[lmt55]

In other (npi) words, the Other is the entity that we think about when we imagine how other people in general will think or feel.

I believe in (say) the validity of money because I think that shopkeepers will accept it. But shopkeepers also only believe in it because they think other people believe in it, and those people that the shopkeepers want to pay also think that other people believe in it, including me and the original shopkeepers.

We describe this state of affairs by saying that I believe in money since I know that the Other also does.

[cwillu]

So it's a synonym for "common knowledge” in the technical sense distinguishing between “you know that I know that you know” and “everybody knows”?

edit: …or rather, that which exists _because_ of it being common knowledge?

[scarecrowbob]

As I understand it, not so much.

More like "how we see ourselves through our assumptions about how other people see us."