Philosophers

Could someone please explain to me what Sartre meant by "negating the absolute."

Comments

Unfortunately, this is not a uniquephrase in Sartre, and neither 'negation' or 'absolute' refer only tosingular moments in his thinking. So, we probably need theexact citation in order to help you. However, one possibility is thatthis is a description of the relationship between the in-itself andthe for-itself, that is between being and consciousness. Very crudelyput: the in-itself is 'absolute' in the sense that it simply is, itis all 'here'. That is, there are no 'gaps': neither future nor apast, neither possibility or ideality, nor appearance as opposed toreality in itself. The for-itself, on the other hand, commences asthe opening up of just such a 'gap'. Consciousness is transcendence:consciousness always projects beyond the simply here. Insofar asbeing appears for consciousness, being will have a future or past,other possibilities of being or of appearance. The initial, formaldefinition of consciousness then is this transcending negation of theabsolute in-itselfness of being.

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