A distant future that is not awaited ossifies into a thing-like given possibility.

Evidence

When the Future is far removed, it remains future in relation to the new Present; but if the Present does not constitute itself as the lack of this Future, then this Future loses its character as possibility. … In this case the former Future becomes an indifferent possible in relation to the new Present and not its Possible. In this sense it no longer possibilizes itself but qua possible it receives being-in-itself. It becomes a given Possible; that is, a Possible which is in-itself for a For-itself become In-itself. Yesterday it was possible—as my Possible—that I should leave next Monday for the country. Today this Possible is no longer my Possible; it remains the thematized object of my contemplation and has become the always future Possible which I have been. … But its only bond with my Present is that I have to be in the mode of “was” this Present become Past for which this possible has not ceased being a possible—beyond my Present. But Future and past Present are solidified in the In-itself on the foundation of my Present. Thus the Future in the course of the temporal process, passes to the in-itself without ever losing its character as Future. In so far as it is not achieved by the Present, it becomes simply a given Future. When it is achieved, it is affected with the quality of ideality; but this ideality is ideality in-itself, for it presents itself as a given lack of a given past and not as the lacking which a present For-itself has to be in the mode of not being. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 493

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes ‘my Possible’ (lived, for-itself) from a ‘given Possible’ (in-itself, petrified) — a key ontological pair.
• DEEPTHINKING: The mechanism by which an unrealized possibility hardens into in-itself being, becoming ‘ideality in-itself’ rather than lived lack, is dense and paradigm-shifting for understanding temporality and regret.
• XREF: Directly relevant to Beauvoir — the ‘given Possible’ that turns into in-itself is the mechanism of the woman who has stopped being the subject of her own possibilities and merely contemplates them. — connects to: The future is a lack the For-itself must be, not a not-yet now — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 450; Only a being whose being is in question for itself can have a Future; A truly open future requires an accidental, non-appropriable event. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 171 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• A truly open future requires an accidental, non-appropriable event. #expands (0.78) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 171
• The vulgar sequential conception of time erases all possibility of a genuinely surprising future #corroborates (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 77