presence-to-being

This chapter explores the ontological relationship between the for-itself (consciousness) and the in-itself (being of phenomena), rejecting both realist and idealist solutions. Sartre argues that knowledge is an intuitive presence of consciousness to being, fundamentally grounded in the for-itself's original negation that constitutes its relation to the in-itself. The chapter clarifies that knowledge is not a property or activity but the very mode of being of the for-itself as it negates specific beings to constitute itself.