Humans lack any predefined nature and create themselves through choices

Evidence

Freedom, for him, lay at the heart of all human experience, and this set humans apart from all other kinds of object. Other things merely sit in place, waiting to be pushed or pulled around. Even non-human animals mostly follow the instincts and behaviours that characterise their species, Sartre believed. But as a human being, I have no predefined nature at all. I create that nature through what I choose to do. Of course I may be influenced by my biology, or by aspects of my culture and personal background, but none of this adds up to a complete blueprint for producing me. I am always one step ahead of myself, making myself up as I go along. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 26

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clear orientation to Sartre’s core freedom/‘no fixed nature’ thesis that anchors existentialism.
• XREF: Prefigures the ‘existence precedes essence’ formulation and connects conceptually to Sartre’s later bad-faith doctrine. — connects to: The human race is constituted by free individual choices, not vice versa — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1222; Without a universal human nature, confidence in strangers is groundless. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 17; The absence of divine design obliges us to act without hoping for cosmic outcomes — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 16 (+12 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 26

Broader Connections

• Human beings create their own essence through action rather than inheriting a fixed nature #exemplifies (0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 27
• Humans are blind to their own lack of an original fixed nature #expands (0.92)
• Human beings are processes of their own actions, not fixed essences #exemplifies (0.90) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1256
• Human reality arises as a lack of an impossible self-totality #expands (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 362
• Freedom is the being that makes itself a lack of being through desire #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1331
• Freedom cannot choose itself and thus creates things and situation. #expands (0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1205
• Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence #qualifies (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517
• Desire proves human reality is constituted as a lack #corroborates (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 354