Human reality is an abortive project toward being its own self-cause

Evidence

If we wish to conceive of a synthetic organization such that the for-itself is inseparable from the in-itself and conversely such that the in-itself is indissolubly bound to the for-itself, we must conceive of this synthesis in such a way that the in-itself would receive its existence from the nihilation which caused there to be consciousness of it. What does this mean if not that the indissoluble totality of in-itself and for-itself is conceivable only in the form of a being which is its own “self-cause”? It is this being and no other which could be valid absolutely as that of which we spoke earlier. And if we can raise the question of the being of the for-itself articulated in the in-itself, it is because we define ourselves a priori by means of a pre-ontological comprehension of the ens causa sui. Of course this ens causa sui is impossible, and the concept of it, as we have seen, includes a contradiction. Nevertheless the fact remains that since we raise the question of the being of the by adopting the point of view of the ens causa sui, it is from this point of view that we must set about examining the credentials of this . Has it not appeared due to the mere fact of the upsurge of the for-itself, and is not the for-itself originally a project of being its own self-cause? Thus we begin to grasp the nature of total reality. … Everything happens as if the world, man, and man-in-the-world succeeded in realizing only a missing God. Everything happens therefore as if the in-itself and the for-itself were presented in a state of disintegration in relation to an ideal synthesis. Not that the integration has ever taken place but on the contrary precisely because it is always indicated and always impossible. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1440

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ens causa sui (self-cause) and its role as the a priori standpoint from which human reality is judged.
• XREF: Directly foreshadows Sartre’s ‘man is a useless passion’ and connects to the God-shaped absence that Beauvoir’s ethics will inherit. — connects to: The totality toward which human reality strives is itself, not a transcendent God.; Human reality arises as a lack of an impossible self-totality — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 362; Self-perception is impossible because the for-itself is contingency (+5 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that the for-itself is constitutively defined by its pre-ontological grasp of an impossible ideal — that failure is not incidental but the very structure of human reality — is a dense, paradigm-defining move.

Broader Connections

• Desire proves human reality is constituted as a lack #expands (0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 354
• Human beings are processes of their own actions, not fixed essences #expands (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1256