Human universality is perpetually made by choice, not given in advance.

Evidence

Not that this or that purpose defines man for ever, but that it may be entertained again and again. There is always some way of understanding an idiot, a child, a primitive man or a foreigner if one has sufficient information. In this sense we may say that there is a human universality, but it is not something given; it is being perpetually made. I make this universality in choosing myself; I also make it by understanding the purpose of any other man, of whatever epoch. This absoluteness of the act of choice does not alter the relativity of each epoch. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 23

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The whole existentialist reply to universalism: a universality that is earned through choosing, not discovered — ethically consequential and hard to compress.
• XREF: connects to: A fundamental choice is only real as a choice in the world — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1147; The human race is constituted by free individual choices, not vice versa — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1222; Every human act makes the absolute through free choice — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 24 (+6 more)

Related

• Every human act makes the absolute through free choice (similarity 0.86)
• The human race is constituted by free individual choices, not vice versa (similarity 0.84)
• A fundamental choice is only real as a choice in the world (similarity 0.83)
• Humans lack any predefined nature and create themselves through choices (similarity 0.83)
• The refusal to choose is itself a choice. (similarity 0.82)
• Absolute freedom makes one’s every choice perpetually fragile and invertible (similarity 0.81)
• Human beings create their own essence through action rather than inheriting a fixed nature (similarity 0.81)
• Sartre replaces universal human nature with a universal human condition of shared limitations. (similarity 0.81)
• Absurdity means the choice grounds all reasons and reasons-for-being (similarity 0.81)
• Existentialist ethics demand acting as if the fate of humanity rests on each choice (similarity 0.80)
• Jean-Paul Sartre — Existentialism Is a Humanism (similarity 0.80)
• Every act emanates from a fundamental choice of being God (similarity 0.80)
• Freedom requires a perpetual renewal of self-choice without any support (similarity 0.80)
• Manness is not an essence but something each for-itself freely sustains (similarity 0.79)
• Our fundamental project creates all the motives that could ever revise it (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Humans cannot be described statically because humanity is constantly in the making #corroborates (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 103
• Human beings are processes of their own actions, not fixed essences #corroborates (0.90) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1256
• The refusal to choose is itself a choice. #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 26
• Freedom requires a perpetual renewal of self-choice without any support #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1147
• Human existence means transcendence and constant action, not passive repose #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 516