Freedom as choice retroactively constitutes the past as irremediable.
Evidence
Since freedom is choice, it is change. It is defined by the end which it projects; that is, by the future which it has to be. But precisely because the future is the not-yet-existing-state of what is, it can be conceived only within a narrow connection with what is. It is not possible that what is should illuminate what is not yet, for what is is a lack and consequently can be known as such only in terms of that which it lacks. The end illuminates what is. But to go looking for the end to-come in order by means of it to make known that-which-is, requires being already beyond what-is in a nihilating withdrawal which makes what-is appear clearly in the state of an isolated-system. What-is, therefore, takes on its meaning only when it is surpassed toward the future. Therefore what-is is the past. We see how the past as “that which is to be changed” is indispensable to the choice of the future and how consequently no free surpassing can be effected except in terms of a past, but we can see too how the very nature of the past comes to the past from the original choice of a future. In particular the irremediable quality of the past comes from my actual choice of the future; if the past is that in terms of which I conceive and project a new state of things in the future, then the past itself is that which is left in place, that which consequently is itself outside all perspective of change. Thus in order for the future to be realizable, it is necessary that the past be irremediable. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1178
Categorization
- XREF: The claim that the past’s irremediability stems from my free choice of a future connects directly to Beauvoir’s ethics of ambiguity — past commitments binding future freedom — which is the stated reading purpose. — connects to: The past is fixed being while the future remains modifiable by freedom — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 454; The past is kept in suspense by the perpetual expectation that freedom generates.; The past informs the individual but can be re-captured through successive choices. (+7 more)
- DEFINE: Defines why ‘what-is’ (the in-itself) collapses into the past for the for-itself — a key ontological move grounding the temporality structure.
Broader Connections
- Freedom can objectify its own past, rupturing temporal continuity with the instant
#expands(0.90) - The past is a free choice made from the present project
#expands(0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1192 - The past informs the individual but can be re-captured through successive choices.
#contradicts(0.85) - The compulsion power of one’s past derives from free choice, not its content
#corroborates(0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1194 - Freedom cannot choose its own past but must exist through it.
#qualifies(0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1177 - Freedom requires temporal continuity, not isolated instants of choice.
#contradicts(0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 24 - Enlightenment’s fixed temporal order aims to neutralize the past’s power over the present.
#contradicts(0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 48