Full Idea
We must remember that all authors who have described the Cogito have presented it as a reflective operation, i.e. as second-order. This Cogito is performed by a consciousness directed towards consciousness, which takes consciousness as its object.
Gist of Idea
The Cogito depends on a second-order experience, of being conscious of consciousness
Source
Jean-Paul Sartre (Transcendence of the Ego [1937], I (B))
Book Reference
Sartre,Jean-Paul: 'The Transcendence of the Ego' [Routledge 2004], p.10
A Reaction
Sartre is raising the nice question of whether the Cogito still works for first-order consciousness, which attends totally to external objects. He claims that it doesn't. Contrast Russell, who says (Idea 5380) that it only works when it is first-order!
Related Idea
Idea 5380 In perceiving the sun, I am aware of sun sense-data, and of the perceiver of the data [Russell]