The concept of the Other can be found in various other disciplines, most notably sociology and psychology, but in existentialism (and phenomenology, where the concept originates for the existentialists), the concept is utilized somewhat differently. In this article, I will talk about the concept of the Other within the frameworks of Jean Paul Sartre’s existentialism, and the Look.
What is the ‘Other’?
The Other is the concept of another person like yourself, in no way other than they are just another person. It sounds pretty simple, but the idea needs to be expanded on and detailed quite a bit if we are to provide any reasonable metaphysical or phenomenological account of the world.
So what exactly is the big deal, let’s say there are two people in the room, one is me, and one is not. What’s the difference? What makes one the Other and one me?
Intersubjectivity
For one, we share an objective world. We both experience the world in the exact same way, because we are both human. We both strive toward things (in existentialism this is referred to as projects, or projections), we have the same needs and desires, even if the content is different, the format and structure of life and reality is the same.
This concept is referred to as inter-subjectivity in phenomenology and is the cornerstone of the philosophy. We have different subjective experiences of the same objective thing. We both see the same thing, but they see it from ‘over there’.
The difficulty comes down to the internal aspects of the Other. Unlike myself, I do not have access to the inner workings of that other person. I do have that access to myself, I can think and feel my own thoughts and feelings, not someone elses, and nobody else has access to it. From my perpective, I am subjective first, I am that inner content, and in my perception is the Other, an objective thing first. It is in this moment that one recognizes that though I do not have access to their inner content, they are a person like me and must therefore have it (This is an oversimplification of the existentialism argument, but to elaborate would take up too much time).
What is the ‘Look’?
Also called the Gaze, is the action of you literally being looked at by the Other. This has the effect of objectifying what ever the Other sees. Consider the following example that Sartre gives.
Imagine attempting to peer through the lock of a door, on the other side, something you know you probably shouldn’t be looking at. While you’re attempting to look through, you hear footsteps behind you.
Your mind is immediately drawn to yourself as an object. You are aware of yourself kneeling down, about to be caught in a position that you would rather like not to be caught in. You can literally see yourself in your mind as well as you start to think how another may see you metaphorically, as in what they may or may not think about you if they discover you.
The interesting part about the Look is it doesn’t actually require an Other. In the example nobody ever actually shows up, you just think they will. You could easily have been mistaken. The effect however is the same, the Look draws you to yourself objectively, in a literal sense because you start to contemplate your objective parts (being in the world, kneeling down, all of the parts an Other can comprehend about you through perception).
For those familiar with Sartre’s philosophy, you may notice that the Look has a secondary affect of forcing oneself to see yourself as something, instead of the ‘blank slate’ that Sartre proposes.
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