Every free situation inevitably has an alienated face freedom never chose
Evidence
Therefore we have to do with an essential characteristic of all situation in general; this characteristic can not act upon its content, but it is accepted and recovered by the same being who puts himself into a situation. Thus the very meaning of our free choice is to cause a situation to arise which expresses this choice, a situation the essential characteristic of which is to be alienated; that is, to exist as a form in itself for the Other. … This characteristic is not manifested by an internal resistance; on the contrary, one makes proof of it in and through its very inapprehensibility. It is therefore ultimately not an head-on obstacle which freedom encounters but a sort of centrifugal force in the very nature of freedom, a weakness in the basic “stuff” of freedom which causes everything which it undertakes to have always one face which freedom will not have chosen, which escapes it and which for the Other will be pure existence. … To come into the world as a freedom confronting Others is to come into the world as alienable. If to will oneself free is to choose to be in this world confronting Others, then the one who wills himself such must will also the passion of his freedom. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1232
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines ‘alienation of the situation’ as the essential exteriority of any situation, its being-outside-for-others — not an internal obstacle.
- XREF: Connects directly to Beauvoir’s reading of freedom as always situated and to 1233’s follow-up on recognizing the Other’s freedom. — connects to: Absolute freedom makes one’s every choice perpetually fragile and invertible; Freedom requires a perpetual renewal of self-choice without any support — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1147; The for-itself’s freedom renders all possibles as nothings, forever hollowed from within — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 612 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Absolute freedom makes one’s every choice perpetually fragile and invertible
#expands(0.85) - The for-itself’s freedom renders all possibles as nothings, forever hollowed from within
#expands(0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 612 - Freedom requires a perpetual renewal of self-choice without any support
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1147 - Freedom is synonymous with the for-itself’s lack of being
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1328 - The given never conditions freedom because freedom is its internal negation
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1160 - One is never identical with any of one’s own attitudes or actions
#expands(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 300 - Every human act makes the absolute through free choice
#qualifies(0.70) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 24