ABSTRACT
The material world, as worked by humanity, becomes another object for analysis in the Critique. Materiality, as an aspect of nature and as an aspect of the social world, constitutes the primary bond between the organism and the environment, and emerges as a central point of analysis in the Critique. But in Jean-Paul Sartre's unique comprehension of materiality, he always posits matter in conjunction with human praxis. The relation between matter and praxis is the relation between the in-itself and for-itself, both of which serve as central concepts in Being and Nothingness. A basic difference between Sartre's treatment of sociality in the Critique and its treatment by mainstream sociologists is the fact that Sartre begins with the person, instead of with institutional structures. Sartre admits that the person is an incomplete abstraction before he has been constituted by his social determinations. Sartre's concern with intelligibility carries significance for the sociological enterprise.
