Being-in-itself is a solid, self-sealed mass without interiority.

Evidence

Being is equally beyond negation as beyond affirmation. Affirmation is always affirmation of something; that is, the act of affirming is distinguished from the thing affirmed. But if we suppose an affirmation in which the affirmed comes to fulfill the affirming and is confused with it, this affirmation can not be affirmed—owing to too much of plenitude and the immediate inherence of the noema in the noesis. It is there that we find being—if we are to define it more clearly—in connection with consciousness. It is the noema in the noesis; that is, the inherence in itself without the least distance. From this point of view, we should not call it “immanence,” for immanence in spite of all connection with self is still that very slight withdrawal which can be realized—away from the self. But being is not a connection with itself. It is itself. It is an immanence which can not realize itself, an affirmation which can not affirm itself, an activity which can not act, because it is glued to itself. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 162 (#expands, via linked claim)

The being of consciousness,” we said in the Introduction, “is a being such that in its being, its being is in question.” This means that the being of consciousness does not coincide with itself in a full equivalence. Such equivalence, which is that of the in-itself, is expressed by this simple formula: being is what it is. In the in-itself there is not a particle of being which is not wholly within itself without distance. When being is thus conceived there is not the slightest suspicion of duality in it; this is what we mean when we say that the density of being of the in-itself is infinite. It is a fullness. The principle of identity can be said to be synthetic not only because it limits its scope to a region of definite being, but in particular because it masses within it the infinity of density. “A is A” means that A exists in an infinite compression with an infinite density. Identity is the limiting concept of unification: it is not true that the in-itself has any need of a synthetic unification of its being; at its own extreme limit, unity disappears and passes into identity. Identity is the ideal of “one,” and “one” comes into the world by human reality. The in-itself is full of itself, and no more total plenitude can be imagined, no more perfect equivalence of content to container. There is not the slightest emptiness in being, not the tiniest crack through which nothingness might slip in. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 328 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

If we wish to resolve these difficulties, we must take into account what is required of an existent if it is to be considered as a totality: it is necessary that the diversity of its structures be held within a unitary synthesis in such a way that each of them considered apart is only an abstraction. And certainly consciousness considered apart is only an abstraction; but the in-itself has no need of the for-itself in order to be; the “passion” of the for-itself only causes there to be in-itself. The phenomenon of in-itself is an abstraction without consciousness but its being is not an abstraction. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1439 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Being-in-itself is full positivity, excluding all negation, becoming, and temporality. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 165; Being-in-itself is so full of itself it cannot reflect or affirm. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 162; The in-itself has no need of the for-itself to be — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1439 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Being-in-itself is so full of itself it cannot reflect or affirm. #expands (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 162
• The in-itself is fully self-coincident, leaving no gap for nothingness #corroborates (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 328
• The in-itself has no need of the for-itself to be #expands (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1439