. London: Routledge, 1996.