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'''Being-in-itself''' is the self-contained and fully realized [[Beingbeing]] of objects. It is a term used in early 20th century [[continental philosophy]], especially in the works of [[Martin Heidegger]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Simone de Beauvoir]], and the [[existentialism|existentialists]].
==Being-in-itself for Heidegger==
==Being-in-itself for Sartre==<!-- This section is linked from [[Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology]] -->
In Sartrean existentialism, being-in-itself (''être-en-soi'') is also contrasted with the being of persons, which he describes as a combination of, or vacillation or tension between, [[being for itself|being-for-itself]] (''être-pour-soi'') and [[being for others|being-for-others]] (''I'être-pour-autrui''). {{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}
Being-in-itself refers to objects in the external world — a mode of existence that simply is. It is not conscious so it is neither active nor passive and harbors no potentiality for transcendence. This mode of being is relevant to inanimate objects, but not to humans, who Sartre says must always make a choice.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm "Existentialism Is a Humanism", Lecture by J.P. Sartre, 1946.]</ref>
One of the problems of human existence for Sartre is the desire to attain being-in-itself, which he describes as the desire to be [[God]] — this is a longing for full control over one's destiny and for absolute identity, only attainable by achieving full control over the destiny of all existence. The desire to be God is one of the ways people fall into [[Bad faith (existentialism)|bad faith]]. {{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} Sartre's famous depiction ofdepicted a man in a café who has applied himself to a portrayal of his role as a waiter illustrates this. The waiter thinks of himself as being a waiter (as in being-in-itself), which Sartre says is impossible since he cannot be a waiter in the sense that an inkwell is an inkwell. He is primarily a man (being-for-itself), just one who happens to be functioning as a waiter – with no fixed nature or essence, who is constantly recreating himself. He is guilty of focusing on himself as being-in-itself and not being-for-itself. Sartre would say that as a human, a being-for-itself by nature, the waiter is "a being that is not what it is and it is what it is not." Therefore, the waiter who acts as if he is at his very core a waiter "is not what [he] is"- which is to say, he is not solely a waiter- and "is what [he] is not"- meaning that he is many things other than a waiter. In simply playing the part of a waiter, the man in this example is reducing himself to a "being-in-itself" and is therefore in [[Bad faith (existentialism)|bad faith]].
==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[20th-century philosophy]]
* [[ PhenomenologyAuthenticity (philosophy)| PhenomenologyAuthenticity]] ▼* [[Bad faith (existentialism)|Bad faith]]
▲*[[Phenomenology (philosophy)|Phenomenology]]
* [[NoumenonExistentialism]]
* [[Hegelianism]]
* [[Noumenon]]
* [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|Phenomenology]]
* [[Role engulfment]]
}}
==Notes==
* {{Citation | surname=Heidegger| given=Martin | title=Being and Time | publisher=The Camelot Press| year=1962 }}.
* {{Citation | surname=Heidegger| given=Martin | title=Introduction to Metaphysics | publisher=Yale University Press| year=2000 | ISBN=0-300-08328-9 }}
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==Further reading==
*''The Ethics of Ambiguity'' by Simone de Beauvoir
{{Continental philosophy}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Being In Itself}}
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