All concrete desires reduce to having, doing, or being

Evidence

Nevertheless desire is not defined solely in relation to the In-itself-as-self-cause. It is also relative to a brute, concrete existent which we commonly call the object of the desire. This object may be now a slice of bread, now an automobile, now a woman, now an object not yet realized and yet defined—as when the artist desires to create a work of art. Thus by its very structure desire expresses a man’s relation to one or several objects in the world; it is one of the aspects of Being-in-the-world. From this point of view we see first that this relation is not of a unique type. It is only by a sort of abbreviation that we speak of “the desire of something.” Actually a thousand empirical examples show that we desire to possess this object or to do that thing or to be someone. If I desire this picture, it means that I desire to buy it, to appropriate it for myself. If I desire to write a book, to go for a walk, it means that I desire to “do” this book, to “do” this walk. If I dress up, it is because I desire to be wellgroomed. I train myself in order to be a scientist, etc. Thus from the outset, the three big categories of concrete human existence appear to us in their original relation: to do, to have, to be. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1349

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the foundational triad of to do, to have, to be that organizes Sartre’s account of concrete relations with the world.
• XREF: Directly underpins the categories Beauvoir inherits in The Second Sex’s account of woman’s situation and the Myth of Woman. — connects to: All human desires reduce to a desire to be or a desire to have.; The desire to do ultimately reduces to a desire to be; The concept of having may reduce to being or doing like other categories (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• All human desires reduce to a desire to be or a desire to have. #corroborates (0.95)
• The desire to do ultimately reduces to a desire to be #qualifies (0.80)
• The concept of having may reduce to being or doing like other categories #expands (0.78)
• Habit etymologically converts having into a way of being #exemplifies (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 384