Grandeur in character requires an open future, not innate virtue

Evidence

How could one find daring, ardor, detachment, and grandeur in her? These qualities appear only where a freedom throws itself across an open future, emerging beyond any given. A woman is shut up in a kitchen or a boudoir, and one is surprised her horizon is limited; her wings are cut, and then she is blamed for not knowing how to fly. Let a future be open to her and she will no longer be obliged to settle in the present. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1745

Categorization

• XREF: ‘Her wings are cut and then she is blamed for not knowing how to fly’ — an aphoristic formulation of the blame-the-victim logic; connects to systems of thought in which constraints are misread as natural character. — connects to: Character is not a fixed trait but a freely chosen project the self maintains. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1284; Innate qualities constrain but do not abolish freedom within a situation — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 717; Abstract qualities are future possibilities the For-itself has to be (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Virtuous character does not yield consistent moral behavior across situations #complicates (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 202
• Innate qualities constrain but do not abolish freedom within a situation #qualifies (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 717
• Abstract qualities are future possibilities the For-itself has to be #expands (0.80)
• Nobility could arise from recurring expectations rather than prior distinction #qualifies (0.76) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 508