An act must be self-present as operative intention to unify consciousness

Evidence

By acts we must understand the whole synthetic activity of the person; that is, every disposition of means as related to ends, not as the for-itself is its own possibilities but as the act represents a transcendent psychic synthesis which the for-itself must live. For example, the boxer’s training is an act because it transcends and supports the For-itself, which moreover realizes itself in and through this training. The same goes for the research of the scientist, for the work of the artist, for the election campaign of the politician. In all these cases the act as a psychic being represents a transcendent existence and the objective aspect of the relation of the For-itself with the world. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 535 (#expands, via linked claim)

It makes no difference from where I receive it. The fact is that a consciousness which affects itself with sadness is sad precisely for this reason. But it is difficult to comprehend the nature of consciousness; the being-sad is not a ready-made being which I give to myself as I can give this book to my friend. I do not possess the property or affecting myself with being. If I make myself sad, I must continue to make myself sad from beginning to end. I can not treat my sadness as an impulse finally achieved and put it on file without recreating it, nor can I carry it in the manner of an inert body which continues its movement after the initial shock. There is no inertia in consciousness. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 301 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: An act is a transcendent psychic synthesis the for-itself must live — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 535; Consciousness has no inertia; it must perpetually recreate its own states — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 301; In absorbed action there is no self inhabiting consciousness to qualify the acts — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 724 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• An act is a transcendent psychic synthesis the for-itself must live #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 535
• Consciousness has no inertia; it must perpetually recreate its own states #expands (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 301