The world’s instrumental organization depends partly on constituting consciousness

Evidence

Objects are revealed to us at the heart of a complex of instrumentality in which they occupy a determined place. This place is not defined by pure spatial co-ordinates but in relation to axes of practical reference. “The glass is on the coffee table;” this means that we must be careful not to upset the glass if we move the table. The package of tobacco is on the mantle piece; this means that we must clear a distance of three yards if we want to go from the pipe to the tobacco while avoiding certain obstacles—end tables, footstools, etc.—which are placed between the mantle piece and the table. In this sense perception is in no way to be distinguished from the practical organization of existents into a world. Each instrument refers to other instruments, to those which are its keys and to those for which it is the key. But these references could not be grasped by a purely contemplative consciousness. For such a consciousness the hammer would not refer to the nails but would be alongside them; furthermore the expression “alongside” loses all meaning if it does not outline a path which goes from the hammer to the nail and which must be cleared. The space which is originally revealed to me is hodological space; it is furrowed with paths and highways; it is instrumental and it is the location of tools. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 860 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Perception is indistinguishable from the practical organization of the world into instruments — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 860; Practical consciousness is non-reflective and discloses the world as instrumentality; The degree of world complexity one comprehends depends on intersubjective constitution — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 132 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Practical consciousness is non-reflective and discloses the world as instrumentality #expands (0.82)
• The world’s meaningful organization arises from the For-itself’s upsurge #corroborates (0.82)
• Perception is indistinguishable from the practical organization of the world into instruments #corroborates (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 860
• Social being determines consciousness, not the reverse #contradicts (0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2495
• Material conditions beyond voluntary control determine how people come to consciousness. #complicates (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 886
• Things are primordially instrumental-things, not things that later become instruments #corroborates (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 618
• The degree of world complexity one comprehends depends on intersubjective constitution #complicates (0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 132
• Consciousness intertwines with the world like crossed hands #epitomizes (0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 742
• Hountondji’s individual-centered rationality ignores how social institutions shape consciousness #expands (0.72) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 552
• Consciousness and its being form an inseparable dyad #expands (0.70) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 364