Material conditions enable but never cause self-affirmation, which requires prior desire.
Evidence
For that idea to appear, it is first necessary that there be in the subject a tendency to posit himself in his radical singularity, an affirmation of his existence as autonomous and separate. Obviously this claim remained subjective, interior, and without truth as long as the individual lacked the practical means to satisfy it objectively: for lack of the right tools, at first he could not experience his power over the world, he felt lost in nature and in the group, passive, threatened, the plaything of obscure forces; it was only in identifying with the whole clan that he dared to think himself: the totem, the mana, and the earth were collective realities. The discovery of bronze enabled man, tested by hard and productive work, to find himself as creator, dominating nature; no longer afraid of nature, having overcome resistance, he dares to grasp himself as autonomous activity and to accomplish himself in his singularity. But this accomplishment would never have been realized if man had not originally wanted it; the lesson of labor is not inscribed in a passive subject: the subject forged and conquered himself in forging his tools and conquering the earth. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 146
Categorization
- DEFINE: Distinguishes the ontological infrastructure (desire for singularity) from its enabling material conditions (tools).
- XREF: Resonates with Sartre’s freedom-as-nothingness and the idea that situation constrains but never determines choice. — connects to: Self-respect can outweigh substantial material gain — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 223; Self-esteem is a core survival need, not a luxury. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 188
Broader Connections
- Self-respect can outweigh substantial material gain
#complicates(0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 223 - Self-esteem is a core survival need, not a luxury.
#complicates(0.72) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 188