Consciousness sustains its own being rather than being sustained by it.
Evidence
Furthermore the being of my own consciousness does not appear to me as the consciousnes of the Other. It is because it makes itself, since its being is consciousness of being. But this means that making sustains being; consciousness has to be its own being, it is never sustained by being; it sustains being in the heart of subjectivity, which means once again that it is inhabited by being but that it is not being: consciousness is not what it is. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 304
Categorization
- DEFINE: The core formulation of the for-itself’s mode of being as self-making rather than self-contained.
- DEEPTHINKING: The reversal that consciousness sustains being rather than being sustained by it is one of Sartre’s most radical anti-substantialist moves, grounding the entire ontology of freedom.
- XREF: connects to: Consciousness is being, not merely self-knowledge, so knowledge’s primacy must be abandoned — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 128; Consciousness is a temporary fold in being, not separate from it — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 739; Consciousness has no inertia; it must perpetually recreate its own states — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 301 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Consciousness is a temporary fold in being, not separate from it
#contradicts(0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 739 - Consciousness has no inertia; it must perpetually recreate its own states
#expands(0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 301 - Reflective consciousness alone can dissociate itself from what it posits
#qualifies(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 330