The For-itself has only marginal, borrowed being derived from what it nihilates.

Evidence

Having noticed how the For-itself is dependent on the In-itself, we can perhaps see more clearly how Sartre can both declare that the For-itself is nothing and yet treat it as if it were a subdivision of Being and devote a volume of more than seven hundred pages to a discussion of its nature and consequences. By itself the For-itself is nothing at all and is not even conceivable, just as a reflection or a shadow which would not be a reflection or shadow of anything could not be conceived. But in relation to being, by being the nothingness of a particular being and thus deriving from the being which it nihilates a sort of marginal, dependent being, it can give a new significance to all of Being. Thus the For-itself is without any of that fullness of being which we call the In-itself, but as a nihilation it is. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 48

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the paradoxical sense in which the For-itself both is nothing and yet is — through nihilation it derives a marginal, dependent being.
• XREF: This mirror/image-of-nothing formulation prefigures the ontology of lack that Beauvoir builds on in The Second Sex. — connects to: The for-itself is only the emptiness where the in-itself detaches — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 576; The For-itself is a particular privation, not a general Nothingness.; The For-itself is not a substance but the nihilation of a particular In-itself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1432 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The for-itself is only the emptiness where the in-itself detaches #corroborates (0.88) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 576
• Being is logically prior to nothingness, which has only borrowed existence. #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 208
• The For-itself is not a substance but the nihilation of a particular In-itself #corroborates (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1432
• The For-itself is a particular privation, not a general Nothingness. #qualifies (0.80)
• The for-itself’s lack is internal to it, not imposed from outside #qualifies (0.80)
• The for-itself constitutes itself through an original negation of the thing #corroborates (0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 571