Verkehrte Freiheit?

In 1943, Sartre provided the theoretical rationale for existentialism in the form of a doctrine of freedom in his work »Being and Nothingness.« Existentialism became extremely popular in the postwar period and has had a lasting influence on the everyday consciousness of many people up to the present time. Inspired by philosophers such as Bergson, Descartes, Husserl and Heidegger, he dared to develop a phenomenological ontology which was able to do without a Creator who laid the foundations for the freedom of human beings. Theology very soon contradicted Sartre's popular assertions and denounced him as a libertine atheist, but did not examine the theory behind these assertions. Thomas Ebinger provides a detailed analysis of the origins and the inner logic of Sartre's doctrine of freedom as well as a study of the phenomena he describes and shows that a Christian understanding of freedom can manage without the aporiae which Sartre was unable to solve.