Freedom requires temporal continuity, not isolated instants of choice.

Evidence

It must first be observed that this will is developed in the course of time. It is in time that the goal is pursued and that freedom confirms itself. And this assumes that it is realized as a unity in the unfolding of time. One escapes the absurdity of the clinamen only by escaping the absurdity of the pure moment. An existence would be unable to found itself if moment by moment it crumbled into nothingness. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 24

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes that freedom for Beauvoir is not a discrete decision but a sustained project across time — central to distinguishing genuine freedom from mere spontaneous acts.
• ADDENDUM: Parallels the grafting article’s metaphor: freedom, like grafted growth, must be continuously renewed and extended rather than existing as a single frozen act.
• XREF: connects to: The past is fixed being while the future remains modifiable by freedom — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 454; Freedom, choice, nihilation, and temporalization are one single act — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1122; Freedom can objectify its own past, rupturing temporal continuity with the instant (+6 more)