Consciousness freely chooses itself as not being the Other.
Evidence
A for-itself which would have to be a self without being itself would be conceivable. The For-itself which I am simply has to be what it is in the form of a refusal of the Other; that is, as itself. Thus by utilizing the formulae applied to the knowledge of the Not-me in general, we can say that the For-itself as itself includes the being of the Other in its being in so far as its being is in question as not being the Other. … In other words, in order for a consciousness to be able to not-be the Other and therefore in order that there may be an Other without making this non-being, which is the condition of the self of consciousness, become purely and simply the object of the establishment of a “third man” as witness, two things are necessary: consciousness must have to be itself and must spontaneously have to be this non-being; consciousness must freely disengage itself from the Other and wrench itself away by choosing itself as a nothingness which is simply Other than the Other and thereby must be reunited in “itself.” This very detachment, which is the being of the For-itself, causes there to be an Other. This does not mean that it gives being to the Other but simply that it gives to the Other its being-other or the essential condition of the “there is.” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 775
Categorization
- XREF: The free wrenhing-away from the Other is the causal machinery that Beauvoir’s ethics and her account of women as Other builds on. — connects to: Consciousness is necessarily directed at a being other than itself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 151; Consciousness is a duality that is unity, irreducible to the in-itself; Consciousness is a temporary fold in being, not separate from it — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 739 (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- Consciousness defines itself by internal negation of its own objects
#expands(0.85) - Consciousness is a temporary fold in being, not separate from it
#expands(0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 739 - The Other exists for consciousness as a prenumerical refused self
#qualifies(0.75)