Perceiving another person’s body differs fundamentally from perceiving objects

Evidence

We must note in addition that this appearance of the body does not give us the body as it acts and perceives but only as it is acted on and perceived. In short, as we remarked at the beginning of this chapter, it would be possible to conceive of a system of visual organs such that it would allow one eye to see the other. But the seen eye would be seen as a thing, not as a being of reference. Similarly the hand which I grasp with my other hand is not apprehended as a hand which is grasping but as an apprehensible object. Thus the nature of our body for us entirely escapes us to the extent that we can take upon it the Other’s point of view. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 923 (#expands, via linked claim)

Generally, about all perception, we can say that a sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold; what produces the impression is a signet of bronze or gold, but not qua bronze or gold: in a similar way the sense is affected by what is coloured or flavoured or sounding not in so far as each is what it is, but in so far as it is of such and such a sort and according to its form. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 433 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The body is primarily known as the Other’s body, not one’s own; Another person’s perception of objects disintegrates the spatial relations I establish between things — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 718; Perceiving one’s own body as an object converts its lived possibilities into dead-possibilities (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Perception of bodies differs in original structure, not merely enrichment, from inanimate perception #corroborates (0.92)
• The body seen from another’s viewpoint is a thing, not lived #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 923
• Sense perception receives forms of things without their matter #contradicts (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 433
• Encountering another person makes one an object in their world #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 676