ABSTRACT
Transcendence in relation to others, as Jean-Paul Sartre conceives it, might be seen essentially as an attempt to dominate others – the assertion of one's own freedom at the expense of the freedom of others. Sartre's ontology can take account of oppression only when he recognizes the possibility of the contrasting case of cooperative relations between human beings. This Heroism and extreme circumstances aside, Sartrean transcendence would consist ideally of free activity which is purified of bad faith and which, as such, recognizes the freedom of others – if that were possible. Transcendence in its radical or basic sense is constituted by consciousness itself and is specified as freedom. A different source of a possible ideal of transcendence with emancipatory value in Being and Nothingness lies in the domain of artistic creation, the activity of the writer or painter or composer.
