Being-in-itself can found its nothingness but never its being

Evidence

The for-itself corresponds then to an expanding de-structuring of the in-itself, and the in-itself is nihilated and absorbed in its attempt to found itself. Facticity is not then a substance of which the for-itself would be the attribute and which would produce thought without exhausting itself in that very production. It simply resides in the for-itself as a memory of being, as its unjustifiable presence in the world. Being-in-itself can found its nothingness but not its being. In its decompression it nihilates itself in a for-itself which becomes qua for-itself its own foundation; but the contingency which the for-itself has derived from the in-itself remains out of reach. It is what remains of the in-itself in the for-itself as facticity and what causes the for-itself to have only a factual necessity; that is, it is the foundation of its consciousness-of-being or existence, but on no account can it found its presence. Thus consciousness can in no case prevent itself from being and yet it is totally responsible for its being. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 346

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The final line — consciousness cannot prevent itself from being yet is totally responsible for its being — is the compressed moral core of Sartre’s ontology, directly shaping Beauvoir’s ethics.
• XREF: This is precisely the metaphysical backdrop from which Beauvoir derives ‘one is not born a woman’ — existence is responsibility without self-founding. — connects to: Being-in-itself is radically contingent and cannot be derived from anything. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 28; Passive existence is conceptually unthinkable; only self-caused being is conceivable — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 139; Being-in-itself is so full of itself it cannot reflect or affirm. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 162 (+16 more)
• SEED: The claim that being-in-itself can found its nothingness but not its being is a rich contrast for an essay on how systems of self-creation fail precisely because they cannot found their own presence.

Broader Connections

• Self-presence requires an internal separation that is itself nothing #expands (0.85)
• Nothingness is a supported recoil from Being that enables consciousness to exist #expands (0.82)
• Totality of being arises only through the detotalized for-itself #corroborates (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 585
• The In-itself’s full being makes the emergence of consciousness inexplicable #qualifies (0.75)