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🪵 The Threshold

Nihilation is the permanent self-determination not to be the in-itself

Properties2
tagsja-picks, define, xref, definitional_content, trade, singleton, category/definitional-content
aliases@sartre_being_1943, loc. 350

3 min read

Nihilation is the permanent self-determination not to be the in-itself

Evidence

The for-itself can not sustain nihilation without determining itself as a lack of being. This means that the nihilation does not coincide with a simple introduction of emptiness into consciousness. An external being has not expelled the in-itself from consciousness; rather the for-itself is perpetually determining itself not to be the in-itself. This means that it can establish itself only in terms of the in-itself and against the in-itself. Thus since the nihilation is the nihilation of being, it represents the original connection between the being of the for-itself and the being of the in-itself. The concrete, real in-itself is wholly present to the heart of consciousness as that which consciousness determines itself not to be. The cogito must necesarily lead us to discover this total, out-of-reach presence of the in-itself. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 350

Categorization

  • DEFINE: Clarifies the precise sense of nihilation — not introducing emptiness into consciousness but a perpetual refusal of the in-itself.
  • XREF: Central for Beauvoir — the for-itself’s constitutive not-being-the-in-itself is the ontological ground of freedom she builds her ethics on. — connects to: Freedom is the for-itself’s permanent ability to nihilate its own being — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1075; Freedom requires a perpetual renewal of self-choice without any support — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1147; Freedom chooses its being but cannot choose not to be — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1146 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

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