Freedom is the being that makes itself a lack of being through desire

Evidence

But since desire, as we have established, is identical with lack of being, freedom can arise only as being which makes itself a desire of being; that is, as the project-for-itself of being in-itself-for-itself. Here we have arrived at an abstract structure which can by no means be considered as the nature or essence of freedom. Freedom is existence, and in it existence precedes essence. The upsurge of freedom is immediate and concrete and is not to be distinguished from its choice; that is, from the person himself. But the structure under consideration can be called the truth of freedom; that is, it is the human meaning of freedom. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1331

Categorization

• DEFINE: Locks together the three ontological terms — nihilation, lack of being, desire, freedom — into one identity.
• XREF: Existence precedes essence directly sets up Beauvoir’s ethical project: if freedom is the human meaning of the for-itself, then ethics is about how this abstract structure gets lived concretely. — connects to: Freedom is the human capacity to put beings out of circuit behind a nothingness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 225; The ineffectiveness of motives itself constitutes the condition of freedom. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 242; Empirical freedom is a secondary nihilation that presupposes an original nothingness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 262 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Freedom is synonymous with the for-itself’s lack of being #expands (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1328
• Freedom is the for-itself’s permanent ability to nihilate its own being #corroborates (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1075
• Freedom chooses its being but cannot choose not to be #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1146