Personal possessions and surroundings concretely express one’s fundamental self-choice.

Evidence

If we admit that the person is a totality, we can not hope to reconstruct him by an addition or by an organization of the diverse tendencies which we have empirically discovered in him. On the contrary, in each inclination, in each tendency the person expresses himself completely, although from a different angle, a little as Spinoza’s substance expresses itself completely in each of its attributes. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1326 (#expands, via linked claim)

The For-itself is a temporalization. This means that it is not but that it “makes itself.” It is the situation which must account for that substantial permanence which we readily recognize in people (“He has not changed.” “He is always the same.”) and which the person experiences empirically in most cases as being his own. The free perseverance in a single project does not imply any permanence; quite the contrary, it is a perpetual renewal of my engagement—as we have seen. On the other hand, the realities enveloped and illuminated by a project which develops and confirms itself present the permanence of the in-itself; and to the extent that they refer our image to us, they support us with their everlastingness; in fact it frequently happens that we take their permanence for our own. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1283 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Choosing a situation and choosing one’s self are inseparable daily acts; The perceived object is always surpassed toward the self’s own possibilities; Personal identity theory parallels the language of property and ownership — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 444 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Choosing a situation and choosing one’s self are inseparable daily acts #expands (0.85)
• Each empirical tendency expresses the whole person, not merely a part #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1326
• Perceived personal permanence is borrowed from stable surroundings, not from the for-itself #corroborates (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1283
• The perceived object is always surpassed toward the self’s own possibilities #expands (0.80)
• Freedom requires choosing one’s own essence, not merely one’s acts #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1126
• The self is the individualized completion of concrete situated consciousness #expands (0.78)
• Personal identity theory parallels the language of property and ownership #expands (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 444