Week Goals:
1. Introduction to Sartre's phenomenology of the Other
2. Understand what Sartre meant by 'being-for-others' and 'the look'
3. Debated Sartre's (somewhat pessimistic) account of how we relate to one another and our own
pasts in the seminars
Lecture prep
Sartre's Being and Nothingness Part III - The Existence of Others
Can find methods of consciousness that seem to point to an ontological structure while being-
for-itself
Example: shame - accessible to reflection, its structure is intentional and it is a shameful
apprehension of something (me). It realizes an intimate part of myself to myself - discovered
an aspect of my being, my existence
Shame isn't a phenomenon of reflection - I do something disgusting, the gesture clings to me
(I don’t judge it or blame it, I live it). I then realise somebody watched me do it and now I
realise how gross it was and I feel ashamed. By the presence of another person, I judge myself
as if I am an object
Lecture
Sartre accepts that there are facts about our existence - facticity - as a human we have a past,
an identity
His point is that he may pretend that these facts about his life determine his future
Why did I come to my lecture today? I want to be a good student, I enjoy going to lectures
BUT … once we start to analyse the structure of consciousness, we realise that there must be
more
All these different elements of my facticity can become objects for my consciousness, they
can become things that I can consider - none of the facts of my life can actually determine
what I do or why I do it
As well as having consciousness of myself, I also am conscious of others around me
Being-for-others: shame
Shame involves a movement from a subjective sort of freedom to a vulgar/unpleasant object
from the perspective of the other (being-in-itself)
'Shame is by nature recognition. I recognize that I am as the Other sees me … this
unjustifiable being-in-itself which I am for the Other'
We are ashamed because we cannot bear to be what we become for the Other - I AM as the
other sees me
Being-for-others: the look
"This means that all of a sudden I am conscious of myself as escaping myself, not in that I am the
foundation of my own nothingness but in that I have my foundation outside myself, I am for myself
only as I am a pure reference to the other"
Because of the nothingness that consciousness introduces into being, I am never equivalent to
the facts of my existence and I do not coincide with my own values and beliefs
I am free and I am a creator of value, meaning and purpose
The other is also free to ascribe value, meaning and purpose to my own being
We are self-conscious
We tend to act as if someone was looking
We have a constant awareness of how we appear to other people
The Other can objectify us
Objectification involves a refusal of the Other's subjectivity and personhood
Objectification is implicitly or explicitly threatening
It can be shameful, even if we don't accept the truth of how we are valued
1. Introduction to Sartre's phenomenology of the Other
2. Understand what Sartre meant by 'being-for-others' and 'the look'
3. Debated Sartre's (somewhat pessimistic) account of how we relate to one another and our own
pasts in the seminars
Lecture prep
Sartre's Being and Nothingness Part III - The Existence of Others
Can find methods of consciousness that seem to point to an ontological structure while being-
for-itself
Example: shame - accessible to reflection, its structure is intentional and it is a shameful
apprehension of something (me). It realizes an intimate part of myself to myself - discovered
an aspect of my being, my existence
Shame isn't a phenomenon of reflection - I do something disgusting, the gesture clings to me
(I don’t judge it or blame it, I live it). I then realise somebody watched me do it and now I
realise how gross it was and I feel ashamed. By the presence of another person, I judge myself
as if I am an object
Lecture
Sartre accepts that there are facts about our existence - facticity - as a human we have a past,
an identity
His point is that he may pretend that these facts about his life determine his future
Why did I come to my lecture today? I want to be a good student, I enjoy going to lectures
BUT … once we start to analyse the structure of consciousness, we realise that there must be
more
All these different elements of my facticity can become objects for my consciousness, they
can become things that I can consider - none of the facts of my life can actually determine
what I do or why I do it
As well as having consciousness of myself, I also am conscious of others around me
Being-for-others: shame
Shame involves a movement from a subjective sort of freedom to a vulgar/unpleasant object
from the perspective of the other (being-in-itself)
'Shame is by nature recognition. I recognize that I am as the Other sees me … this
unjustifiable being-in-itself which I am for the Other'
We are ashamed because we cannot bear to be what we become for the Other - I AM as the
other sees me
Being-for-others: the look
"This means that all of a sudden I am conscious of myself as escaping myself, not in that I am the
foundation of my own nothingness but in that I have my foundation outside myself, I am for myself
only as I am a pure reference to the other"
Because of the nothingness that consciousness introduces into being, I am never equivalent to
the facts of my existence and I do not coincide with my own values and beliefs
I am free and I am a creator of value, meaning and purpose
The other is also free to ascribe value, meaning and purpose to my own being
We are self-conscious
We tend to act as if someone was looking
We have a constant awareness of how we appear to other people
The Other can objectify us
Objectification involves a refusal of the Other's subjectivity and personhood
Objectification is implicitly or explicitly threatening
It can be shameful, even if we don't accept the truth of how we are valued
