Nothingness is a perpetual self-referential break within being, not a located entity.

Evidence

Nothingness is always an elsewhere. It is the obligation for the for-itself never to exist except in the form of an elsewhere in relation to itself, to exist as a being which perpetually effects in itself a break in being. This break does not refer us elsewhere to another being; it is only a perpetual reference of self to self, of the reflection to the reflecting, of the reflecting to the reflection. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 336

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core ontological definition: nothingness as perpetual self-reference rather than detectable absence.
• XREF: Directly scaffolds Beauvoir’s Ethics of Ambiguity, which builds on this for-itself/in-itself structure. — connects to: Nothingness is logically subsequent to being, not its opposite. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 205; Everyday negations need no leap beyond the world toward abstract nothingness.; Nothingness is an act of being putting itself into question, unique to consciousness. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 336 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Nothingness is an act of being putting itself into question, unique to consciousness. #expands (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 336
• Nothingness grounds negation by being itself a negation, not an empty void #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 215
• Nothingness is expelled from being yet gives the world its outlines #qualifies (0.80)
• Nothingness is a supported recoil from Being that enables consciousness to exist #expands (0.80)
• Nothingness is logically subsequent to being and always supposes a specified being #complicates (0.75)