Qualities’ meaning requires the for-itself’s nihilating mediation to exist

Evidence

Our research has enabled us to answer the first of these questions: the For-itself and the In-itself are reunited by a synthetic connection which is nothing other than the For-itself itself. The For-itself, in fact, is nothing but the pure nihilation of the In-itself; it is like a hole of being at the heart of Being. … The for-itself has no reality save that of being the nihilation of being. Its sole qualification comes to it from the fact that it is the nihilation of an individual and particular In-itself and not of a being in general. The For-itself is not nothingness in general but a particular privation; it constitutes itself as the privation of this being. Therefore we have no business asking about the way in which the for-itself can be united with the in-itself since the for-itself is in no way an autonomous substance. As a nihilation it is made-to-be by the in-itself; as an internal negation it must by means of the in-itself make known to itself what it is not and consequently what it has to be. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1432 (#expands, via linked claim)

Concerning the For-itself as such we should never say, “It is” in the sense that we say, for example, “It is nine o’clock;” that is, in the sense of the total equivalence of being with itself which posits and suppresses the self and which gives the external aspect of passivity. For the For-itself has the existence of an appearance coupled with a witness of a reflection which refers to a reflecting without there being any object of which the reflection would be the reflection. The For-itself does not have being because its being is always at a distance: its being is there in the reflecting, if you consider appearance, which is appearance or reflection only for the reflecting; it is there in the reflection if you consider the reflecting, which is no longer in itself anything more than a pure function of reflecting this reflection. Furthermore in itself the For-itself is not being, for it makes itself be explicitly for-itself as not being being. It is consciousness of —— as the internal negation of ——. The structure at the basis of intentionality and of selfness is the negation, which is the internal relation of the For-itself to the thing. The For-itself constitutes itself outside in terms of the thing as the negation of that thing; thus its first relation with being-in-itself is negation. It “is” in the mode of the For-itself; that is, as a separated existent inasmuch as it reveals itself as not being being. It doubly escapes being, by an internal disintegration and by express negation. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 445 (#expands, via linked claim)

When Clovis appreciates the aid which the Church can furnish him, it is not certain that a group of prelates or even one particular priest has made any overtures to him, nor even that any member of the clergy has clearly thought of an alliance with a Catholic monarch. The only strictly objective facts, those which any for-itself whatsoever can establish, are the great power of the Church over the people of Gaul and the anxiety of the Church with regard to the Arian heresy. In order for these established facts to be organized into a cause for conversion, it is necessary to isolate them from the ensemble—and thereby to nihilate them—and it is necessary to transcend them toward a particular potentiality: the Church’s potentiality objectively apprehended by Clovis will be to give its support to a converted king. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1089 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Quality reveals itself as absolute proximity that nevertheless refers us to our own emptiness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 596; Perceived qualities exist objectively as the thing itself, not as subjective effects — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 594; Abstract qualities are future possibilities the For-itself has to be (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The For-itself is not a substance but the nihilation of a particular In-itself #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1432
• The For-itself’s being consists in internal negation rather than self-coincidence #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 445
• Causes require nihilation and transcendence toward a not-yet-existing potentiality #expands (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1089