@article{ART003258662},
author={HEE-JOONG JUNG},
title={Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom},
journal={인문논총 },
issn={2005-6222},
year={2025},
volume={68},
pages={169-193}
TY - JOUR
AU - HEE-JOONG JUNG
TI - Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom
JO - 인문논총
PY - 2025
VL - 68
IS - null
PB - Institute for Human studies, Kyungnam University
SP - 169
EP - 193
SN - 2005-6222
AB - This study aims to examine the thought of Nietzsche and Sartre on the relation between the human being and nothingness, focusing on the fact that both philosophers provide significant reflections on the problem of nothingness. In contemporary Korean society, the suicide rate remains alarmingly high, and people increasingly come to regard suicide as a rational solution. However, the attitude of viewing suicide as a solution can be mediated when it is accompanied by fundamental ontological reflection on issues such as “to live or to die,” or being and non-being. The conflict that drives one to contemplate suicide is related to the essential crisis of human existence, and may in fact be understood as a problem of life and death arising within the relation between being and nothingness.
Nietzsche discusses nothingness at a psychological level, explaining the process by which humans create aesthetic illusions that sustain life in a meaningless world. He insists that humans must create their own world through life, warning that the pursuit of epistemic knowledge produces an ascetic ideal. By contrast, Sartre conceives nothingness as a lack within human existence itself, claiming that this nothingness is the very condition that makes human freedom and action possible. For Sartre, nothingness is not simply opposed to being; rather, it is the crucial element that enables humans to detach from the past, project themselves into the future, and transform the present.
Although Nietzsche and Sartre approach the relation between being and nothingness differently, both explore existential conflicts and possible resolutions, thereby offering new philosophical perspectives on the view of suicide as a solution. Nietzsche argues that the will to nothingness must be transfigured into the will to power for the creation of a new world. Sartre regards nothingness as the condition of human freedom and describes death as the impossible state of endless change. Together, their perspectives provide a novel insight into the problem of existential conflict and offer an important point for rethinking the relation between life and nothingness.
KW - Nihilism;Nothingness;Nihilation;Suicide;Existential Freedom
DO -
UR -
ER -
HEE-JOONG JUNG. (2025). Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom. 인문논총 , 68, 169-193.
HEE-JOONG JUNG. 2025, "Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom", 인문논총 , vol.68, pp.169-193.
HEE-JOONG JUNG "Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom" 인문논총 68 pp.169-193 (2025) : 169.
HEE-JOONG JUNG. Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom. 2025; 68 169-193.
HEE-JOONG JUNG. "Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom" 인문논총 68(2025) : 169-193.
HEE-JOONG JUNG. Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom. 인문논총 , 68, 169-193.
HEE-JOONG JUNG. Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom. 인문논총 . 2025; 68 169-193.
HEE-JOONG JUNG. Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom. 2025; 68 169-193.
HEE-JOONG JUNG. "Nietzsche and Sartre on Nothingness: Suicide as an Ontological Conflict and Existential Freedom" 인문논총 68(2025) : 169-193.
