Understanding speech requires projecting oneself toward the speaker’s possible ends.

Evidence

To understand a sentence spoken by my companion is, in fact, to understand what he “means”—that is, to espouse his movement of transcendence, to throw myself with him toward possibles, toward ends, and to return again to the ensemble of organized means so as to understand them by their function and their end. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1216

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines comprehension of language as espousing another’s movement of transcendence toward possibles.
• XREF: Directly sets up Beauvoir’s ethics of ambiguity where understanding others’ freedom is the root of relations. — connects to: Speaking requires taking a contingent position within language. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 221; Comprehension requires conscious confrontation with reality rather than interpretive comfort; Political statements need decoding of who speaks, not just surface reading — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 566 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Comprehension requires conscious confrontation with reality rather than interpretive comfort #complicates (0.75)
• Political statements need decoding of who speaks, not just surface reading #expands (0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 566
• Speaking requires taking a contingent position within language. #responds-to (0.70) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 221