All too often we define the self or subject solely as a passive experient of its perceptions of its world. Thus the subject takes on the quality of an infinitely vaccuous void absorbing information from its environment. We feel disembodied and external to physical reality.
But lets not forget that the subject is also actively engaged with the world as a user. It uses the objects and systems of its domain to extend its intent into the world.
The subject then as both passive experient as well as active agent. We transcend passive conscious being by acting upon the realm of objective and useable being. We do this by using the apparati of being in the world as a means of achieving our purposes.
We exist objectively as bodies because we utilize and act upon physical things "ready at hand" to us. We exist to the extent that we are always already pre-engaged with the events that surround us. At every moment we are already caught up in the goings-on of our world. Heidegger called this "equipmental comportment". Sartre alluded to it with the motto: "Existence precedes essence." Only intermittantly, when we pause from this engagement and seem alienated from the world, do we assume the semblance of a totally passive and free-floating percipient.
But lets not forget that the subject is also actively engaged with the world as a user. It uses the objects and systems of its domain to extend its intent into the world.
The subject then as both passive experient as well as active agent. We transcend passive conscious being by acting upon the realm of objective and useable being. We do this by using the apparati of being in the world as a means of achieving our purposes.
We exist objectively as bodies because we utilize and act upon physical things "ready at hand" to us. We exist to the extent that we are always already pre-engaged with the events that surround us. At every moment we are already caught up in the goings-on of our world. Heidegger called this "equipmental comportment". Sartre alluded to it with the motto: "Existence precedes essence." Only intermittantly, when we pause from this engagement and seem alienated from the world, do we assume the semblance of a totally passive and free-floating percipient.