The Other

In existentialist and phenomenological philosophy (particularly Jean-Paul Sartre’s work), “the Other” denotes another consciousness/subject, whose gaze or presence objectifies the self and disrupts one’s world. The concept addresses how another subject’s existence is a contingent necessity—paradoxically unprovable yet indubitable—and how the Other’s subjective inner life remains constitutively inaccessible to one’s own perception.

Claims that use this term

• The Other’s look displaces my world’s center and objectifies me.
• The Other’s existence is a contingent but unprovable necessity.
• The Other’s essential character is objectivity, not embodied life.
• The Other’s necessity is contingent facticity, like the cogito’s indubitability
• The Other’s inner experiences are constitutively inaccessible to my perception yet organize my field
• The Other’s look proves a beyond-the-world realm irreducible to spatial relations