Desire is consciousness directed outward at objects, not a psychic entity contained within
Evidence
But if I desire a house or a glass of water or a woman’s body, how could this body, this glass, this piece of property reside in my desire, and how can my desire be anything but the consciousness of these objects as desirable? Let us beware then of considering these desires as little psychic entities dwelling in consciousness; they are consciousness itself in its original projective, transcendent structure, for consciousness is on principle consciousness of something. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1316
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the projective, transcendent structure of desire against the ‘illusion of substance’ — a core bad-faith-adjacent error.
- XREF: Directly sets up Beauvoir’s appropriation of Sartrean freedom and the rejection of fixed inner essences defining the Other. — connects to: Desire is defined by its transcendent object, not by pursuit of pleasure — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 972; Desire is consciousness troubled by its own inapprehensible facticity; Desire is a chosen mode of consciousness, not a passive impingement — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 979 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Consciousness has no content because it is always directed outward at objects
#expands(0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 129 - Consciousness is necessarily directed at a being other than itself
#expands(0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 151 - Consciousness transcends toward the meaning of being, not being itself
#qualifies(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 154