Heidegger, Sartre, and Ontological Difference

The title of Sartre's Being and Nothingness suggests a contrast with Heidegger's Being and Time, but the more specific challenge that it poses to Heidegger is with respect to Ontological Difference, which emerges later than Being and Time. Sartre's subtitle, 'A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology', signals the point of departure of the challenge--a reminder that Heidegger, too, is a practicing Phenomenologist, even where he neglects to cite his orientation. As is the case with Heidegger's 'History', as has been previously discussed, the re-introduction of that background significantly transforms his treatment of Ontological Difference. On Heidegger's own terms, 'Being' creates a 'clearing' in which beings appear, and is not an appearing object itself, which to many followers, imparts a mystical aura to Being. Accordingly, Sartre's analysis demystifies Heideggerian 'Being'. For, on that analysis, Heidegger has, in his later work, abstracted from the methodology that initially leads him to that Being--the Phenomenological 'Epoche' that first creates that clearing, which in the Phenomenological scheme is subjective Consciousness. In other words, Heidegger's 'Being' is Consciousness, minus the initial subjective context. Likewise, his Being-being difference is an abstraction from the Phenomenological Consciousness-Phenomenon difference, which Sartre proceeds to argue is a Being-for-Itself vs. Being-in-Itself diffference, respectively.