Notebooks for an Ethics FROM THE PUBLISHER
In the famous conclusion to Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre announced that he would devote his next philosophical work to moral problems. Although he worked on this project in the late 1940s, Sartre never completed it to his satisfaction, and it remained unpublished until after his death in 1980. Presented here for the first time in English, Notebooks for an Ethics is Sartre's attempt to articulate a moral philosophy. In the Notebooks he addresses any number of themes and topics relevant to an effort to formulate a concrete and revolutionary socialist ethics, among them the differences between force and violence, the relationship of means and ends, and the relationship of oppression and alienation. Most important, he tries to show that there can be an authentic mutual recognition among free individuals where no one steals another's freedom. While remaining committed to the basic principles of Being and Nothingness, Sartre here seeks to locate the foundation for action in history and society. The Notebooks thus form an important bridge between the early existentialist Sartre and the later Marxist social thinker of the Critique of Dialectical Reason. Sartre grapples anew with such central issues as "authenticity" and the relation of alienation and freedom to moral values. In dealing with fundamental modes of relating to the Other, among them violence, entreaty, demand, appeal, refusal, and revolt, he highlights the notions of conversion and creation as they figure in the necessary transition from individualism to historical consciousness. The Notebooks themselves are complemented here by two appendixes, one on "the good and subjectivity," the other on the problem of blacks in the United States as a case study of oppression.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Written in 1947-1948, this unfinished treatise is Sartre's sketch for a revolutionary socialist ethics, and as such serves as a bridge between the existentialism of Being and Nothingness and the Marxist social thought of his later years. Sartre locates the roots of oppression in ignorance, stupidity, bad faith and mystification. He searchingly analyzes the oppression of women, children, slaves and, in an appendix, American blacks. He scathingly criticizes Frederick Engels, who, in his reading, absolved the oppressor of conscious responsibility by explaining oppression solely in terms of the interplay of economic forces. Deeming alienation to be a virtually inescapable condition, Sartre outlines a dialectics of choice and freedom in the spheres of work, religion and history. These lucidly translated posthumous notebooks contain a wealth of material on such topics as rights, violence, art, generosity, gift-giving, resignation and desire. (Oct.)
Library Journal
Philosopher, playwright, novelist, and correspondent, Sartre produced much during his working life that relied upon an ethical stance. During 1947 and 1948, he began to address the issue of formal ethics directly; the result of these initial but aborted efforts is this compendium of notes on the matter. Edited for publication in France in 1983 by his adopted daughter, Arlette Elkaim-Sartre, and smoothly translated here, Sartre's notebooks are clearly that: notes in need of reworking, expansion, reconsideration, and formalization. However, they are of great value to dedicated readers of Sartre, not only for their content but also because their raw state gives insight onto his formulating processes. The inclusion of two nearly finished essays, ``The Good and Subjectivity'' and ``The Oppression of Blacks in the United States,'' serves to give the reader a sense of completion. For informed readers.-- Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., Cal.
Booknews
Never completed to Sartre's (1905-1980) satisfaction, and unpublished in the French until 1983 (Editions Gallimard), this is the first English translation (by David Pellauer) of Sartre's attempt to articulate a moral philosophy--most important, to show that there can be an authentic mutual recognition among free individuals where noone steals another's freedom. Of inestimable value. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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