Quality reveals being only to a nothingness that negates it

Evidence

It is the for-itself which can deny itself from various points of view when confronting the this and which reveals the quality as a new this on the ground of the thing. For each negating act by which the freedom of the For-itself spontaneously constitutes its being, there is a corresponding total revelation of being “in profile.” This profile is nothing but a relation of the thing to the For-itself, a relation realized by the For-itself. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 597 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

We shall best account for the original phenomenon of perception by insisting on the fact that the relation of the quality to us is that of absolute proximity (it “is there,” it haunts us) without either giving or refusing itself, but we must add that this proximity implies a distance. It is what is immediately out of reach, what by definition refers us to ourselves as to an emptiness. Contemplation of it can only increase our thirst for being as the sight of the food out of reach added to Tantalus’ hunger. Quality is the indication of what we are not and of the mode of being which is denied to us. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 596 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Quality is constituted by the for-itself’s negating acts, not given in things — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 597; Quality reveals itself as absolute proximity that nevertheless refers us to our own emptiness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 596; A quality’s being is radically distinct from the for-itself’s mode (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Quality is constituted by the for-itself’s negating acts, not given in things #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 597
• Abstract quality is apprehended in the future mode, correlative with negation #expands (0.85)
• Quality reveals itself as absolute proximity that nevertheless refers us to our own emptiness #expands (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 596
• Nothingness grounds negation by being itself a negation, not an empty void #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 215
• Nothingness is expelled from being yet gives the world its outlines #expands (0.78)
• A quality’s being is radically distinct from the for-itself’s mode #qualifies (0.75)
• Value arises from the for-itself’s constitutive lack #corroborates (0.72) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1445
• Quantity and quality form an indivisible nexus, not opposed terms #qualifies (0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1294