Being and Nothingness was "a pretentious metaphysical thesis" and "principally an exercise in misusing the verb 'to be'." The philosopher William Barrett, writing in "Irrational Man" (1958), described "Being and Nothingness" as "a great, uneven, brilliant and verbose tome". He noted Sartre's debts to Heidegger, but nevertheless credited him with originality. He criticized Sartre for neglecting Heidegger's "notion of the truth of Being", his understanding of what it means for a subject or object to be. In his view, Sartre failed to "deal with the problem of truth in a radical and existential way", instead viewing truth in "the ordinary intellectualistic sense that
John O'Neill (philosopher) to be" the good." John O'Neill (philosopher) John O'Neill is a philosopher. He is professor of Political Economy at the University of Manchester. John O'Neill held the post of professor of philosophy at Lancaster University. Previously, he was on the faculty of the University of Sussex and the University of Wales. Books Journal articles Mark Peacock wrote that in "The Market: Ethics, Knowledge and Politics" "O'Neill defends an Aristotelian perfectionism which allows for a plurality of goods pursued for their own sake...The argument is sound, but does not answer the liberal objection to Aristotle that individuals must be allowed to