Jacob McNulty, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, considers two arguments from Sartre’s Being and Nothingness that take aim at Heidegger’s attempt to purge philosophy of Cartesian categories like consciousness, the subject and the cogito. The first argument, discussed by Alain Renaut, holds that these Cartesian categories are indispensable for making sense of the other human capacities that Heidegger invokes instead: for example, skills and practices; projects; and taking a stance on one’s being. The second argument, discussed by Manfred Frank, is that one cannot non-circularly explain the capacities foregrounded by the Cartesian tradition without already presupposing them. Along the way, Professor McNulty rejects as simplistic the idea that Sartre betrayed Heidegger for Cartesianism, instead offering that Sartre’s provocative idea was that Heidegger’s project, if it was to succeed, had to be rethought in Cartesian terms.

This is an endowed lecture under the Philosopher’s Holiday Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.