"If the Other-as-object is defined in connection with the world
as the object that sees what I see, then my fundamental connection with
the Other-as-subject must be able to be referred back to my permanent possibility
of being seen by the Other. It is in and through the revelation
of my being-as-object for the Other that I must be able to apprehend the
presence of his being-as-subject."
"The Other's look hides his eyes; he seems to go in front of
them .... We cannot...perceive and imagine simultaneously; it must be
either one or the other. I should say willingly here: we can not perceive
the world and at the same time apprehend a look fastened upon us; it must
be either one or the other. This is because to perceive is to look at
, and to apprehend a look is not to apprehend a look-as-object in the world
(unless the look is not directed upon us); it is to be conscious of being
looked at . The look which the eyes manifest, no matter what kind of
eyes they are, is a pure reference to myself. What I apprehend immediately
when I hear the branches crackling behind me is not that there is someone
there ; it is that...I am seen ."
"Thus not only am I unable to know myself, but my very being
escapes - although I am that very escape from my being - and I am
absolutely nothing. There is nothing there but a pure nothingness
encircling a certain objective ensemble and throwing it into relief outlined
upon the world."
"Shame - like pride - is the apprehension of myself as a nature
although that very nature escapes me and is unknowable as such. Strictly
speaking, it is not that I perceive myself losing my freedom in order to
become a thing , but my nature is - over there, outside my lived
freedom - as a given attribute of this being which I am for the Other."
- Sartre, p. 352
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