Interruptions never genuinely surprise a person because freedom pre-structures the world’s indeterminacy

Evidence

Every free project in projecting itself anticipates a margin of unpredictability due to the independence of things precisely because this independence is that in terms of which a freedom is constituted. … Thus the unexpected puncture which upsets my projects comes to take its place in a world pre-outlined by my choice, for I have never ceased, if I may say so, to expect it as unexpected. … Just as the Romans reserved in their temple a place for unknown gods, so in my project a certain margin of indetermination was created “for the unpredictable,” and this was done not because of experience with “hard blows” or an empirical prudence but by the very nature of my project. … Thus in a certain way, we can say that human reality is surprised by nothing. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1200

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Sartre’s core notion that the project constitutes the world’s coefficient of adversity; the ‘margin of indetermination’ is what freedom itself creates.
• XREF: Connects to Beauvoir’s insistence that freedom is always situated in facticity; also pairs with Heidegger’s primordial astonishment at there being a world at all rather than particular beings. — connects to: Freedom and situation are mutually constituting rather than opposites — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1164; The given never conditions freedom because freedom is its internal negation — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1160; Freedom has concrete content only when engaged in the world (+1 more)
• SEED: The ‘margin of indetermination reserved for the unpredictable’ is an idea that could anchor an essay on how plans are not defeated by surprise but constituted by its possibility — disaster as fulfilled prophecy.

Broader Connections

• Freedom and situation are mutually constituting rather than opposites #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1164
• The given never conditions freedom because freedom is its internal negation #corroborates (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1160
• Empirical freedom is a secondary nihilation that presupposes an original nothingness #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 262
• Freedom has concrete content only when engaged in the world #expands (0.75)