Urban meanings resist my choice and present as thing-like as the in-itself

Evidence

Everything would be very simple if I belonged to a world whose meanings were revealed simply in the light of my own ends. In this case I would dispose of things as instruments or as instrumental complexes within the limits of my own choice of myself; it is this choice which would make of the mountain an obstacle difficult to overcome or a spot from which to get a good view of the landscape, etc; the problem would not be posed of knowing what meaning this mountain could have in itself since I would be the one by whom meanings come to reality in itself. … But we have seen that this monadic conception conceals a hidden solipsism precisely because it is going to confuse the plurality of meanings which I can attach to the real and the plurality of meaningful systems each one of which refers to a consciousness which I am not. Moreover on the level of concrete experience this monadic description is revealed as inadequate. There exists, in fact, something in “my” world other than a plurality of possible meanings; there exist objective meanings which are given to me as not having been brought to light by me. I, by whom meanings come to things, I find myself engaged in an already meaningful world which reflects to me meanings which I have not put into it. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1207 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

But the same people who uphold this thesis affirm on the other hand that I derive the concept of the Other from myself by reflecting on my own powers and by projection or analogy. Therefore they remain at the center of a vicious circle from which they can not get out. Actually the Other can not be the meaning of my objectivity; he is the concrete, transcending condition of it. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 756 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Others’ meanings present themselves to me as objective, not as my own choices — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1207; The Other-as-look resists being derived from one’s own consciousness or categories; The Other grounds my objectivity rather than being inferred by analogy from myself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 756 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Others’ meanings present themselves to me as objective, not as my own choices #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1207
• The Other-as-look resists being derived from one’s own consciousness or categories #corroborates (0.80)
• The Other grounds my objectivity rather than being inferred by analogy from myself #corroborates (0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 756
• Encountering another culture can dissolve one’s own sense of meaning #exemplifies (0.75) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 14
• Urban life produced a human type who knows others primarily by category #exemplifies (0.72) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1036