Writing on Jean-Paul Sartre is like going to a shrine. The way is well trodden. However, the journey continues to be uphill and the path winding and circuitous. There are blind alleys, labyrinthine pathways, and distracting lights. Time and again one has to pause and look for direction. I have been a devoted pilgrim to the Sartre shrine. As a token of my debt to Sartre, I have written this work in an effort to telescope the long and arduous intellectual journey for the newly initiated.
The book is directed to the grassroots course in Sartre's brand of existential philosophy. My experience in teaching introductory courses in philosophy has convinced me that the philosophy of Sartre can be best introduced to students through Nausea which is replete with existential themes. It is easier for the beginner to identify himself with Roquentin and his use of the pheno-menological method in Nausea than with Sartre and his abstract and vague descriptions of this method in Being and Nothingness. The ideal of philosophy as a presup-positionless discipline is also best conveyed through the character and experiences of Roquentin who by living his universal doubt reveals existence in its immediacy.
The book does not claim to be a substitute for Sartre's popular novel Nausea or his philosophical work Being and Nothingness. However, it can be treated as a companion volume which by simplifying the complex phraseology can be a handy guide for comprehending the above two works.
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