Having a past requires actively choosing it through the future-project.

Evidence

We have seen, indeed, that a Past which was only Past would collapse in an honorary existence in which it would have lost all connection with the present. In order for us to “have” a past, it is necessary that we maintain it in existence by our very project towards the future; we do not receive our past, but the necessity of our contingency implies that we are not able not to choose it. This is what it means “to have to be one’s own past.” We see that this necessity, considered here from a purely temporal point of view, is not basically distinct from the primary structure of freedom, which must be the nihilation of the being which it is and which, by this very nihilation, brings it about that there is a being which it is. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1182

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘to have to be one’s own past’ and ties it to the primary structure of freedom as nihilation.
• XREF: The claim that we do not receive but must choose our past anticipates Beauvoir’s insistence on assuming one’s facticity and past through projects. — connects to: The meaning of one’s place depends entirely on the project one chooses.; One’s fundamental project determines the meaning of one’s past — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1184; The past informs the individual but can be re-captured through successive choices. (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The past is a free choice made from the present project #corroborates (0.92) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1192
• The past informs the individual but can be re-captured through successive choices. #corroborates (0.88)
• The future project, not chronology, organizes the layers of one’s past. #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1187
• The past’s force and meaning depend entirely on present projects #corroborates (0.82)
• The present realizes what was essential in the past #expands (0.75)