The Stranger as a Situation

Being and Nothingness

This thread traces how a person becomes an object in another's world while remaining a freedom that exceeds every practical description.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

An Object Center An Object Center from "Being and Nothingness". An Object Center A Person in a World A person is perceived as organizing distances and relations among objects.

An Object Center from "Being and Nothingness". An Object Center A Person in a World A person is perceived as organizing distances and relations among objects.

An Object Center A Person in a World A person is perceived as organizing distances and relations among objects. The world seems oriented around an unfamiliar center. First Meaning The stranger appears as an object whose presence causes an internal reorganization of the observer's field.

The Reader on the Walk The Reader on the Walk from "Being and Nothingness". The Reader on the Walk Closed Figure A person reading while walking appears as a unified object, his relation to the book organizing his visible movement.

The Reader on the Walk from "Being and Nothingness". The Reader on the Walk Closed Figure A person reading while walking appears as a unified object, his relation to the book organizing his visible movement.

The Reader on the Walk Closed Figure A person reading while walking appears as a unified object, his relation to the book organizing his visible movement. Limit of Observation The observer can describe the figure but cannot access the reader's lived consciousness as it is for itself.

A Body in Situation A Body in Situation from "Being and Nothingness". A Body in Situation Meaningful Body The stranger's body is perceived through actions, settings, and ends.

A Body in Situation from "Being and Nothingness". A Body in Situation Meaningful Body The stranger's body is perceived through actions, settings, and ends.

A Body in Situation Meaningful Body The stranger's body is perceived through actions, settings, and ends. Its parts are understood within the totality of a situation. No Hidden Substance The body does not point to a separate psychic object behind it. The Other's meaning is embodied and transcendent at once.

A Freedom Objectified A Freedom Objectified from "Being and Nothingness". A Freedom Objectified Observable Qualities Anger, fear, and intention appear through gestures, movements, and changes in the world.

A Freedom Objectified from "Being and Nothingness". A Freedom Objectified Observable Qualities Anger, fear, and intention appear through gestures, movements, and changes in the world.

A Freedom Objectified Observable Qualities Anger, fear, and intention appear through gestures, movements, and changes in the world. They are qualities of the Other-as-object. Unknowable Subjectivity The same person remains a free subject whose inner meaning cannot be exhausted by those visible qualities.

The Stranger's Meaning Escapes

The Stranger's Meaning Escapes No Final Portrait More observation can refine the description of the Other's place and conduct, but it cannot convert the Other's freedom into knowable substance. Relation The stranger's object-state is real, yet it remains only one unstable dimension of a relation between subjects.

Part Three, Chapter One, Section IV, park example

Part Three, Chapter One, Section IV, example of the walking reader

Part Three, Chapter Two, Section II

Part Three, Chapter Three, Section II

Part Three, Chapter Three, conclusion of the Other-as-object account