A punctured tire can radically transform one’s whole situation and projects

Evidence

If it is true that each object in my surroundings is made known in a situation already revealed and that the sum of these objects can not by itself alone constitute a situation, if it is true that each instrument is raised on the ground of a situation in the world, still the fact remains that the abrupt transformation or the abrupt appearance of another instrument can contribute to a radical change in the situation. Let my tire be punctured, and my distance from the next town suddenly changes; now it is a distance to be counted by steps and not by the revolutions of the wheels. From this fact I can acquire the certainty that the person whom I wish to see will have already taken the train when I arrive at his house, and this certainty can involve other decisions on my part (a return to my point of departure, the sending of a telegram, etc.) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1197

Categorization

• XREF: This is the classical bad-faith/freedom-vs-facticity tension that Beauvoir develops in The Ethics of Ambiguity — the same question of whether adversity limits freedom. — connects to: Human formative power gives substance a face by making accidents essential — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 603
• DEFINE: Sharpens the distinction between freedom to choose and freedom to obtain.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Human formative power gives substance a face by making accidents essential — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 603