One’s own possibilities become instruments for the Other’s aims
Evidence
But the other negation is the reason for the appearance of the new one; for if there is an Other who puts me out of play by positing my transcendence as purely contemplated, this is because I wrench myself away from the Other by assuming my limit. The consciousness (of) this wrenching away of the consciousness of (being) the same in relation to the Other is the consciousness (of) my free spontaneity. By this very wrenching away which puts the Other in possession of my limit, I am already putting the Other out of play. Therefore in so far as I am conscious (of) myself as of one of my free possibilities and in so far as I project myself toward myself in order to realize this selfness, to that extent I am responsible for the existence of the Other. It is I who by the very affirmation of my free spontaneity cause there to be an Other and not simply an infinite reference of consciousness to itself. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 781 (
#expands, via linked claim)
What begins as the seemingly simple statement that the actor’s role is to be a mere instrument quickly evolves into a claim that the actor must organize and stabilize for herself a character in relation to which her performance can be crafted. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 370 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: In the ‘they’ mode the world reflects one’s unauthentic possibilities back as interchangeable instruments.; The Other’s look makes one’s own possibilities into ambivalent instruments; The for-itself’s free spontaneity makes the Other’s existence possible — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 781 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- The for-itself’s free spontaneity makes the Other’s existence possible
#expands(0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 781 - The instrument metaphor secretly requires the actor to construct a stable self
#complicates(0.82) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 370