JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
the retreat from its futility has no escape but to withdraw again into the circle of frustration which it has in vain tried to break out of. [At this point, Sartre inserts the following footnote. ‘These considerations do not exclude the possibility of an ethic of salvation. But this salvation must be attained after a radical conversion of which we cannot speak here.’] Of course we find ourselves by the side of others as well as over against them. This experience of the we, however, is derivative and not primitive. It can only be understood in terms of the original structure of being-for-another of which it is a complication. The we may be experienced as object or as subject. When any two are engaged in any of the forms which the relation between one and another may take, the appearance of a third transforms the situation, and may do so in various ways, but most frequently by constituting a we or a they, and in any case it is always and necessarily a modification of the primitive structure. Work by the side of others under the eye of an overseer or master is the most radical and the most humiliating experience of the we as object, and in this case the I is closely integrated with the others and the machines in a total mechanical system determined by an end; the machines and the objects manu-factured indicate the places and the roles of the operators. But this is merely a case that happens to be favourable to the recognition of the we as object. Any situation can do so none the less. And just as we are conscious of our existence for the other as part of our structure, without actually being under the eye of any other, so we know that the existence of humanity involves the possibility of a plurality of consciousnesses existing for others as object or as subject; but it is only a complication of the original structure: hence, class consciousness and the various phenomena of group structure and social psychology. The experiences and tentatives of the crowd correspond closely to the tentatives in love and desire. And merger in the crowd offers a way of escape to the individual consciousness anxious to forget its irreparable isolation and responsibility, its liberty. Since the we is realized only in relation to others, the realization of humanity as such can only take place by positing the existence of a third, distinguished in principle from humanity, in whose eyes humanity is constituted an object. This is simply an ideal concept and corresponds to the idea of God as the being who sees and is not seen. We are always trying to experience our 125