Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 7K views

    Being and Nothingness The Look Sartre

    Uploaded by

    maximomore
    Sartre discusses how an individual realizes there are other minds in the world besides their own. He describes sitting in a public park observing a man on a nearby bench. At first, Sartre views the man as just another object like the grass and benches. However, Sartre realizes the man could have his own thoughts and experiences independent of Sartre's own perspective. This realization that others have their own subjective experiences separate from our own causes an "anguish" in confronting that our world is not the only world, and others can take away our sense of freedom and control over our environment and consciousness. Sartre explores how shame, fear, and other emotions arise from our interactions with others and the loss

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX or read online from Scribd

    Being and Nothingness The Look Sartre

    Uploaded by

    maximomore
    7K views3 pages
    Sartre discusses how an individual realizes there are other minds in the world besides their own. He describes sitting in a public park observing a man on a nearby bench. At first, Sartre views the man as just another object like the grass and benches. However, Sartre realizes the man could have his own thoughts and experiences independent of Sartre's own perspective. This realization that others have their own subjective experiences separate from our own causes an "anguish" in confronting that our world is not the only world, and others can take away our sense of freedom and control over our environment and consciousness. Sartre explores how shame, fear, and other emotions arise from our interactions with others and the loss

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Sartre discusses how an individual realizes there are other minds in the world besides their own. He describes sitting in a public park observing a man on a nearby bench. At first, Sartre views the man as just another object like the grass and benches. However, Sartre realizes the man could have his own thoughts and experiences independent of Sartre's own perspective. This realization that others have their own subjective experiences separate from our own causes an "anguish" in confronting that our world is not the only world, and others can take away our sense of freedom and control over our environment and consciousness. Sartre explores how shame, fear, and other emotions arise from our interactions with others and the loss

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx
    7K views3 pages

    Being and Nothingness The Look Sartre

    Uploaded by

    maximomore
    Sartre discusses how an individual realizes there are other minds in the world besides their own. He describes sitting in a public park observing a man on a nearby bench. At first, Sartre views the man as just another object like the grass and benches. However, Sartre realizes the man could have his own thoughts and experiences independent of Sartre's own perspective. This realization that others have their own subjective experiences separate from our own causes an "anguish" in confronting that our world is not the only world, and others can take away our sense of freedom and control over our environment and consciousness. Sartre explores how shame, fear, and other emotions arise from our interactions with others and the loss

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx
    of 3

    Being and Nothingness / The Look / Sartre

    By: Gabriel Moreno


    When does an individual figure out he or she is not alone in the world? It
    is when a person realizes the reality of other minds. It is important for that
    individual to first realize their own existence to understand that there are
    others in the world. Sartre acknowledges this by writing “I am in a public
    park.” This park has benches, grass, and Sartre sees a man. This man at first
    for Sartre is seen as another object just like the lawn and benches. There
    develops if this man is a “puppet,” then he will give him “temporal-spatial
    things” qualities, that is the distance from the lawn, in this case “two yards
    and twenty inches from the lawn.” There is a realization of the environment
    one is living in at the moment. Sartre is in a public park with benches along
    the lawn and there is this object. Orientation of all the objects is then
    described. Sartre sees himself as the center of his universe. Sartre sees the
    probability that the object might be a man acknowledging the same lawn he
    is looking at. Sartre includes that the man could even be imagining or
    thinking about something else or even being blind. We can never know what
    another individual is experiencing. We constantly will ask the question of
    what another is thinking but can we ever know? Probably not but it should be
    accepted that we think of things differently in so far as everyone experience
    of life is different.

    Everyone’s experience is different because they see the world from a


    different aspect. A blind man will experience the world different from another
    person with the sense of sight. If the blind man is given an operation to be
    able to see he will still experience the world differently from that a person
    that has been able to see their whole life. Sartre believes his world is
    beginning to escape him because this object-man and object-lawn are no
    longer his experience but that of the man on the bench. What is known as
    my universe quickly becomes his universe. The man on the bench becomes
    the middle while Sartre becomes a temporal-spatial object, something not in
    the middle anymore. It is my consciousness which creates the world I live in,
    and the appearance of the Other’s consciousness only takes my world away.
    There is a loss of my world and the loss of my freedom to structure my world
    and consciousness. The Other has stolen the world from me and left me as a
    mere object, the very same type Sartre saw when first acknowledging the
    Other object on the bench across from him. This loss of me as for-itself is not
    a total loss. As long as I am at least an object in the world, I stay away from
    being nothing.

    How can I recover my world and consciousness when my existence has


    begun dependable upon the Other? What I am for-myself, my nature, my
    essence, and everything that is in the “I” is dependent on the Other, but the
    Other’s experience of me is my responsibility, my freedom. I create what the
    Other sees of me, my facticity. Sartre makes eye contact with the Other as a
    common stare down that occurs in everyday life. Why does someone
    become startled when making direct eye contact with another? There
    develops the reality there are Others in the world. In the context of a
    rebellion we try to gain control of the world taken from us and not let
    ourselves be held down by our own self-victimization. Sartre writes that we
    are “condemned to be free.” The anguish lived drives us to gain control of
    our world. It is almost like we desire to become God but are stopped by the
    realization of someone else in the universe. Who is this Other sitting on the
    bench? Is that Other trying to be God? Our minds are created to work the
    same way. Some people are smarter than others but that is not what is
    trying to be said. We all seek an ultimate perfection that is like that of God.
    And there is a certain alienation that is felt when we recognize that we are
    being recognized through eye contact with another person. Sartre enforces
    that the Other cannot look at him as he looks at the lawn. Being-seen-by-
    others creates a hell for us. The famous “hell is other people” takes place.
    Something so simple as making eye contact creates all these thoughts within
    our consciousness.
    Shame can be seen closer in Sartre’s example of looking through a
    keyhole. Sartre stares through the keyhole as to create the illusion that no
    one can acknowledge him and take his world away from him. But all of a
    sudden there is a sense that someone is watching him, the consciousness of
    another presence, we become being-for-others. The very moment between
    watching the keyhole and reflecting on his world escaping him is what is
    known as shame. From this shame I fall into fear. I become aware of the
    possibility of my destruction in the world by something outside of me. “I am
    ashamed of myself,” and in more detail “I am ashamed of myself before the
    Other.” We can drop the idea of our goal of perfection because shame is
    shame before God because we do not really accept the Other as a person
    but as an object. Thus it is only I and God and only I care what God thinks.
    But then again we still carry the hell is other people and still continue to go
    through the shame and fear. I anger at the thought that the Other takes my
    world away but am comforted by anxiety, the freedom of consciousness to
    do what I want in retaliation against the Other. I am responsible for my
    future and fear is only my finding that I am an object transcended by
    possibilities that are not my possibilities. I come to recognize the Other as a
    subject beyond my reach through fear, shame, and pride. These are all
    reactions to my action of “regaining my subjectivity by objectifying others—
    making them into beings-for-others.”

    You might also like