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facticity

The condition of the body as a factic presence in the world that consciousness must relate to without reducing it to mere objectivity.

1 chapter across 1 book

Being and Nothingness (1943)Jean-Paul Sartre

Chapter 2GT342

This chapter explores the complex relationship between the body and consciousness, distinguishing between the body as it is experienced from within (being-for-itself) and the body as an object perceived by others (being-for-the-Other). Sartre argues that the body cannot be fully understood by merging these two perspectives, as they exist on different ontological levels, and critiques the reduction of bodily experience to purely physical or external descriptions. He also challenges traditional philosophical views, such as Cartesian dualism and the notion of 'double sensation,' emphasizing the irreducibility of the lived body to an objectified body.