ABSTRACT
Sartre’s existentialism rests upon a theoretical view of consciousness that is crucial to understand. “Human subjectivity is our starting point,” says Sartre, and this subjectivity is to be conceived in a way that differs from classical rationalist views such as Descartes’. Where Descartes uncovered his first truth via the experience of the cogito, “I think, therefore I am,” Sartre digs further down in the depths of subjectivity and uncovers a multi-layered consciousness for which the cogito is just one facet. An important factor that led Sartre on this path was his discovery of the German phenomenological movement.
