The Body's Three Dimensions
Being and NothingnessThis thread follows the changing account of the body as lived facticity, as an object for others, and as an alienated self.
increasing
Bearing strength in each event
decreasing
Against the Anatomical Body

Against the Anatomical Body
A Misleading Start
The body seen on a dissecting table is the body-for-others, not the body lived from within. Treating it as the first body creates a false mind-body problem.
Method
The inquiry separates ontological dimensions rather than trying to fuse inner consciousness with an external object.
Body as Point of View

Body as Point of View
Facticity in the World
The body is the contingent center from which a world is disclosed. It is not an instrument standing between consciousness and things.
Consequence
To exist in a particular place and perspective is already to have a body; body and situation cannot be separated.
Senses as World Relations

Senses as World Relations
Rejecting Sensation
The argument rejects inner sensory contents that must later be combined into objects. Perception already gives objects in a world.
Sense as Orientation
The senses are the objective perspective through which the world is revealed, while the body remains the ungrasped center of that perspective.
Pain and the Lived Body

Pain and the Lived Body
Pain Without an Inner Object
Pain is not a sensation stored inside consciousness. It is the body as consciousness lives its contingency and its engagement in the world.
Reflection
When reflected upon, pain can become illness, a psychic object with its own apparent duration and opacity.
Flesh and the Look

Flesh and the Look
Body for Others
The Other's body appears as meaningful action and situation, not as an anatomical object assembled from parts. Its flesh is disclosed through the look.
Alienated Self
The self discovers that its body also exists outside its reach, as a being known and interpreted by others.
Part Three, Chapter Two, opening
Part Three, Chapter Two, Section I
Part Three, Chapter Two, Section I, discussion of the senses
Part Three, Chapter Two, Section I, discussion of bodily pain
Part Three, Chapter Two, Sections II–III