Intentions constitute themselves as empty through self-conscious negation

Evidence

It seems that Husserl has not always escaped the materialist illusion. To be empty an intention must be conscious of itself as empty and precisely as empty of the exact matter at which it aims. An empty intention constitutes itself as empty to the exact extent that it posits its matter as non-existing or absent. In short an empty intention is a consciousness of negation which transcends itself toward an object which it posits as absent or non-existent. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 230

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that emptiness of an intention is not a passive state but an active self-constituting negation of its object — a key correction of Husserl.
• XREF: Connects to the broader for-itself/negation system in Being and Nothingness; the empty intention is a micro-instance of the for-itself’s constitutive nihilation. — connects to: External negations leave beings untouched while internal negations constitute the self — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 573; Nothingness grounds negation by being itself a negation, not an empty void — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 215; The For-itself’s being consists in internal negation rather than self-coincidence — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 445 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• External negations leave beings untouched while internal negations constitute the self #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 573
• The For-itself’s being consists in internal negation rather than self-coincidence #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 445
• Nothingness grounds negation by being itself a negation, not an empty void #qualifies (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 215
• Self-presence requires an internal separation that is itself nothing #expands (0.75)
• The self flees each negation toward a complementary negation whose fusion reveals the in-itself #expands (0.75)
• Self-negation is an active choice, not a passive outcome #corroborates (0.72) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 435