Excession and Nothingness

Excession entails that something is exceeded, so Excession can be said to negate the exceeded, and, in Ontological terms, it can be said that it is separated from the exceeded by a Nothingness. Plainly, Excession is a surplus with respect to the exceeded, so characterizing it as a deficient mode of the latter is inappropriate. Nevertheless, though Sartre describes Consciousness as an 'upsurge', a 'transcending', a 'surpassing', etc., all connoting Excession, its status in his System is as Ontologically deficient. For, therein it is a Lack, not with respect to the Being-in-itself that it exceeds, but with respect to its own becoming both In-itself and For-itself. In turn, that analysis implies not merely that Consciousness lacks Being-in-itself, or even that it seeks to unite with an In-itself, but that it itself seeks to become an In-itself in combination with a For-itself. Sartre thus imparts a towards-which into the dynamic of Consciousness that is extrinsic, if not antithetical to, upsurging, transcending, surpassing, etc. Indeed, he implicitly acknowledges the inessentially to Consciousness of a teleological element, towards the end of Being and Nothingness, when he entertains the possibility of Freedom without Value. In any case, without that element, Consciousness negates Being-in-itself, and it lacks Being-in-itself, without being Ontologically deficient with respect to Being-in-itself.