Others’ meanings present themselves to me as objective, not as my own choices

Evidence

Everything would be very simple if I belonged to a world whose meanings were revealed simply in the light of my own ends. In this case I would dispose of things as instruments or as instrumental complexes within the limits of my own choice of myself; it is this choice which would make of the mountain an obstacle difficult to overcome or a spot from which to get a good view of the landscape, etc; the problem would not be posed of knowing what meaning this mountain could have in itself since I would be the one by whom meanings come to reality in itself. … But we have seen that this monadic conception conceals a hidden solipsism precisely because it is going to confuse the plurality of meanings which I can attach to the real and the plurality of meaningful systems each one of which refers to a consciousness which I am not. Moreover on the level of concrete experience this monadic description is revealed as inadequate. There exists, in fact, something in “my” world other than a plurality of possible meanings; there exist objective meanings which are given to me as not having been brought to light by me. I, by whom meanings come to things, I find myself engaged in an already meaningful world which reflects to me meanings which I have not put into it. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1207

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes meaning I confer via my choice of ends from objective meanings reflecting others’ consciousnesses.
• XREF: Directly sets up Beauvoir’s account of the Other and reciprocity in The Second Sex. — connects to: The Other grounds my objectivity rather than being inferred by analogy from myself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 756; My being-for-others is radically distinct from my being-for-myself; The Other’s mutual negation is required for being-for-others, not merely my own (+5 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The paradox that I, who confer meaning, find myself in a world already meaningful — meaning precedes and envelops the meaning-maker — is a genuinely dense pivot.

Broader Connections

• The situation is constituted from Others’ meanings rather than from being itself #expands (0.88) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 444
• Being-for-others alienates me into an objectivity I cannot reclaim for myself #expands (0.85)
• Personal traits become meaningful to me only through my own chosen stance toward them. #contradicts (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1238
• Urban meanings resist my choice and present as thing-like as the in-itself #exemplifies (0.80)