The Other's Look as Conflict

Being and Nothingness

This thread traces how the encounter with another freedom turns objectification into reciprocal struggle.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

A Look in the Room A Look in the Room from "Being and Nothingness". A Look in the Room Absorbed Action A person listens at a keyhole, absorbed in the scene and its practical possibilities.

A Look in the Room from "Being and Nothingness". A Look in the Room Absorbed Action A person listens at a keyhole, absorbed in the scene and its practical possibilities.

A Look in the Room Absorbed Action A person listens at a keyhole, absorbed in the scene and its practical possibilities. The act has no outside for its unreflective consciousness. Interruption Footsteps introduce the possibility of being seen. The self suddenly encounters its conduct as an object for another.

The Other Fixes Me The Other Fixes Me from "Being and Nothingness". The Other Fixes Me Objectification The look gives the self an outside and a nature that it cannot possess from within.

The Other Fixes Me from "Being and Nothingness". The Other Fixes Me Objectification The look gives the self an outside and a nature that it cannot possess from within.

The Other Fixes Me Objectification The look gives the self an outside and a nature that it cannot possess from within. Its possibilities appear alienated and exposed. Unequal Freedom The Other's freedom can fix the self without being reducible to the self's knowledge. This creates danger and dependence at once.

Reversal into Objecthood Reversal into Objecthood from "Being and Nothingness". Reversal into Objecthood Counter-Look To escape being an object, the self tries to make the Other an object.

Reversal into Objecthood from "Being and Nothingness". Reversal into Objecthood Counter-Look To escape being an object, the self tries to make the Other an object.

Reversal into Objecthood Counter-Look To escape being an object, the self tries to make the Other an object. The move restores a sense of freedom but destroys access to the Other as subject. Instability The subject-object reversal does not resolve conflict. Each position contains the possibility of its opposite and collapses into it.

Hate and the Other Hate and the Other from "Being and Nothingness". Hate and the Other The Last Refusal Hate abandons the hope of union and seeks the Other's disappearance.

Hate and the Other from "Being and Nothingness". Hate and the Other The Last Refusal Hate abandons the hope of union and seeks the Other's disappearance.

Hate and the Other The Last Refusal Hate abandons the hope of union and seeks the Other's disappearance. It aims at the Other's existence as a freedom that can make the self an object. Failure Even the Other's death cannot erase the past of being seen. The hater remains bound to an alienated identity fixed in the world.

The Unresolved Circle The Unresolved Circle from "Being and Nothingness". The Unresolved Circle Recurrent Reversals Love, desire, indifference, and hate move between the Other-as-subject and the Other-as-object.

The Unresolved Circle from "Being and Nothingness". The Unresolved Circle Recurrent Reversals Love, desire, indifference, and hate move between the Other-as-subject and the Other-as-object.

The Unresolved Circle Recurrent Reversals Love, desire, indifference, and hate move between the Other-as-subject and the Other-as-object. Each attitude fails by generating its opposite. Result No final synthesis ends the conflict. The relation remains an unstable movement between transcendence and objectification.

Part Three, Chapter One, look-at-the-keyhole example

Part Three, Chapter One, immediately after the footsteps

Part Three, Chapter Three, opening account of attitudes

Part Three, Chapter Three, Section II, after sadism

Part Three, Chapter Three, concluding discussion