Human fulfillment lies in perpetual surpassing, never in attained rest

Evidence

Since restful paradise—conceived as an existence without constructive endeavors— promises only eternal tedium, Pyrrhus “lacks imagination” in suggesting that he will rest when fi nished with his world conquests. It is written into the human condition that we are not fulfi lled upon attaining a goal but constantly surpass everything given. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 589

Categorization

• DEFINE: Condenses Beauvoir’s early definition of transcendence as active construction against immanence, the kernel of the later Second Sex dichotomy.
• XREF: connects to: Human beings are perpetual travellers who never truly settle anywhere — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 948; Housework never produces lasting results, trapping women in a perpetual present — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1221; Anguish arises because the self’s future identity is never guaranteed — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 454 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Human existence means transcendence and constant action, not passive repose #corroborates (0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 516
• Anguish arises because the self’s future identity is never guaranteed #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 454
• Identity is perpetually in formation, never a completed essence. #expands (0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 203
• Human reality arises as a lack of an impossible self-totality #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 362
• The present is a perpetual flight from being rather than a moment #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 445
• Eternal rest sought by humans is self-coincidence, not endless duration #complicates (0.80)
• Value is the absent in-itself that consciousness perpetually surpasses toward #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 369
• Life’s meaning cannot be found in external achievements alone. #qualifies (0.75) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 48
• Human reality becomes a totality only by surpassing each concrete negation #expands (0.75)
• The self split into subject and object can only be dreamed, never lived. #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1785