Paper Topic:

the theory of the consciousness

Sartre 's The Look

Let us imagine that moved by jealousy , curiosity , or vice I have just glued my ear to the door and looked through a keyhole . I am alone and on the level of non-thetic self-consciousness . But all of a sudden I hear footsteps in the hall . Someone is looking at me ! What does this mean First of all , I now exist as myself for my unreflective consciousness I see myself because somebody sees me (Sartre , 259 , 260

This passage in Sartre 's magnum opus , Being and Nothingness , illustrates a

very simple problem which all of us face routinely : the problem of self-consciousness . Say , you are reading a book , like Being and Nothingness for example , while traveling in the bus . You are deeply engrossed in the reading , trying to make sense of what Sartre is saying through all that thick prose . Now there is some jolt in the bus and you lift your head momentarily and then get back to your reading . However now you notice that you cannot continue reading as you have been doing till now , because you just saw someone a few seats away intently staring at you . That makes you awkwardly conscious of yourself . This is what Sartre is talking about : I now see myself because somebody else sees me ' You become uncomfortably self-conscious . In other words , from being a subject , you become an object you become objectified , you become constrained . Nevertheless , you try to ignore the stranger staring at you and get back...

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