“Man is always a Sorcerer to Man.”

Ruud Welten

“Man is always a Sorcerer to Man.”
Sartre and Leiris on the Magic of the Social

Article

28/2 – Fall 2023, pages 223-241

Date of online publication: 28 décembre 2023

Date of publication: 28 décembre 2023

Abstract

This article sets out to reinterpret Sartre’s famous analysis of the look in Being and Nothingness from the cultural-anthropological perspective developed in the posthumous Notebooks for an Ethics. In the latter, he comments on some passages by Michel Leiris on the cult of the zar, a North-African belief and practice involving spirit possession. The article also seeks to show the influence of cultural-anthropological thought on Sartre, asking about what new light these rather unexpected analyses may shed on his thinking about the relationship to the Other. I start with the doctrine of the look as we know it from Being and Nothingness. Then I examine how, in Sartre’s Notebooks, his account takes some new directions. The link with possession, already present—though underdeveloped—in Being and Nothingness, becomes clear. I briefly introduce Michel Leiris in order to interpret Sartre’s comments on the zar cult as described by Leiris. This opens up a new perspective on religion and the social. Finally, I offer some concluding considerations.

Keywords

Cite this article

Welten, Ruud. 2023. “‘Man is always a Sorcerer to Man.’ Sartre and Leiris on the Magic of the Social.” Forum Philosophicum 28 (2): 223–41. doi:10.35765/forphil.2023.2802.14

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