Consciousness cannot constitute its object because that object is a full presence outside it

Evidence

All consciousness is consciousness of something. This definition of consciousness can be taken in two very distinct senses: either we understand by this that consciousness is constitutive of the being of its object, or it means that consciousness in its inmost nature is a relation to a transcendent being. But the first interpretation of the formula destroys itself: to be conscious of something is to be confronted with a concrete and full presence which is not consciousness. Of course one can be conscious of an absence. But this absence appears necessarily as a pre-condition of presence. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 148

Categorization

• XREF: The intentionality formula and its two readings presage Beauvoir’s ethics of incarate freedom, where the other is always a transcendent presence. — connects to: The perceived object is irreducible to the consciousness that perceives it. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 142; Consciousness has no content because it is always directed outward at objects — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 129; Consciousness is necessarily directed at a being other than itself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 151 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Consciousness has no content because it is always directed outward at objects #corroborates (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 129
• Consciousness is necessarily directed at a being other than itself #expands (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 151