Desire is a chosen mode of consciousness, not a passive impingement

Evidence

Desire therefore does not come to consciousness as heat comes to the piece of iron which I hold near the flame. Consciousness chooses itself as desire. For this, of course, there must be a motive; I do not desire just anything at any time. But as we showed in Part One of this book, the motive is raised in terms of the past, and consciousness by turning back upon it, confers on the motive its weight and its value. There is therefore no difference between the choice of the motive of the desire and the meaning of the upsurge—in the three ekstatic dimensions of duration—of a consciousness which makes itself desiring. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 979

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the sense in which desire is an ekstatic choice rather than something imposed on consciousness from outside.
• XREF: Directly feeds Beauvoir’s treatment of desire and erotic freedom in The Second Sex. — connects to: Desire must be its own lack, not a merely physiological state — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 355; Desire is a distinctive mode of self-choice, not a mere directed longing; Desire, not observed traits, originally discloses sexual being to consciousness. (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Desire is consciousness directed outward at objects, not a psychic entity contained within #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1316
• Pleasure follows from desire rather than desire being caused by pleasure #expands (0.75) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2231
• Consciousness is a temporary fold in being, not separate from it #expands (0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 739