“common constituted praxis,” and “praxis-process.” They are, he
insists, “in themselves distinct from the practico-inert process and...
are its foundation” (CDRi: 789 ).The last mode unites praxis with other-
wise “necessary” social relations.
Consider what he calls the “system” of colonialism. In a famous
critique of this institution, he remarks that “the meanness is in the
system” (CP 183 ), because he considers it exploitative by its very nature.
But to be true to his notion of praxis-process, he should have said
“the meanness isnot entirelyin the system,” for at the base of exploitative
processes are oppressive praxes for which individual responsibility
should be assumed. As Merleau-Ponty observed: “With Sartre, as
with the anarchists, the idea of oppression always dominates that of
exploitation.”^11
The mediating Third
“It should be recalled that the crucial discovery of dialectical investi-
gation (l’expe ́rience dialectique) is that man is ‘mediated’ by things to the
same extent that things are ‘mediated’ by man...This is what is called
dialectical circularity’” (CDR i: 80 ). Sartre made a similar remark
regarding what could be called the “principle of totalization” inThe
Family Idiot, when he said that “a man totalizes his epoch to the precise
degree that he is totalized by it” (FIv: 394 ). “If the idealist dialectic
misused the triad, this is primarily because therealrelation between
men is necessarily ternary. But this trinity is not a designation or ideal
mark of the human relation: it is inscribedin being, that is to say, in the
materiality of individuals” (CDRi: 109 ).
Sartre appreciates that the core social relation is triadic. InBNthat
relation was objectifying and in that sense alienating as well. But
what appeared to be triadic was at base dyadic. What we have called
the “alienating Third” is really the Other ofBNwrit large. It is the
looking–looked-at relation as exhibited in the playNo Exit, where
the famous concluding remark, we suggested, should read “Hell is the
(alienating) Third.” That relationship continues in theCritiqueas medi-
ated by the practico-inert. Serial relationships from which the group is
born and into which it returns conceal a fundamental impotence behind
(^11) AD 155.
342 Individuals and groups:Critique of Dialectical Reason