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Full Idea
Sartre defends a view of consciousness as nothing but a directedness towards objects, insisting that these objects are transcendent with respect to that consciousness; hence Sartre is one of the first genuine externalists.
Clarification
'Transcendent' means beyond, here; Externalists say mind is partly defined by external factors
Gist of Idea
Sartre says consciousness is just directedness towards external objects
Source
report of Jean-Paul Sartre (Being and Nothingness [1943]) by Mark Rowlands - Externalism Ch.1
Book Ref
Rowlands,Mark: 'Externalism' [Acumen 2003], p.4
A Reaction
An ancestor here is, I think, Schopenhauer (Idea 4166). The idea is attractive, as we are brought up with idea that we have a thing called 'consciousness', but if you removed its contents there would literally be nothing left.
Related Idea
Idea 4166 A consciousness without an object is no consciousness [Schopenhauer]
| 5014 | We can understand thinking occuring without imagination or sensation [Descartes] |
| 20741 | Consciousness is shaped dialectically, by opposing forces and concepts [Hegel, by Aho] |
| 22212 | Pure consciousness is a sealed off system of actual Being [Husserl] |
| 6151 | Sartre says consciousness is just directedness towards external objects [Sartre, by Rowlands] |
| 24016 | Consciousness always transcends itself [Sartre] |
| 7437 | Consciousness and experience of qualities are not the same [Armstrong] |
| 21890 | Heidegger showed that passing time is the key to consciousness [Derrida] |
| 3479 | The mind experiences space, but it is not experienced as spatial [Searle] |
| 3286 | An organism is conscious if and only if there is something it is like to be that organism [Nagel] |
| 9319 | Is consciousness a type of self-awareness, or is being self-aware a way of being conscious? [Gulick] |
| 2391 | Can we be aware but not conscious? [Chalmers] |
| 4931 | Consciousness is a process (of neural interactions), not a location, thing, property, connectivity, or activity [Edelman/Tononi] |