The body seen from another’s viewpoint is a thing, not lived

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

Categorization

• XREF: Sets up the body-for-the-Other distinction that Beauvoir develops in The Second Sex; connects to Sartre’s later account of being-looked-at and the Other’s gaze as the pivot of alienation of the body. — connects to: The body is primarily known as the Other’s body, not one’s own; The body cannot be simultaneously an object and the subject that reveals the world — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 826; The Other’s look makes the self haunt an unreflective consciousness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 727 (+13 more)
• DEFINE: Distinguishes the body-as-lived from the body-as-thing — a central ontological distinction defining the nature of the body for consciousness.

Broader Connections

• One’s own body is lived as self, not experienced as an object. #expands (0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 733
• Perceiving one’s own body as an object converts its lived possibilities into dead-possibilities #expands (0.90)