JeanPaul_Sartre_JeanPaul_Sartre_Basic_Writing

88Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings2 Perhaps a more intelligible paraphrase would be, “the question of what it means tobe a table or a chair.” Tr.3 It goes without saying that any attempt to replace the percipere by anotherattitude from human reality would be equally fruitless. If we granted that being isrevealed to man in “acting,” it would still be necessary to guarantee the being ofacting apart from the action.4 Since English syntax does not require the “of,” I shall henceforth freely translateconscience (de) soi as “self-consciousness.” Tr.5 That certainly does not mean that consciousness is the foundation of its being. Onthe contrary, as we shall see later, there is a full contingency of the being ofconsciousness. We wish only to show (1) That nothing is the cause of consciousness.(2) That consciousness is the cause of its own way of being.6 It is for this reason that the Cartesian doctrine of substance finds its logicalculmination in the work of Spinoza.7 I.e., in such a way that the impressions are objectified into qualities of the thing.Tr.