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Publication details
Publisher: Springer
Place: Berlin
Year: 1999
Pages: 195-210
Series: Continental Philosophy Review
Full citation:
, "The self and others", Continental Philosophy Review 32 (2), 1999, pp. 195-210.
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The self and others
imitation in infants and Sartre's analysis of the look
pp. 195-210
in: Continental Philosophy Review 32 (2), 1999.Abstract
In Being and Nothingness Jean-Paul Sartre contends that the self's fundamental relation with the other is one of inescapable conflict. I argue that the research of the last few decades on the ability of infants - even newborns - to imitate the facial expressions and gestures of adults provides counter-evidence to Sartre's claim. Sartre is not wrong that the look of the other may be a source of self-alienation, but that is not how it functions in the first instance. An earlier and more primary form of looking with and at the other is a source of self-discovery. In early imitation, the infant and adult each see the other not as objects of experience but as subjects of action. Such looking is necessary for the infant to realize its own potential as a self-conscious, goal-directed subject of perception and action.
Cited authors
Publication details
Publisher: Springer
Place: Berlin
Year: 1999
Pages: 195-210
Series: Continental Philosophy Review
Full citation:
, "The self and others", Continental Philosophy Review 32 (2), 1999, pp. 195-210.