A radical conversion reinterprets the old project as a past it must supersede.

Evidence

But on the other hand, it is not possible for this choice not to determine itself in connection with the past which it has to be. The choice is even, on principle, a decision to apprehend as past the choice for which it is substituted. A converted atheist is not simply a believer; he is a believer who has for himself rejected atheism, who has made past within him the project of being an atheist. Thus the new choice is given as a beginning in so far as it is an end and as an end in so far as it is a beginning; it is limited by a double nothingness, and as such it realizes a break in the ekstatic unity of our being. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1124

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the radical modification of the fundamental project as double-nothingness: an end that is simultaneously a beginning.
• XREF: The converted atheist example directly prefigures Beauvoir’s account of conversion and bad faith as a flight from oneself. — connects to: The past is a free choice made from the present project — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1192; Real change requires discarding rather than reforming the old religion; A dynasty’s religious conversion can require rewriting its own foundational history — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 103 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The past is a free choice made from the present project #expands (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1192
• A dynasty’s religious conversion can require rewriting its own foundational history #exemplifies (0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 103
• Freedom from a fundamental project comes only through radical conversion, not will #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1137
• Real change requires discarding rather than reforming the old religion #exemplifies (0.80)
• The past is a for-itself that has hardened into an in-itself #complicates (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 434
• Foundational myths reinterpret the past to justify future political claims. #exemplifies (0.75)