ean-Paul Sartre, the seminal smarty-pants of mid-century thinking, launched the existentialist fleet with the publication of Being and Nothingness in 1943. Though the book is thick, dense, and unfriendly to careless readers, it is indispensable to those interested in the philosophy of consciousness and free will. Some of his arguments are fallacious, others are unclear, but for the most part Sartres thoughts penetrate deeply into fundamental philosophical territory. Basing his conception of self-consciousness loosely on Heideggers "being," Sartre proceeds to sharply delineate between conscious actions ("for themselves") and unconscious ("in themselves"). It is a conscious choice, he claims, to live ones life "authentically" and in a unified fashion, or not--this is the fundamental freedom of our lives.
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