ABSTRACT
Jean-Paul Sartre observes that the potential for class contradiction grows out of person's relationship. Sartre's constant use of the expressions 'totality' and in particular 'totalization' in connection with man's creation of his history and the possibility for comprehension of this, leads inevitably to the question of whether and to what extent Sartre has been influenced by Hegelian notion of a final and absolute understanding of history. The individual practice in the processing of nature thus assumes the position of the point of departure for all historical phenomena in Sartre's view. Admittedly scarcity as a category is less universal than labour, which for Sartre is the precondition for all possible history and all historical understanding. The modification of labour by scarcity thus entails a new category, the inert nature of the processed field. The organism is confronted with nature, its surroundings, but the relationship only becomes dialectical when labour, which then negates this distinction, enters the scene.
