Vol. 7 · No. 1 · 2001 · pp. 19-42 (24)

On Pure Reflection in Sartre's Being and Nothingness

Yiwei Zheng

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Abstract

I. Introduction

'Pure reflection' is an important concept that bridges Sartre's ontology and ethics in his early philosophy. In Being and Nothingness Sartre devoted a section (Part Two, Chapter Two, Section III) to a discussion of ontological characteristics of pure reflection. In Notebooks for an Ethics, he explored the ethical implications of the ontological characteristics of pure reflection (that he had presented in Being and Nothingness) and he used pure reflection as an essential stage leading to an ethical life of 'authenticity'.