Subjectivity here means being unable to get out of oneself, a closed box
Evidence
That is subjective which can not get out of itself. And precisely to the extent that sensation, since it is pure exteriority, can be only an impression in the mind, precisely to the extent that it is only itself, only this figure which is formed by an eddy in psychic space, it is not transcendence; it is purely and simply that which is suffered, the simple determination of our receptivity. It is subjectivity because it is neither presentative nor representative. The subjective quality of the Other-as-object is purely and simply a closed box. Sensation is inside the box. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 844
Categorization
- DEFINE: ‘That is subjective which can not get out of itself’ — a compact redefinition of subjectivity as closure, opposing transcendence.
- DEEPTHINKING: Sartre inverts the usual sense of ‘subjective’: here subjectivity is the closed, inert, non-transcending box, not a free interiority. This is core to his ontology.
- XREF: Directly prefigures Beauvoir’s account in The Second Sex of woman defined as immanence — the closed box opposed to man’s transcendence. — connects to: Subjectivity cannot reside in its own being but haunts itself — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 374; Expression requires a closed individual self, which paradoxically isolates that self completely.
Broader Connections
- Subjectivity cannot reside in its own being but haunts itself
#expands(0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 374 - Expression requires a closed individual self, which paradoxically isolates that self completely.
#contradicts(0.75)