“Consciousness is a being ... conscious of the nothingness of its being”

“Consciousness is a being ... conscious of the nothingness of its being” names the self-questioning structure that makes bad faith possible: consciousness does not simply encounter negation in the world, but can turn negation toward itself and its own being.

Formulation and Context

The formula appears as a restatement of an earlier definition of consciousness. The earlier wording describes a being whose being is in question insofar as it implies a being other than itself. After considering what it means to question, the text recasts that account in terms of consciousness of the nothingness of its being. The shift makes self-relation explicit: consciousness is not a fixed thing fully coincident with itself, but a being for which its own being is at issue.

Negation and Self-Relation

The surrounding argument distinguishes the awareness of a negative fact from an act of negating. A prohibition or veto denies a future transcendence, but consciousness is not limited to contemplating such a negation. It can constitute itself as the nihilation of a possibility projected by another human reality. The formula therefore marks a consciousness capable of taking negative attitudes toward itself as well as toward the world.

Role in the Account of Bad Faith

The discussion uses this capacity to approach bad faith, where consciousness turns negation inward rather than directing it outward. The author declines to treat self-negation as one universal, abstract category, since its forms are too diverse. Instead, the formula supplies the conceptual hinge for selecting bad faith as a determinate attitude essential to human reality: it is possible because consciousness can be conscious of the nothingness of its own being.