Sartre holds that triadic relations precede dyadic ones in the Critique

Evidence

The new conclusion Sartre draws from this situation is one of the most original notions in the Critique: namely that the couple, or the dyadic relationship, is not the most fundamental form of interpersonal life, in spite of its clear priority for common sense. Since the couple cannot really be a unity, unification must be operated by a third party, by an outside observer or witness; and the crucial role thus played by the “third” confirms the priority of the triadic relationship over the dyad, which is a later phenomenon logically and ontologically. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 486

Categorization

• XREF: The primacy of the third party prefigures the group-in-fusion and the role of the mediating institution in later dialectical accounts — connects to how the series and groups are constituted.
• QUESTION: Sartre overturns the common-sense priority of the dyad — worth chasing what this implies for Levinas and intersubjectivity theory in general.
• SEED: An essay on how Sartre’s argument that two monads cannot share a world and need a third anticipates debates about institutions, spectators, and objectivity.