Reflection aims to make the self-coincident being that consciousness can never simply be

Evidence

The goal in short is to overtake that being which flees itself while being what it is in the mode of not-being and which flows on while being its own flow, which escapes between its own fingers; the goal is to make of it a given, a given which finally is what it is; the problem is to gather together in the unity of one regard this unachieved totality which is unachieved only because it is to itself its own non-achievement, to escape from the sphere of the perpetual reference which has to be a reference to itself, and-precisely because it has escaped from the chains of this reference-to make it be as a seen reference-that is, as a reference which is what it is. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 511

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The entire paradox of self-knowledge is compressed here: reflection can never gather what by its own structure is a non-totality, because the self that would witness the totalization is itself the thing being totalized.
• XREF: connects to: The Ego exists as an object of pre-reflective consciousness, not as a repudiated entity. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 82; The Ego appears only when consciousness reflects on itself.; Consciousness never coincides with itself because it exists for a witness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 329 (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Reflection aims impossibly to unify the for-itself with itself into a totality #corroborates (0.95)
• Reflection is consciousness attempting to become its own object #corroborates (0.90)
• Reflection splits consciousness in a split never completed #corroborates (0.90)
• Reflection deepens the reflective-reflected split beyond self-consciousness #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 802