Freedom is a factual necessity, not an essence we can know
Evidence
But if in consciousness its existence must precede its essence, then both Descartes and Husserl have committed an error. What we can demand from the cogito is only that it discover for us a factual necessity. It is also to the cogito that we appeal in order to determine freedom as the freedom which is ours, as a pure factual necessity; that is, as a contingent existent but one which I am not able not to experience. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1074
Categorization
- XREF: Directly opposes Cartesian and Husserlian eidetic readings of the cogito — the ‘existence precedes essence’ axiom that Beauvoir’s whole ethics builds on. — connects to: Freedom has no essence and therefore cannot be described like other things — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1073; Freedom is not self-founded but thrown, creating its own facticity — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1156; Freedom chooses its being but cannot choose not to be — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1146 (+6 more)
- DEFINE: Defines freedom as ‘factual necessity’ — contingent yet inescapable, distinguishing Sartrean freedom from any property or nature.
Broader Connections
- Freedom is not self-founded but thrown, creating its own facticity
#corroborates(0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1156 - Freedom precedes essence and is indistinguishable from being human
#qualifies(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 226 - Freedom chooses its being but cannot choose not to be
#qualifies(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1146 - Freedom cannot choose its own past but must exist through it.
#qualifies(0.72) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1177