Sartre abandoned reciprocity as unattainable, leaving its realization to Beauvoir.

Evidence

Sartre fi nds, however, that the caress, the passivity of the fl esh that forgoes the power of possession for the risks of relationship, is unsustainable. It is relegated to the position of foreplay— a means toward the end of sexual intercourse, understood by Sartre as an act of possession that ruptures “that reciprocity which was precisely the unique goal of desire” (BN, 517). Sartre abandons the hope of the caress. He writes: “We shall never place ourselves concretely on a plane of equality … where recognition of the Other’s freedom would involve the Other’s recognition of our freedom” (BN, 528). Th is abandoned hope, however, is retrieved in that famous footnote that reads: “Th ese considerations do not exclude the possibility of an ethics of deliverance and salvation. But this can be achieved only aft er a radical conversion which cannot be discussed here” (BN, 534, n. 13). As abandoned by Sartre, this hope fi nds a home in Beauvoir’s thought. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 82

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Sartre’s footnote on ‘radical conversion’ as the exact point where he abandons hope that Beauvoir then builds her ethics upon.
• XREF: Connects to standard Sartre scholarship on the failed-other chapter and its notorious footnote, and to feminist re-readings.