The Transcendence of the Ego
Sartre challenges an ego installed inside every consciousness. The ego appears as an object constituted in reflection, while unreflective consciousness already reaches toward the world.
Understanding the text
This early essay transforms Husserl's inheritance and prepares the 1943 ontology.
Key points
- 01
Intentionality
Consciousness means being directed toward something rather than containing representations in an inner box.
- 02
Reflection
Taking oneself as an object adds an organization not required by immediate experience.
- 03
Impersonality
Consciousness without an interior ego is not an absence of experience but a different account of its structure.
How to read it
Distinguish self-consciousness from reflective knowledge of the ego through the example of absorbed reading.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method ↗