Perception grasps the Other’s gesture as a whole-body structure, not as parts plus judgment
Evidence
I never perceive an arm raised alongside a motionless body. I perceive Pierre-who-raises-his-hand. This does not mean that by an act of judgment I relate the movement of the hand to a “consciousness” which instigated it; rather I can apprehend the movement of the hand or of the arm only as a temporal structure of the whole body. Here it is the whole which determines the order and the movement of its parts. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 903
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clarifies that the Other’s gesture is apprehended directly as a totalizing structure, not by inference to a hidden consciousness.
- XREF: Connects to Gestalt psychology’s whole-before-parts thesis and to the familiar phenomenon of the uncanny severed hand in horror. — connects to: Perception of bodies differs in original structure, not merely enrichment, from inanimate perception; Perceiving another person’s body differs fundamentally from perceiving objects; Nonverbal cues convey another’s consciousness beyond deliberate communication. — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures: The Virtual…, 63 (+1 more)