Sartre misconstrued: A reply to Michael Lopato’s “Social media, love, and Sartre’s look of the other”

• Main Author: Jose, Joseph Martin M.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Online social networks; Other (Philosophy); Communication; Communication Technology and New Media; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/408
• Institution: De La Salle University

© 2019 Philippine National Philosophical Research Society. All rights reserved. In this paper, I endeavor to provide a critical examination of a recent pioneering work that engages Jean-Paul Sartre’s insights in analyzing social media interactions – Michael Lopato’s “Social media, love, and Sartre’s look of the other: Why online communication is not fulfilling?”. I shall show that in so far as Sartrean insights are concerned in Being and Nothingness, Lopato misconstrued what Sartre really meant with the Look of the Other and love, and is mistaken in appropriating such insights in arguing that online interactions are not fulfilling. I shall proceed by first discussing Sartre’s third region of being which is being-for-others which will comprise of the Look of the Other and the two attitudes to retrieve one’s freedom. Second, I shall flesh out the arguments of Lopato. Lastly, I shall present my critique of Lopato’s arguments which constitutes my reply to his work.