Approaching an object dissolves its unified being into nothingness.

Evidence

The presupposition common to both idealism and realism is that the constituting negation is an external negation. The Other is the one who is not me and the one who I am not. This not indicates a nothingness as a given element of separation between the Other and myself. Between the Other and myself there is a nothingness of separation. This nothingness does not derive its origin from myself nor from the Other, nor is it a reciprocal relation between the Other and myself. On the contrary, as a primary absence of relation, it is originally the foundation of all relation between the Other and me. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 675 (#expands, via linked claim)

This perpetual act by which the in-itself degenerates into presence to itself we shall call an ontological act. Nothingness is the putting into question of being by being—that is, precisely consciousness or for-self. It is an absolute event which comes to being by means of being and which without having being, is perpetually sustained by being. Since being-in-itself is isolated in its being by its total positivity no being can produce being and nothing can happen to being through being—except for nothingness. Nothingness is the peculiar possibility of being and its unique possibility. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 336 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

The existence of consciousness comes from consciousness itself. By that we need not understand that consciousness “derives from nothingness.” There can not be “nothingness of consciousness” before consciousness. “Before” consciousness one can conceive only of a plenum of being of which no element can refer to an absent consciousness. If there is to be nothingness of consciousness, there must be a consciousness which has been and which is no more and a witnessing consciousness which poses the nothingness of the first consciousness for a synthesis of recognition. Consciousness is prior to nothingness and “is derived” from being. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 138 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The instant dissolves the world into disconnected atoms whose passage becomes philosophically inexplicable — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 461; The nothingness separating self and Other precedes and founds all relation — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 675; Nothingness is an act of being putting itself into question, unique to consciousness. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 336 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The nothingness separating self and Other precedes and founds all relation #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 675
• Nothingness is an act of being putting itself into question, unique to consciousness. #qualifies (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 336
• Consciousness grounds itself and precedes all nothingness #contradicts (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 138
• Nothingness is expelled from being yet gives the world its outlines #expands (0.75)