Reading Sartre

by Joseph S. Catalano

Overview

In this volume, Joseph Catalano offers an in-depth exploration of Jean-Paul Sartre’s four major philosophical writings: Being and Nothingness, Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr, The Critique of Dialectical Reason, and The Family Idiot. These works have been immensely influential, but they are long and difficult and thus challenging for both students and scholars. Catalano here demonstrates the interrelation of these four works, their internal logic, and how they provide insights into important but overlooked aspects of Sartre’s thought, such as the body, childhood, and evil. The book begins with Sartre’s final work, The Family Idiot, and systematically works backward to Being and Nothingness. Catalano then repeats the study by advancing chronologically, beginning with Being and Nothingness and ending with The Family Idiot and an afterword on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Readers will appreciate Catalano’s subtle readings as well as the new insights that he brings to Sartre’s oeuvre.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521152273
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/31/2010
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Joseph Catalano is Professor Emeritus at Kean University of New Jersey and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the New School University of Social Research. He is the author of A Commentary of Jean-Paul Sartre's 'Being and Nothingness'; A Commentary on Jean-Paul Sartre's 'Critique of Dialectical Reason, Good Faith and Other Essays'; Perspectives on a Sartrean Ethics; and Thinking Matter: Consciousness from Aristotle to Putnam and Sartre.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Works Frequently Cited xv

Part 1 A Retrospective Overview

1 The Family Idiot 3

2 Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr 21

3 The Critique of Dialectical Reason 43

4 Being and Nothingness 69

Part 2 The Works Themselves

5 Being and Nothingness 91

6 The Critique of Dialectical Reason 113

7 Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr 137

8 The Family Idiot: Part One - Constitution 162

9 The Family Idiot: Concluded 182

Afterword: Madame Bovary 201

Index 207

Editorial Reviews

"....In this exploration of four of Sartre's works, Catalano (emer., Kean Univ. of New Jersey) argues that the themes of the later works are consistent with the earlier work, serving to further illustrate how freedom is limited by that of others.... this volume will serve as an insightful introduction to the themes of Sartre's major works.... Recommended...."
— J. A. Gauthier, University of Portland, CHOICE


".... For readers interested in psychology and psychological analysis Reading Sartre may serve as a very short introduction to Sartre's non-psychoanalytic way of something like psychoanalysis.... an integrated and lucid presentation of Sartre...."
—Dr. Manuel Bremer, Universitat Dusseldorf, Germany, Metapsychology Online


"....Overall, Catalano's work reads like the best form of active exposition.... what is most distinctive about this book is that while it does not break new ground or contemplate ''using'' Sartre in turn, Catalano has devoted himself to identifying threads of profound continuity in Sartre's work, an exercise that the stridently systematic Sartre would no doubt appreciate...."
—Brian Seitz, Arts & Humanities Division, Babson College, Philosophical Inquiry


"Catalano has written an important book of impressive scope and interest, as Reading Sartre is a well-constructed and coherent volume."
—George Lăzăroiu, PhD /IISHSS, New York, Review of Contemporary Philosophy

From the Publisher