Sartre's theory of the Look
Audio Brief
Show transcript
This episode covers Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist theory of "The Look" or "The Gaze" from his seminal work, *Being and Nothingness*.
There are four key takeaways from this discussion.
First, our sense of self is fundamentally shaped by the awareness and perception of others, not just an isolated internal experience. Our identity as a subject collapses when we are perceived as an object by another.
Second, human relationships are inherently rooted in conflict. We constantly struggle between our own freedom as a subject and the objectification imposed by another's gaze.
Third, "The Look" transcends literal visual exchange. It can be the mere awareness of another's potential presence, triggering self-consciousness and the feeling of shame, which Sartre defines as being an object.
Finally, we constantly oscillate between being a free subject and a defined object in the world of others. Our "being-for-others" dictates this ongoing struggle to define ourselves against external perception.
Ultimately, Sartre's "The Look" reveals how profoundly our existence and self-identity are intertwined with the perceptions of others.
Episode Overview
- An introduction to Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist theory of "The Look" (or "The Gaze") from his work, Being and Nothingness.
- Explores how the presence of another person fundamentally alters our experience of the world and our sense of self.
- Breaks down the two key moments of "The Look": when we perceive another as an object, and when we are perceived as an object by another.
- Discusses how being seen by another person ("The Look") leads to the feeling of shame, which Sartre defines as the experience of being an object.
- Touches on the concept of "being-for-others" and how our identity is shaped through this constant oscillation between being a subject and an object.
Key Concepts
- The Look (or The Gaze): The experience of being seen by another person, which makes us aware of ourselves as an object in their world. This look doesn't have to be literal; it can be the awareness of another's potential presence.
- Subject vs. Object: When we are alone, we are the subject and center of our own world. When another person looks at us, we become an object in their world, and our subjectivity collapses.
- Being-for-Others: One of the three primary modes of being in Sartre's philosophy. It describes the dimension of our existence that is defined by our relationship to and perception by other people.
- Transcendence Transcended: The experience of having our own freedom and possibilities limited or defined by the gaze of another. Our capacity to freely define ourselves (transcendence) is overcome (transcended) by the other's perception of us.
- Shame: For Sartre, shame is not necessarily about guilt but is the fundamental feeling of being an object for another subject. It is the raw awareness of our "object-ness."
Quotes
- At 03:31 - "Pure shame is not a feeling of being this or that guilty object but in general of being an object." - Explaining that Sartre's concept of shame is the ontological experience of being objectified, rather than a moral feeling of guilt.
- At 04:55 - "The Other as a look is only that--my transcendence transcended." - Describing how the gaze of another person limits our sense of infinite possibility and freedom, fixing us as a defined object.
Takeaways
- Our sense of self is not created in isolation; it is fundamentally shaped by the awareness and perception of other people.
- According to Sartre, human relationships are inherently rooted in conflict, as we constantly struggle between being a free subject and being objectified by others.
- The experience of "The Look" is not always a literal visual exchange but can be the mere awareness of another's presence, leading to feelings of self-consciousness or shame.
- We can only experience ourselves as either a subject or an object at any given moment; we constantly oscillate between these two states in our interactions with others.
